After the launch of my catalogue of Peterhouse MSS in 2016, Emeritus Fellow and College Archivist Roger Lovatt asked me ‘What next?’ On my answering that I wasn't sure, he suggested ‘What about Pembroke? You already know some of their manuscripts. If you’re interested, I’ll write for you.’ And I was, he did, and the reaction was quick, enthusiastic and affirmative.

For the initial invitation to undertake this work, and for their interest and good fellowship since, I thank the Master of Pembroke College, Lord Christopher Smith, its Library Committee, and its Fellows, the College Librarian Pat Aske and Honorary Archivist Jayne Ringrose, both until the course of 2018, then Librarian Genny Grim and Archivist Lizzy Ennion-Smith, for innumerable tasks and support. Much of my time was spent in the Manuscript Reading Room of Cambridge University Library, where most of the manuscripts are kept. All their staff was helpful, but in particular I wish to thank James Freeman and Frank Bowles for much labour above and beyond the call of normal duty. I owe much to Michael Reeve, Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke, for discussion and information en passant but above all for reading a draft of the whole and checking it against the manuscripts; information on particular manuscripts, or groups of them, was cheerfully supplied by Sir John Baker, Margaret Bent, Gabriele Bonomelli, Martin Brett, Charles Burnett, Paul Cavill, Sean Curran, Christopher de Hamel, Ralph Hanna, Sylvia Huot, David Juste, Roger Lovatt, Constant Mews, Linne Mooney, Nigel Morgan, Anne Nichols, Samu Niskanen, Stephen Oakley, Kari Anne Rand, Michael Robson, David Rundle, Ian Short, Siegfried Wenzel and Nigel Wilson. For remaining errors and shortcomings, I alone am responsible.

In 2020, the third year of this project, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. At the time, I had seen all of the MSS at least twice, except for 235–309 and the fragments, some of which I had not seen at all. I was unable to leave my country in 2020 and 2021, but work on the MSS continued, thanks to the willing and expert help provided in particular by Genny Grim, Michael Reeve and James Freeman. Some of this, and not the least helpful, was in the form of photographs. I am aware of the perils of describing books that one has only seen once, and acknowledge that there will be errors and omissions that would have been remedied by further examination.