2021/07/30 by Kate Loveman, Loveman, Kate
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #Historical Philosophy and Science #Historical and Literary Studies
paper · doi:10.23636/47jm-qx89
openalex publication_date 2021/07/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
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.