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Magdalene College, Cambridge

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Magdalene College redirects here, see also Magdalen College, Oxford

Coordinates: 52°12′37″N 0°6′58″E / 52.21028°N 0.11611°E / 52.21028; 0.11611

Colleges of the University of Cambridge

Magdalene College
Magdalene College heraldic shield
                     
College name The College of Saint Mary Magdalene
Motto Garde ta Foy (Old French: Keep your faith)
Named after Saint Mary Magdalene
Established 1428
Previously named Buckingham College (1428-1542)
Location Magdalene Street
Admittance Men and women
Master Mr Duncan Robinson
Undergraduates 348
Graduates 246
Sister college Magdalen College, Oxford
Official website
Boat Club website

Magdalene College (pronounced /ˈmɔːdlɪn/) was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Magdalene College has some of the grandest benefactors including Britain's premier noble the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Chief Justice Sir Christopher Wray.[1] However the refoundation was largely the work of Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. Audley also gave the College its motto — garde ta foy — keep your faith. Audley's successors in the Mastership and as benefactors of the College were however prone to dire ends; several benefactors were arraigned at various stages on charges of high treason and executed.[1]

The College's most famous son is Samuel Pepys, whose papers and books - including love letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn - were donated to the College upon his death, and are now housed in the Pepys Library, the most beautiful building within the College. The College boasts a portrait of the famous diarist by Sir Peter Lely, which hangs in the Hall. Magdalene is noted for its 'traditional' style, boasting both a well-regarded candlelit formal hall (held every evening) and the distinction of having been the last previously all-male College in Oxford or Cambridge to admit women in 1988 (Oriel College was the last in Oxford, admitting women in 1985). This resulted in protests by male undergraduates, including the wearing of black armbands and flying the college flag at half-mast.[1]

Aesthetically Magdalene's old College buildings are beautiful if representative of the College's ramshackle growth from a monks' foundation into a centre of education. It is also distinctive in that most of the old buildings are in brick rather than stone (save for the frontage of the Pepys Library). Magdalene Street divides the most ancient courts from more recent developments. One of the accommodation blocks in the newer part of the college was built by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the early 1930s.

Magdalene remains, despite this twentieth-century expansion, one of the smaller colleges within the University, at last count numbering over 300 undergraduates and an expanding postgraduate community. Opened in 2005 was Cripps Court, on Chesterton Road, featuring new undergraduate rooms and conference facilities. The current Master is Duncan Robinson.

Magdalene College backs on to the River Cam

[edit] College Grace

Benedic Domine nobis et donis tuis quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi, et concede ut illis salubriter nutriti tibi debitum obsequium praestare valeamus, per Jesum Christum Dominum et Servatorem Nostrum, Amen. Bless us Lord and your gifts, which from your bounty we are about to receive, and grant that we, healthfully sustained by them, may render to you our dutiful service, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen.

[edit] Notable alumni

See also Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge

George Mallory

Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder

The First Court of Magdalene College, Cambridge

[edit] Honorary Fellows have included

See also Category:Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge

[edit] May Ball

The College's famous May Ball had been a biennial fixture since 1911. It is known as the most lavish and prestigious Ball in Cambridge for several reasons: it is the only remaining Cambridge ball to insist on white tie dress code and it is the only ball in Cambridge to sell a majority of dining tickets over non-dining.

The last May Ball was held during the May Week of 2007. Following its success the next Magdalene May Ball is planned for 17 June 2009.

[edit] Quotes

"Magdalene to go co-ed: State school pupils to be admitted" — headline in student newspaper Stop Press (now known as Varsity) in the mid-1980s at the time of dispute over admission of women.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  • Cunich, Peter; Hoyle, David; Duffy, Eamon; and Hyam, Ronald (1994). A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988. Cambridge: Magdalene College Publications. ISBN 0-9523073-0-8. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Magdalene College, Cambridge
  2. ^ The prospectus of Magdalene College, Cambridge (2008 Open Day), page 10

[edit] External links

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Annotations

  • N A. Stockdale on Tue 25 Feb 2003, 11:26pm. Flag this

    Magdalene is pronounced “maudlin”.

  • N Dai B on Thu 27 Feb 2003, 12:31pm. Flag this

    Magdalene College Oxford is pronounced ‘maudlin’ (an affectation). I believe Magdelene College Cambridge is pronounced as written. After all, who was Mary Maudlin?

