Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys (23 February 1633, London, England — 26 May 1703, Clapham, Surrey, England) was a British diarist and naval administrator, FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, and sixth President of the Royal Society (in 1684–1686). Pepys is best known for a detailed diary he kept between 1660 and 1669, first published in the XIX century and serving today as an invaluable historiographical source from the English Restoration period. Samuel Pepys was a lifelong bibliophile and accumulated an extensive collection of 3,000 books and manuscripts, thoroughly indexed and cataloged; some of the highlights include an Incanubula co-authored by William Caxton, sixty medieval manuscripts, and over 1,800 printed ballads (one of the finest extant collections). In 1723, Pepys Library was donated to the University of Cambridge.