sletter.

The project was developed in partnership with two leading experts,
Kevin Kiernan, from the University of Kentucky and Paul Szarmach, from
the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University. Professor Kiernan
edited the electronic archive and produced a CD-ROM containing a number
of electronic images.

Brian Lang, chief executive of the British Library, explained in 1998:
"The Beowulf manuscript is a unique treasure and imposes on the Library
a responsibility to scholars throughout the world. Digital photography
offered for the first time the possibility of recording text concealed
by early repairs, and a less expensive and safer way of recording
readings under special light conditions. It also offers the prospect of
using image enhancement technology to settle doubtful readings in the
text. Network technology has facilitated direct collaboration with
American scholars and makes it possible for scholars around the world
to share in these discoveries. Curatorial and computing staff learned a
great deal which will inform any future programmes of digitization and
network service provision the Library may undertake, and our publishing
department is considering the publication of an electronic scholarly
edition of Beowulf. This work has not only advanced scholarship; it has
also captured the imagination of a wider public, engaging people
(through press reports and the availability over computer networks of
selected images and text) in the appreciation of one of the primary
artifacts of our shared cultural heritage." (excerpt from the 1998
website)

The British Library was a pioneer in Europe. Other treasures of the
library were already online: Magna Carta, the first English
constitutional text, signed in 1215, with the Great Seal of King John;
the Lindisfarne Gospels, dated 698; the Diamond Sutra, dated 868, which
could be the world's earliest print book; the Sforza Hours, dated
1490-1520, an outstanding Renaissance treasure; the Codex Arundel, a
notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), and the Tyndale New
Testament, the first English version of the New Testament, printed by
Peter Schoeffer, in Worms.

Brian King also stated the importance of the paper world, and the
ongoing commitment of the British Library to its paper collections. He
added: "The importance of digital materials will, however, increase. We
recognize that network infrastructure is at present most strongly
developed in the higher education se