Peter Beal. A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, 1450 2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 457p. acid-free paper, $49.95 (ISBN 9780199576128). LC2010-290182

Librarians and archivists seeking guidance on digitization projects will find this book helpful, although they may find it challenging to navigate. A detailed table of contents provides a roadmap for the book, but the curious lack of an index makes it especially difficult to consult the book on a specific topic. If a librarian or archivist has a question concerning the digitization of an image of a sculpture, for example, there is no way of knowing whether the book addresses this, and, if so, where, because the table of contents, while detailed, is not that nuanced. The lack of an index will certainly limit the helpfulness of the book, but for those working in academic cultural institutions, it will still be useful to have this book on hand as a reference.—Maria A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, originally published in hardcover in 2008, is the culmination of a lifetime of experience and expertise in manuscript studies. Containing over 1,500 entries, it contains an impressive array of terms relevant to archivists, students, and scholars alike. The terminology included in this text covers manuscript forms, materials , features, conditions, tools, physical and historical contexts, producers, types of provenance, scripts and lettering. The manuscripts consulted and referenced include personal letters, financial records, works of literature, heraldic manuscripts, legal documents, state documents, ephem-era, and more. In short, Beal has condensed his 25+ years of working intimately with manuscripts into a catalog of ideas essential to anyone working within the field. Studies of the University of London. Currently , Beal is compiling the Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts, 1450–1700 as an online resource that promises to transform the way scholars research and think about manuscripts by establishing connections between numerous and widely scattered manuscripts of various genres, forms, authorship, and provenance. He is also the author of numerous books on Early Modern manuscript studies, history, and the culture of writing. Beal's Dictionary was inspired by John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors, but it is by no means a replacement for that venerated reference work. While Beal's dictionary contains some of the terms found in Carter's work, he describes them in the context of manuscript production rather than acquisition. Except where those two domains collide , there is little duplication between the two works. That said, Beal does manage to bring some of Carter's whimsical humor to his work (albeit, a bit drier), such as when …