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Article: Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633
–
1703)
PEPYS, SAMUEL
(1633
–
1703), English diarist and politician. Although Samuel Pepys spent fewer than ten years of his life keeping a daily record, his diary has become an extremely important source of information about Restoration England. The
Diary,
which begins on 1 January 1660 and ends on 31 May 1669, chronicles, with both exacting detail and stylistic flair, some of the most important events in seventeenth-century British history, such as the coronation of Charles II in 1660, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of 1666. The
Diary
has also become an important primary text for historians of music and drama, as Pepys was an avid patron ...