The Old Library of Magdalene College, situated next to the college chapel in first court, is often overshadowed by its famed counterpart the Pepys Library. While the latter arrived in 1724 upon the death of Samuel Pepys’s nephew, John Jackson, the Old Library is a collection of books and manuscripts amassed by the college since its formation as a Benedictine hostel in 1428. A recent ‘provenance survey’ of the Old Library has led to the identification of collections of books belonging to individuals without a formal affiliation to Magdalene College. One of these collections is particularly notable: a group of books, pamphlets and manuscript items formerly owned by the philosopher Mary Astell (1666–1731). It is these items, intermingled throughout the Old Library, which will form the subject of this paper and will hereafter be termed ‘the Astell collection’.