# Is "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys (the Diary, first publication)" by Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Memoirs of Samuel Pepys (the Diary, first publication) by Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke) (Henry Colburn, London, 1825) is identified by: The first edition is "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq. No language or UK/US precedence question arises: Pepys wrote in English shorthand and the 1825 Colburn quarto is the first publication anywhere.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition is "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq
- F.R.S. Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II. Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev
- John Smith from the original short-hand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence," edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, 1825, printed by S. and R. Bentley of Dorset Street
- Two volumes, quarto
- Collation: volume 1, xlii preliminary pages + 498 pages + xlix index; volume 2, 311 pages
- Thirteen engraved plates in all — eight in volume 1, including the Pepys and Impington family pedigrees, and five in volume 2, including portraits and the view of Pepys's library in York Buildings — one of the thirteen folding
- Publisher imprint reads Henry Colburn, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke) |
| Publisher | Henry Colburn, London |
| Year | 1825 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition is "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first edition is "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S. Secretary to the Admiralty in the Reigns of Charles II and James II. Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, Deciphered by the Rev. John Smith from the original short-hand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence," edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke, London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, 1825, printed by S. and R. Bentley of Dorset Street. Two volumes, quarto. Collation: volume 1, xlii preliminary pages + 498 pages + xlix index; volume 2, 311 pages. Thirteen engraved plates in all — eight in volume 1, including the Pepys and Impington family pedigrees, and five in volume 2, including portraits and the view of Pepys's library in York Buildings — one of the thirteen folding. There is no edition statement and no number line; the first is identified by the 1825 Colburn imprint, the Bentley printer's imprint, the two-volume quarto format, and the thirteen plates. The single cleanest discriminator against the next edition is format: the second edition (London: Henry Colburn, 1828) is five volumes in octavo, so a two-volume quarto and a five-volume octavo cannot be confused. Bindings are contemporary and vary — full russia, calf, and three-quarter leather over marbled boards are all recorded; publisher's boards are essentially unrecorded.

## Is this the true first?
No language or UK/US precedence question arises: Pepys wrote in English shorthand and the 1825 Colburn quarto is the first publication anywhere. The census claim is confirmed, with the abridgement point worth stating precisely. John Smith deciphered the shorthand between 1819 and 1822; Braybrooke's 1825 text prints only about half of Smith's transcript, and what it does print is abridged and expurgated. The first complete and unexpurgated text is Robert Latham and William Matthews, eds., "The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription," London: Bell (later Bell & Hyman) / Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970-83, in eleven volumes — nine of text, plus the Companion and the Index. The 1825 accordingly remains the antiquarian collectible and the 1970-83 Latham & Matthews is the textual first, and serious Pepys collections hold both for different reasons.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition for 1825. Reprint tells are edition-statement and format based: Colburn's own 1828 second edition is stated and is five volumes octavo, and later nineteenth-century editions under other editors are separate texts rather than printings of Braybrooke's 1825 — they are "first thus" at best and must not be described as the first publication of the diary. The Latham & Matthews set is collected in its own right as the first complete transcription; first impressions of all eleven volumes across the 1970-83 span are what a complete set requires.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Memoirs of Samuel Pepys (the Diary, first publication)* by Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/memoirs-of-samuel-pepys-the-diary-first-publication
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.