Bernard Muir taught medieval studies at the University of Melbourne for thirty years before taking early retirement in 2010 so that he could dedicate himself to research. During that time he taught English language and literature up to the time of the firm establishment of the Normans in England, which saw the close of the earliest stage of the history of the English Language (sometimes referred to as ‘Anglo-Saxon’, which refers more accurately to the culture rather than the language spoken by them). He also taught manuscript studies, his first love, to his more advanced students, and a number of subjects on the history of ideas in early Western Europe, focusing on the influence of the Church Fathers on Western institutions and Christian ideology.

He is currently a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and holds a similar position at the MCD University of Divinity.

All of Bernard’s major publications, whether analogue or digital, focus on important medieval manuscripts. His first major work was a reconstruction of an eleventh-century book of private devotions which was severely damaged in the disastrous Cotton Library fire of 1731, in which so many important historical and literary manuscripts were either damaged or destroyed; among these was the manuscript containing the famous Anglo- Saxon epic poem Beowulf, which was badly burnt around its edges and lost its binding.

Institutional recognition did not come easily or immediately at the University of Melbourne, but luckily for Bernard and his research there were some supporters, most importantly Professor Homer Le Grand, who was at that time Dean of Arts. The Australian Research Council itself shied away from proposals that made reference to digital or information technology, but happily this is no longer the case.

Nearly twenty years ago Bernard put together a small team of research assistants and computer technicians who have continued to work together to produce cutting-edge digital editions and facsimiles of important manuscripts; the design and development of the software has been overseen by Nick Kennedy, who is here this evening. Bernard has edited the two earliest surviving anthologies of Anglo- Saxon poetry, which date from the late tenth century. In 2000, he proposed to the Bodleian Library (Oxford) that it establish a series of digital facsimiles of its most famous texts; these would be developed and produced here at the University of Melbourne.

To date, three scholarly facsimile editions have been produced and the fourth is due to be released in the first half of 2014; Bernard has been the sole editor of two of these and co-editor of another with Dr Andrew Turner — the Latin Comedies of the second century BC Roman playwright Terence.