Peter Baker

(1992)
Professor
Medieval, Eighteenth Century Literature

Degrees

Ph.D. Yale, 1978
B.A. Columbia, 1974

Books

  • The Killing Trade: Violence and Society in Beowulf (provisional title). In progress.
  • Edition of James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides from the manuscripts in the Yale University Library, for The Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell (in progress).
  • Introduction to Old English (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003). Also The Electronic Introduction to Old English
  • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 8: MS. F (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2000).
  • Byrhtferth's Enchiridion, ed. Peter S. Baker and Michael Lapidge, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series, 15 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
  • The General Correspondence of James Boswell, 1766-1769, ed. Richard C. Cole, with Peter S. Baker and Rachel McClellan. 2 vols. The Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, Research Edition, Correspondence, vol. 5 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1993-1997).
  • The Correspondence of James Boswell with David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Edmond Malone, ed. Peter S. Baker, Thomas W. Copeland, George M. Kahrl, Rachel McClellan, and James M. Osborn. The Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, Research Edition, Correspondence, vol. 4 (London: Heinemann, 1987 for 1986).

Edited Collections of Essays

  • Beowulf: Basic Readings, Basic Readings in Anglo-Saxon England 1 (New York: Garland, 1995). Reissued as The Beowulf Readers, 2000.
  • Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. Robinson, ed. P.S. Baker and Nicholas Howe (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1998).

Articles

  • “Typing in Old English Since 1967: A Brief History,” Old English Newsletter. 40.1 (2007). Online at http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/essays.php?file=essays/baker40_1.txt.
  • “The Old English Language,” in Beowulf and Other Stories, ed. Richard North and Joe Allard (Harlow and London: Pearson, 2007), pp. 272–300.
  • “More Diagrams by Byrhtferth of Ramsey,” in Latin Learning and English Lord: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and Andy Orchard (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2005), ii. 53–73.
  • "Toller at School: Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller, and the Progress of Old English Lexicography in the Nineteenth Century," in Textual and Material Culture in Anglo-Saxon England: Thomas Northcote Toller and the Toller Memorial Lectures, ed. Donald G. Scragg (Cambridge, 2003)pp. 283-300.
  • "How to Cheat at Editing: The Domitian Bilingual Chronicle, Anno 679," ANQ 15 (2002), 8-13.
  • "The Inflection of Latin Nouns in Old English Texts," Words and Works: Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature in Honour of Fred C. Robinson, ed. P.S. Baker and N. Howe (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1998), pp. 187-206.
  • "More Acrostic Verse by Abbo of Fleury," with Michael Lapidge, Journal of Medieval Latin, 7 (1997), 1-27.
  • "Textual Boundaries in Anglo-Saxon Works on Time (and in some Old English poems)," Studies in English Language and Literature. 'Doubt Wisely': Papers in Honour of E.G. Stanley (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 445-56.

Computer Software

  • “The Medieval Calendar.” A program that uses medieval calculations to generate calendars for a.d. 30–1752; also a research tool for scholars concerned with the veneration of saints. 1991. Freeware, available at www.engl.virginia.edu/OE. [A DOS program; obsolete.]
  • “Old English Edition.” A program designed to demonstrate how electronic editions of Old English texts might work (see “The Reader, the Editor, and the Electronic Critical Edition” above). Freeware, available at www.engl.virginia.edu/OE. [A Windows 3.0 program; obsolete.]
  • “Old English Aerobics,” an on-line environment for students learning Old English. http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/OEA/index.html. [obsolete but still available.]
  • Font software: Junius (a revival of a seventeenth-century “Saxon” typeface, together with general-purpose typefaces for Anglo-Saxonists); Beowulf-1 (an adaptation of the first hand of the Beowulf manuscript); Anglo-Saxon Caps (an adaptation of a selection of capitals from and Anglo-Saxon gospel manuscript); Junicode, a Unicode/OpenType font for medievalists. Current version: 0.6.15 (July 2007). Freeware (GPL): http://junicode.sourceforge.net/. Also included in various Linux distributions.
  • Xgridfit, an XML-based hinting language for TrueType fonts. Current version: 1.6 (April 2008. Freeware (GPL): http://xgridfit.sourceforge.net/. Also included in various Linux distributions.

