The Edition

Our edition, published by Cambridge University Press, contains a substantial introduction and full annotation with information about the origins of the passages, as well as textual notes, a glossary, and several appendices. The first printed English commonplace book to be based essentially on vernacular literature, Bel-vedére emerges from this edition as a crucial participant in the rising status of English literature in the early modern period.

In 2021, the edition was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Where we have not managed to identify the origins of passages in Bel-vedére, our edition assigns them as ‘untraced’. A full list of untraced passages is available here. We invite anyone who is interested to contribute to the project by helping to identify any of the untraced lines.