Background
Mynors Bright was the son of the physician John Bright, and of Eliza his wife.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Mynors Bright
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated at Shrewsbury, and entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 3 July 1835.
Career
He was the decipherer of the diary of Samuel Pepys. He was a senior optime in mathematics, and took a second-class in classics. He proceeded Bachelor of Arts in 1840, and Master of Arts in 1843.
He became foundation-fellow, tutor, and eventually president of Magdalene, and was chosen proctor in 1853.
The Pepys Library being at Magdalene, Bright resolved to re-decipher the whole of Pepys"s "Diary," and to this end he learnt the cipher from Thomas Shelton"s Tachygraphy. In 1873 he retired from Magdalene, and left Cambridge for London.
His Pepys was printed between 1875 and 1879, and was published simultaneously in 4to and Octavo, 6 volumes each. The edition included engravings of William Faithorne"s Map of London, 1658, and John Evelyn"s Posture of the Dutch Fleet, 1667.
lieutenant corrected numerous errors occurring in the original decipherment, and inserted many passages hitherto suppressed.
A complete reissue of Bright"s transcript was edited by Henry Benjamin Wheatley in 10 volumes in 1893-1899. Bright became paralysed about 1880, and died on 23 February 1883, aged 65.
