Series FPR - Ferrar Prints

794 prints

From 1613 to 1617 Nicholas Ferrar was travelling and studying in Europe, and while he was abroad he bought many religious prints which make up this collection. At Little Gidding in the 1630s his nieces used them to illustrate 'Harmonies of the Gospels', the blending together of the four gospels into a single narrative illustrated with a collage of prints. Many of the prints reveal the excisions made by razor or scissors, a few are annotated by Nicholas, and more by his brother John. John Ferrar's annotations consist chiefly of numerical annotations, referring to the print's corresponding chapter in the Harmony of the Gospels, or alternatively if the print was one of a series. Information provided by Dr David Ransome.

Some of the prints are loose, as the Ferrar family kept them (MCPP/FF/FPR/L), and others have been bound in the early 20th century into an album at Magdalene College (MCPP/FF/FPR/B). The Pepys Librarian at that time, Stephen Gaselee, thought (erroneously) that the Ferrar prints were part of the Pepys Library collection. The album has a similar appearance to the Pepys Library albums of prints, and was presented by Professor George Nuttall (College Order Book, May 23, 1910). The album was erroneously given a Pepys Library-type shelfmark by Derek Pepys-Whiteley in c.1963 (PL 2986 pt. iii) but is not associated with the Pepys Library, and is housed in the Old Library alongside the loose Ferrar Prints.

In the 1970s the loose prints were put into the present order and catalogued by Arthur W. Aspital. Even though the prints are not part of Samuel Pepys's collection, the catalogue was published as an appendix entitled 'Loose Prints' in the Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Vol.3, Prints and drawings. Pt.1, General, Woodbridge: Brewer, 1980. The Ferrar connection to the prints is not discussed in the catalogue. The bound prints are also listed in the same catalogue, under the erroneous Pepys Library shelfmark PL 2986 pt.iii. Again, the Ferrar connection to the prints is not discussed. The general editor, Robert Latham, came to regret the Ferrar prints' inclusion in the Pepys Library catalogue due to their entirely different provenance.

For a digitised example of a 'Harmony of the Gospels' compiled by the Ferrar family, please see this example at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

The loose Ferrar prints were conserved and rehoused in 2014-2015.