In Praise of Scribes
Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England

Peter Beal

• 'Both the details and the larger picture that emerges ... make fascinating contributions to our understanding of the practicalities of scribal work.' - Paul Hammond, The Library, 7.2.2, June 2001
• 'Beal, as ever, inspires the reader with his passionate sense of the uniqueness of each manuscript and the excitement of attempting to nest it in its own family of circumstances.' - The Year's Work in English Studies, Vol.79
• 'a stunningly elegant collection of lectures' - The Year's Work in English Studies, Vol 79
• 'nobody has done more to show the importance of the continuing use of manuscripts after the coming of print to England than Peter Beal.' - H.R Woudhuysen, Review of English Studies.
• 'Beal is characteristically generous with his knowledge. Each chapter in his densely packed and deeply rewarding book is built around a series of substantial discoveries; his interest in scribes, authors and collectors as real people results in a work full of interesting and engaging information.' - H.R. Woudhuysen, Review of English Studies.
• 'in praise of Scribes will serve as an excellent account of how manuscript studies can be put to practical use.' - H.R. Woudhuysen, Review of English Studies.
• 'Peter Beal has not been rummaging around in closets, he has been examining primary evidence in great transactions. The primary documents he is used to handling are very valuable, they are subject to suspicion for forgery (it is part of his business to detect the fakes), and their every dot or stain can be valuable ... Beal's research teaches editors and literary and historical scholars to look at everything on the page-errors, abbreviations, marginal material, cross-references, tables of contents and other preliminaries, indices. He teaches us to look always for the exemplar, or the original manuscript from which all others are derived, and he teaches us to look at witnesses, or bits of evidence about authority ... He is also an excellent detective, which is why he is so valuable to Sotheby's as an assessor and so valuable to us as a lucid writer about important little things that most scholars do not think about.' - Roy Flannigan, Early Modern Literary Studies, 5.1 May 1999
• 'This collection of fascinating studies... illuminating... one of the most fascinating aspects of In Praise of Scribes is the sheer wealth of new and hitherto largely unconsidered manuscript versions brought to bear upon long familiar texts. This volume will deservedly come to be regarded as a landmark in the study of manuscript compilation and circulation. This volume will certainly become required reading for all research students concerned with seventeenth-century English literature.' - Michael G. Brennan, Notes and Queries Vol.47 No.1
• 'the case-studies are fascinating ... The book is highly readable, and Beal's decision to retain something of the collquial style of delivery of the lectures thoroughly welcome, as it has the effect of enlivening often technical matters, drawing the reader in to the intricacies of the paleographer's detective world. It is a beautifully produced volume worthy of the scribes it celebrates.' - Ian W Archer, Archives

• A major contribution to an exciting area of bibliography that has only recently begun to be explored
• Written by the world's leading expert on manuscripts of this period
• Lavishly illustrated and accessibly written
• Presents for the first time a detailed account of the whole subject of manuscript publication and circulation from the 1580s to the 1660s

Peter Beal, Elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1993, and Director and Manuscript Expert, Sotheby's, London