Ferrar Conference and Exhibition

A big thank you to everyone who came to the Ferrar Conference and Exhibition here at Magdalene College, to all the speakers who generously shared their knowledge and research into the Ferrar family, Little Gidding and the Virginia Company, and to all the Magdalene College staff who looked after us.

Professor Alison Shell (UCL) gives a key-note lecture at the Ferrar Conference, introduced by Professor James Raven (Essex University and Magdalene College, Cambridge)

The conference marked the completion of the project to conseve the Ferrar prints, and the arrival of our beautiful, custom-made oak units in which to house them.

Oak units commissioned to house the Ferrar papers and prints, made by Ed Garrett-Jones and the generous gift of the Friends of the Pepys Library and Historic Collections, Magdalene College

The legacy of this highly successful  conference will partly be in the work which it inspires; and we are looking forward to seeing how the conference and the improved scholarly access to the Ferrar Papers in the Old Library achieved by the conservation project will  contribute to Seventeenth-Century studies.

The other legacy will be a bibliographic project, headed up by the Pepys Librarian, Dr M E J Hughes, to widen access to up-to-date scholarly materials relating to the Ferrar collection at Magdalene, including as a shared database to allow researches to see — and add to — what we know about each of the (neary 1,000)  individual items.

For more information on the Ferrar papers, contact pepyslibrary@magd.cam.ac.uk

An unexpected result of the conference — two members of the extensive, modern Ferrar family, Susanna and Richard, meet for the first time at the Conference Exhibition

English in Cambridge -Post A-level applications

Have you had great results this summer?  Rethinking your plans? If you are considering applying post-A level (or equivalent) to study English (commencing Oct 2017), you might like to contact the Director of Studies here at Magdalene, Dr Jane Hughes, for advice or information.   She is available to meet prospective candidates, answer email enquiries  or to talk on the ‘phone.

email litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Magdalene English Trip 2015

Ferrars of Little Gidding Conference – Information for Delegates

It is nearly time for the Ferrar Conference.

Information for delegates can be found here. Information for delegates FERRAR CONFERENCE

Looking forward!

Ferrars of Little Gidding Conference – update

The Conference 5th to 7th September is now fully booked and registration has closed.

All registrations will be confirmed by Friday 15th July.  If you haven’t received an invoice with the details of your booking by then, or if you need to make any changes, please let us know.   litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

Looking forward!

 

 

Literary Magdalene

Check out the new series on the Magdalene College Cambridge libraries’ website looking at the college’s historic collections of manuscripts, first editions, letters and diaries.

https://magdlibs.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/literary-magdalene/

This series of posts follows on from the highly successful end-of-year exhibition, which included manuscripts by  Kipling and Hardy, a script of Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey and exhibits which recorded draft-by-draft  the process of writing and rewriting by poets such as John Mole (see picture), T S Eliot and I A Richards.  Over the forthcoming weeks,  posts will include explorations of the legacy of many writers and poets associated with the College from Samuel Pepys and Dorothy Pilley  to Seamus Heaney and Carol Ann Duffy.

 

The Ferrars of Little Gidding Conference

 

THE LATEST UPDATE on the conference 5-7 September 2016 includes a draft programme (subject to change) which can be seen here

Draft programme

Accommodation at the conference venue (Cripps Court, Magdalene College Cambridge) is now fully booked.

Confirmation of bookings will be emailed to delegates shortly.  Enquiries to litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

 

 

Literary Magdalene: an exhibition

LITERARY MAGDALENE
an exhibition

Magdalene College

in the Old Library
(First Court)

and the Pepys Library
(Second Court)

A CELEBRATION OF MAGDALENE WRITERS AND POETS
ACROSS THE CENTURIES

Come to explore Magdalene’s unique literary tradition through manuscripts, first editions, letters, photographs and documents from the libraries and archives.

OPEN TO ALL – FREE OF CHARGE

Thomas Hardy… Rudyard Kipling… Vernon Watkins … Dorothea Richards…
William Empson… Julian Fellowes… Samuel Pepys… T S Eliot…
Carol Ann Duffy… John Mole…A C Benson…Seamus Heaney… Arthur Sale… C S Lewis…I A Richards….Antony Jay…

WEDNESDAY 8th JUNE to SUNDAY 12th JUNE 2pm to 4pm

Public access during examination period: access is permitted for visitors to the exhibition but please note that the College grounds are closed for the examination period. Groups over 10 in number should pre-book by emailing litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

The Pepys Library (second court) is on the first floor of a seventeenth-century building and we regret that access by lift is not currently available; some rooms within in the Old Library (first court) are accessible via a small flight of steps.

English Reunion

Members of the College who studied English here at Magdalene have been invited to a Reunion Lunch on Saturday June 11th 2016.

If you are an alumnus/a of the College and have not received an invitation, please contact us.  litfest@magd.cam.ac.uk

 

 

 

Ferrars of Little Gidding — conference update

The terrible price of currants in 1624: an  appeal for a reduction in tax from the Ferrar papers

Final Chance to Register…

We are delighted to say that  the conference on the Ferrars of Little Gidding which will take place in Magdalene College from 5th to 7th September 2016  has created a great deal of interest and is now almost fully booked.

We are making excellent progress with our plans and will be welcoming an international group of scholars to explore a wide range of areas, including the important roles taken by  the Ferrar family in the Virginia Company, in the Anglican Community at Little Gidding, in the literary, artistic and musical worlds of the seventeenth century, and in the years beyond.

The conference coincides with the completion of the conservation of the Ferrar Papers and Prints, housed at Magdalene College, many of which will be on display for the first time  in a special conference exhibition.

Registration will close very shortly.  A registration form with further details is available here: Ferrar conference (REGISTRATION)

One session of the conference will take place in the beautiful and evocative surroundings of Little Giddling

Accommodation is in Cripps Court Magdalene College Cambridge available from 4th September

The Times Literary Supplement does Pepys

This has been a busy week for Pepysiana and for Magdalene.

First, the College hosted a wonderful visit to the National Maritime Museum to see Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution. This began with a talk from Robert Blyth, who has curated this extraordinary exhibition.

Robert picked out some highlights of the displays and gave an absorbing account of Pepys’s life, from his operation for the removal of a  bladder-stone to refusing to swear allegiance to William and Mary.  Then members of College and our guests were able to look round, spotting as we went the transcripts of the Diaries made by the Rev. John Smith in the 1820s which are on loan from Magdalene College; and finishing towards the end of the exhibition with the magnificent Harwich portrait of Pepys, distinctively Pepysian its inclusion of a small table bearing books and sealed papers, a little glimpse of the harbour defences, and two ships sailing in the distance.

And in the current TLS (18th March), Kate Loveman’s splendid book on Pepys and his reading habits  Samuel Pepys and His Books heads up a mammoth review of recent interest in the diarist, which also features the recent, lavish Scala publication, The Pepys Library and the Historic Collections of Magdalene College, by M E J Hughes, the Pepys Librarian.

TLS on Twitter  https://t.co/Jq4hrGYb53

In his lead review Arnold Hunt draws attention to how Pepys saw his library and his attitude to collecting.  This theme will be taken further in our inaugural lecture for the Friends of the Pepys Library which will be given by Professor James Raven in November.

For information about the Friends of the Pepys Library, email pepysfriends@magd.cam.ac.uk

The new books mentioned are available from bookshops and the usual on line suppliers. The Scala book on the library is also available to visitors in person at the College: RRP £14.95.