fered a solution
to these problems, as well as providing new opportunities for
researchers and readers worldwide.

The Electronic Beowulf Project was launched as a database of
digital images of the Beowulf manuscript, as well as related
manuscripts and printed texts. In 1998, the database included
the fiber-optic readings of hidden characters and ultra-violet
readings of erased text in the manuscript; the full electronic
facsimiles of the 18th-century transcripts of the manuscript;
and selections from the main 19th-century collations, editions
and translations. Major additions to the database were planned
for the following years, such as images of contemporary
manuscripts, links to the Toronto Dictionary of Old English
Project, and links to the comprehensive Anglo-Saxon
bibliographies of the Old English Newsletter.

The database project was developed in partnership with two
leading experts in the United States, Kevin Kiernan, from the
University of Kentucky, and Paul Szarmach, from the Medieval
Institute of Western Michigan University. Professor Kiernan
edited the electronic archive and supervised the making of a
CD-ROM with the main electronic images.

Brian Lang, chief executive of the British Library, explained
on its website 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 artefacts of our shared cultural heritage."

Other treasures of the British Li