Phil Gyford

Phil Gyford is a British web designer and developer. He lives in London .

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Phil Gyford became internationally known primarily through his internet project "The Diary of Samuel Pepys". Since the beginning of 2003 he has published the diary of Samuel Pepys on the website pepysdiary.com in the form of a weblog . Shortly after its start, the project was named “Best specialist” blog of the year 2003 by The Guardian newspaper . Since then, it has received repeated attention in numerous media. At times, the number of page visits exceeded 87,000 page views per day.

Pepys' diary, originally written in shorthand, is one of the most important sources of information about life in early modern Europe. After it was found in his estate at the beginning of the 19th century, it was deciphered and published several times. Due to the outstanding historical and literary importance of his journal, Pepys is still one of the most cited writers in the English language. With a comprehensive scientific commentary, the entire diary was last edited in the original language between 1970 and 1983 by Robert Latham and William Matthews in an 11-volume edition.

Phil Gyford's weblog is based on the 19th century transcription of the diary published by Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838–1917). Over a period of nearly ten years he published at 11 p.m. London time the entry written by Pepys 343 years earlier on the same date.

Phil Gyford's approach, which was new at the time, of publishing a historical diary as a fictitious blog from the past, not only made it possible to directly experience the chronological sequence of historical events. It also led to an expansion and addition of the classical-scientific analysis of Pepys' work that followed. In a supervised forum, a global readership discussed the current entry and tried to jointly overcome the difficulties in interpreting the early modern text.

In the course of time the weblog has been enriched by a large amount of information available on the Internet, which has been assigned to the respective entries or topics. Numerous references, u. a. Since then, additional contemporary diaries and sources, interactive maps, weather data and parliamentary minutes as well as the corresponding Wikipedia entries have supplemented the text and make it easier for readers to understand the background to the events recorded by Pepys.

Since the last entry in Samuel Pepys' diary was on May 31, 1669, the project is expected to be completed on May 31, 2012.

Web links

• The Diary of Samuel Pepys - Daily entries from the 17th century London diary - Phil Gyfords Internetprojekt

• Why I turned Pepys' diary into a weblog - Article by Phil Gyford for BBC News Online January 2, 2003
• Man of the moment - Interview with Phil Gyford and an overview of his other online activities (The Guardian, July 8, 2004)
• gyford.com - Phil Gyford's website

supporting documents

1. ^ Phil Gyford's website - about me
2. ↑ pepysdiary.com ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ "The Guardian" - list of winners blog awards 2003
4. ↑ Collection of press comments on pepysdiary.com ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Pepy's Diary Traffic Statistics ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys - A New and Complete Transcription , 11 volumes; edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews. Bell & Hyman, London 1970-1983, Volume 10 Companion, p. 318.
7. ↑ pepysdiary.com - about the text
8. ↑ pepysdiary.com - faq