Review Articles

  • “Beowulf,” in “The Year’s Work in Old English Studies 1988,” Old English Newsletter 23:1 (1989), 64–68.
  • “Beowulf,” in “The Year’s Work in Old English Studies 1987,” Old English Newsletter 22:1 (1988), 73–83.
  • “A Supplement to OED: Se-Z and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology,” Notes and Queries new series 35 (1988), 148–54.
  • “Beowulf,” in “The Year’s Work in Old English Studies 1986,” Old English Newsletter 21:1 (1987), 83–93.
  • “Beowulf,” in “The Year’s Work in Old English Studies 1985,” Old English Newsletter 20:1 (1986), 75–86.
  • “Beowulf,” in “The Year’s Work in Old English Studies 1984,” Old English Newsletter 19:1 (1985), 82–91.

Reviews

  • Words, Texts and Manuscripts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Helmut Gneuss, ed. M. Korhammer, Archiv für ds Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 233 (1996), 378– 82.
  • Old English Prose of Secular Learning, by Stephanie Hollis et al., Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature 4, Notes and Queries 240 (1995), 224–25.
  • A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, by Richard M. Hogg, Notes and Queries 239 (1994), 82–85.
  • The Tremulous Hand of Worcester, by Christine Franzen, Speculum 69 (1994), 472–74.
  • Religion and Literature in Western England, 600–800, by Patrick Sims-Williams, Albion (1993).
  • The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Notes and Queries new series 38 (1991), 99–102.
  • Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory, by Geoffrey Russom, Speculum 65 (1990), 490–91.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World, by Donald Howard, American Notes and Queries new series 2 (1989), 62–64.
  • Die “zweideutigen” altenglischen Rätsel des Exeter Book in ihrem zeitgenössischen Kontext, by Reinhard Gleißner, Anglia 105 (1987), 468–71.
  • A New Theory of Old English Meter, by David L. Hoover, Speculum 62 (1987), 950–52.
  • Old English Minor Heroic Poems, ed. Joyce Hill, Speculum 61 (1986), 237.
  • Syntax and Style in Old English: A Comparison of the Two Versions of Wærferth’s Translation of Gregory’s Dialogues, by David Yerkes, Modern Language Review 81 (1986), 438–39.
  • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, gen. eds. David Dumville and Simon Keynes. Vol. 17, The Annals of St Neots with Vita Prima Sancti Neoti, ed. David Dumville and Michael Lapidge, Albion 18 (1986), 638–39.
  • Eine altenglische Übersetzung von Alcuins De virtutibus et vitiis, Kap. 20, ed. Roland Torkar, Speculum 60 (1985), 231–32.
  • The Old English Rune Poem: A Critical Edition, by Maureen Halsall, Speculum 58 (1983), 751– 53.
  • Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons, by Gale R. Owen, Albion 13 (1981), 393.
  • Nuove omelie anglosassoni della rinascenza Benedettina, ed. A. M. Luiselli Fadda, Speculum 54 (1979), 598–99.
  • Editing Medieval Texts, ed. A. G. Rigg, Speculum 54 (1979), 624–25.

University Service

  • Director of Graduate Admissions, English Department (2006– )
  • Chair of Web committee, English Department (ca. 2006– )
  • Chair of Medieval Area Committee, English Department (various years)
  • Member, Committee on Educational Policy and the Curriculum (2003– )
  • Member, Graduate Council (1997–ca. 2000)
  • Member, Academic Computing Advisory Committee (1994–97, 2002-03)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, English Department (1994–97)
  • Various Departmental Committees