Editorial Team

From Book Owners Online


Editorial team

David Pearson

David devised the concept and content of Book Owners Online, and created many of the initial entries. He retired as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation in 2017, after a career spent in libraries and collections, mostly in London. He has researched and published extensively in book history, and his books include Provenance research in book history (new edition, 2019), English bookbinding styles, 1450-1800 (2005, repr. 2014), Books as history (2008). He is an honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL, a Past President of the Bibliographical Society, and teaches regularly on the Rare Book Schools in London and Virginia.

Clodagh Murphy

Clodagh has worked on BOO as a research assistant, and has been responsible for marking-up the entries according to a devised schema. Prior to joining the CELL team, she studied on King’s College London’s Early Modern English Literature: Text and Transmission MA and obtained her BA in English literature from the University of Sheffield. Her research has focused predominantly on Restoration theatre, and she plans to undertake PhD study examining theatrical echoes in The Farce of Sodom (c.1673) in 2021.

Matthew Symonds

Matt is a Senior Research Associate at UCL and CELL’s Technical Director, responsible for the digital infrastructure behind BOO. He is also Co-PI on CELL's major research project, The Archaeology of Reading in Early Modern Europe, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Advisory Group

Book Owners Online is very grateful to an Advisory Group of curators and experts in this field who provide support and advice to the project. Current membership is:

  • Robyn Adams
  • Giles Bergel
  • Katie Birkwood
  • Louisianne Ferlier
  • Ed Potten
  • David Shaw
  • Elizabeth Williamson