Peter Beal je literárny bádateľ, ktorého celoživotné dielo sa sústredí na katalogizáciu a štúdium anglických literárnych rukopisov. Jeho rozsiahly projekt, Index of English Literary Manuscripts, 1450–1700, prvýkrát sprístupnil bádateľom ucelený prehľad dochovaných diel kľúčových autorov obdobia renesancie. Bealove detailné záznamy zahŕňajú širokú škálu textov, od poézie a drámy po prózu a korešpondenciu, a ponúkajú cenné úvodné prehľady o dostupných materiáloch. Jeho práca zásadne obohatila bádanie o anglickej literatúre a poskytla neoceniteľný zdroj pre pochopenie literárneho odkazu tohto obdobia.
The book serves as a comprehensive glossary, defining approximately 1,500 terms related to English manuscripts. It covers a wide range of topics, including various manuscript types, physical characteristics, writing tools, surfaces, and the roles of scribes. Additionally, it addresses terminology in literature, bibliography, editing, conservation, cartography, commerce, heraldry, law, and military affairs, making it an invaluable resource for scholars and enthusiasts alike.
This latest volume in the British Library's prestigious series on the history of the manuscript in English comprises ten articles on a diverse range of texts and authors, including the "Feathery Scribe," Leicester's Commonwealth, Sir Robert Cotton, Robert Herrick, the Earl of Rochester, and John Locke, as well as two recently discovered plays--The Destruction of Hierusalem and Feniza or The Ingeniouse Mayde. The main topics under discussion are authorship, scribes, provenance, transmission, new manuscript texts, and systematic analyses. The contributors are Peter Anstey, John Burrows, Ruth Connolly, Paul Davis, Nicholas Fisher, Paul Hammond, Christopher Howe, Robert Hume, Grace Ioppolo, Hilton Kelliher, Alan Nelson, and Heather Windram.