Hans Sloane, Samuel Pepys, and the Evidence of a Lost Pepys Library Catalogue

Abstract

• This article examines the relationship between Hans Sloane (1660–1753) and Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), two celebrated book collectors of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Pepys's and Sloane's connection is traced back to the mid 1680s and to their attendance at the Royal Society. A mysterious leaf in Sloane's papers (Sloane MS. 4019, f. 178) has previously been thought to be evidence of Sloane's early cataloguing practices in his library. In fact, this sheet proves to be evidence from Pepys's library and, intriguingly, it precedes Pepys's earliest surviving catalogue from 1700. An investigation of the origins of this sheet reveals how Pepys developed his cataloguing methods to accommodate the growth of his library. In considering the aesthetic role of catalogues, the article illuminates an overlooked aspect of seventeenth-century library design.