  • N Grahamt on Thu 27 Feb 2003, 12:47pm. Flag this

    Both colleges - Magdelen (Oxford) and Magdelene (Cambridge) are/were pronounced ‘maudlin’. The word maudlin is from the same root: (from SOED)

    maudlin n. [(O)Fr. Madeleine f. eccl.L Magdalena: see MAGDALEN. In branch II f. the adj.]
    1 = MAGDALEN 1. ME

  • N Bryan Methods on Sat 10 May 2003, 02:14pm. Flag this

    Magdelene, Cambridge, is currently pronounced ‘Maudlin’ by all undergraduates in Cambridge. However, this appears to have been a recent change (or re-adoption), as undergraduates a decade ago pronounced it as we conventionally pronounce Mary Magdelen (evidenced not only by testimony but on the BBC program ‘Have I Got News for You’.

    Those attending Magdelen college, Oxford, have apparently always pronounced it ‘Maudlin’.

  • N Katherine on Wed 17 Dec 2003, 01:55pm. Flag this

    More to the point, what did he read there? I ask because he also studied at Trinity Hall, and as a graduate of that college this is extremely interesting news for me (we always thought the most interesting alumni was Douglas Hurd). Trinity Hall is and was best known for law, having been founded in 1350 by Bishop Bateman for the study of ecclesiastical law.

    And for the record, as a recent graduate of Cambridge (well, 1994-1997 anyway) I can confirm that we did all pronounce Magdelene ‘maudlin’ and everyone had done so for some time, so I think the decade figure might be a bit off.

  • N David Quidnunc on Wed 6 Apr 2005, 02:59am. Flag this

    PEPYS WAS THERE FROM 1651 TO 1654

    Which is useful information to remember when we run across other people in the diary and are told when they graduated from the same college.

  • N David Quidnunc on Wed 6 Apr 2005, 03:09am. Flag this

    PEPYS’S LIBRARY …

    … “survives at Magdalene — to which it was bequeathed under stipulations that ensure that its contents remain intact and unaltered. It is still housed in the glazed bookcases that Pepys had had made for it by dockyard joiners over the years, and still arranged in the order in which he and his heir had left it. In the first of the bookcases, on the back row of the second shelf, are the volumes of the diary.”

    — Robert Latham, “Samuel Pepys: The most famous diarist of them all,” a page at Magdelene College’s Web site.

  • N David Quidnunc on Wed 6 Apr 2005, 03:12am. Flag this

    ROBERT LATHAM, FELLOW AT MAGDELANE

    “Latham, who died early in 1995…. was a Fellow of Magdalene from 1972 to 1984 and an Honorary Fellow from 1984 to 1995.”

    — from the same Web page as the posting just above, which can be found at
    http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/latham.html

  • N Terry F on Sun 13 Nov 2005, 08:35pm. Flag this

    Seventeenth-century Magdalene College
    http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/about/history/seventeenth.html

    Pepys’ library at Magdalene College
    http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/collection.html

  • N David Oxley on Tue 20 Dec 2005, 07:24pm. Flag this

    I was told as an Undergraduate at Magdalene Cambridge that it was pronounced Maudlin as a pun on Lord Audley who was a benefactor and first publisher of the Pepys Diaries and letters ( actually he pinched them from a poor clergy man who did the work)

  • N Jo on Tue 17 Jan 2006, 04:57pm. Flag this

    I was also told this by an undergraduate at Magdalene (Cambridge). However, as I was also told that the bridge I was standing on was originally built without nails or bolts by Sir Isaac Newton, and that the building was haunted by several ghosts, I decided to take it with a pinch of salt.

  • N mbywater on Tue 25 Apr 2006, 01:15am. Flag this

    “…the usual contemporary pronunciation of Magdalene(e) was then [1542, when Lord Audley refounded Buckingham College as Magdalene] ‘maudlyn’”

    — Cunich, Peter, David Houyle, Eamon Duffy & Ronald Hyam. A History of Magdalene College Cambridge 1428-1988 (Cambridge, 1984)

  • N oxbridge student on Sun 30 Apr 2006, 05:22am. Flag this

    Note the spellings are different.

    Magdalen College, Oxford
    Magdalene College, Cambridge

    Both are pronounced ‘Maudlin’.

  • N Phil Major on Tue 30 May 2006, 01:04pm. Flag this

    As You Said!

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References in the diary

A graph of all the references in the diary

1660
Feb: 25, 26
1661
Jul: 15
1662
Jan: 25
Feb: 1
Jun: 26
1663
Apr: 8
Aug: 13
1664
Feb: 3
Sep: 21