Mynors Bright (1818–1883) was an English academic, president ofMagdalene College, Cambridge, from 1853 to 1873. He was the decipherer of the diary ofSamuel Pepys.
Mynors Bright was the son of the physicianJohn Bright, and of Eliza his wife.[1] He was educated atShrewsbury, and enteredMagdalene College, Cambridge, on 3 July 1835. He was asenior optime in mathematics, and took a second-class in classics. He proceeded B.A. in 1840, and M.A. in 1843. He became foundation-fellow, tutor, and eventually president of Magdalene, and was chosenproctor in 1853.[2]
ThePepys Library being at Magdalene, Bright resolved to re-decipher the whole of Pepys' 'Diary,' and to this end he learnt the cipher fromThomas Shelton'sTachygraphy. In 1873 he retired from Magdalene, and left Cambridge for London. HisPepys was printed between 1875 and 1879, and was published simultaneously in quarto and octavo, six volumes each. The edition included engravings ofWilliam Faithorne'sMap of London, 1658, andJohn Evelyn'sPosture of the Dutch Fleet, 1667. It corrected numerous errors occurring in the original decipherment, and inserted many passages hitherto suppressed but still left only about 80% of the diary in print.[3] A complete reissue of Bright's transcript was edited byHenry Benjamin Wheatley[4] in ten volumes in 1893–1899.
Bright became paralysed about 1880, and died on 23 February 1883, aged 65. He never married, and bequeathed part of his interest in hisPepys to Magdalene College. His portrait was painted by F. Dickenson, and presented by his friends to his college.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Bright, Mynors".Dictionary of National Biography. London:Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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