Acknowledgments
Several colleagues, friends and institutions helped make this project possible.
First, I would like to thank the Cultures of Knowledge Project in the Faculty of History at Oxford where I began the Lister Correspondence Project. The Mellon Foundation sponsored Cultures of Knowledge, and they were very generous in supporting this endeavour. A special thank you to Miranda Lewis, who has always been a source of support and advice, Philip Beeley, David Cram, Robert Fox, Howard Hotson, Rob Iliffe, Sir Noel Malcolm, William Poole, and Charles Webster. Colleagues at All Souls College where I was a visiting fellow have been so helpful and kind.
A big thanks also to my former âCultures of Knowledgeâ colleagues at the University of WalesâHelen Watt, Brynley Roberts, and Daffyd Johnston. Brynley recently passed away, having devoted a good part of his life to analyzing the life of Edward Lhwyd, naturalist extraordinaire and correspondent of Lister. I have benefited by consulting his splendid 2022 biography of Edward Lhwyd, published by the University of Wales Press, as well as the transcriptions of Lhwydâs letters that Helen has kindly shared with me, now on Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO) at the University of Oxford,
While working on this volume, I have been given a professorial chair at the University of Lincoln, and I am most grateful to my colleagues in the Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage.
The help of the University of Oxford libraries has also been essential to this project. The bulk of Listerâs correspondence and papers is in the Bodleian Library, and librarians in Special Collections have acceded to my numerous requests to examine manuscript material with consummate efficiency and professionalism.
The Royal Society has also been extraordinarily supportive of this edition, and many of Listerâs scientific letters are in their collections. The Royal Society Librarian, Keith Moore, is especially to be thanked. Rupert Baker, Jon Bushell, Ellen Embleton, Louisiane Ferlier, Katherine Marshall, and Ginny Mills are super.
Listerâs Correspondence also resides in the collections of the British Library, the Durham Cathedral Library, Leiden University, Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Utrecht, and the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds. I appreciated the cooperation and encouragement from these institutions.
Funding support was received from the Lincoln Record Society, the Marc Fitch Fund, and Brill Academic Publishing, without which the second volume would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Nicholas Bennett, Christopher Catling, Paul Dryburgh, Rainer Godel, Julian Haseldine, Ken Hollamby, Tom Holland, Andrew Walker, Marianne Wilson, and Louise Wilkinson for their kindness.
I have been extraordinarily lucky to work with so many colleagues in finishing this volume. Tim Birkhead gently and carefully corrected my preliminary and often fallacious identifications of birds. Arthur MacGregor supplied many crucial insights about the culture of collecting during the early modern period. Karen Hollewand gave me crucial insights to understand the notorious Hadriaan Beverland, a colourful correspondent of Listerâs. Andreia Salvador generously lent her malacological expertise. Jeff Carr, who wrote the first doctoral dissertation on Lister, continues to be a good friend and mentor. Helen and Bill Bynum, June Benton, Andrew, Ruth and Joseph Bramley, and Morgan and June King have also given me great encouragement.
My colleagues at Brill, including Simona Casadio, Thalien Colenbrander, Stefan Einarson, Christoph Lüthy and Rosanna Woensdregt made the publication process a pleasure. I have been pleased to publish with Brill a fifth time as author and editor. My thanks also to the anonymous peer reviewers whose comments enriched the volume.
Sara Ayres employed her eagle eye as editor and copywriter, though of course any mistakes made in the text are my own. I also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this edition whose comments enriched and improved the work.
And finally, my husband Ian Benton continues to support my scholarly endeavours, as we have tramped through the countryside following Listerâs footsteps. Amor magnus doctor est. I have been incredibly lucky in my life to be blessed with such love and friendship.