Charles Burney

The Hittites created one of the great civilizations of the ancient world, although it remained almost unknown until excavations in the early 20th century revealed the extent and importance of its culture. For nearly five centuries the Hittites controlled vast areas of Anatolia, by direct or indirect rule, engaging in almost incessant warfare, and, at the same time, making significant contributions to culture and religion of the region. The A to Z of the Hittites covers Hittite civilization from its origins through hundreds of entries on important persons, places, essential institutions, and the significant aspects of the society, Kingship, government, economy, material culture, and warfare of this ancient people. A 16-page photospread, introductory essay, chronology, and bibliography complement the dictionary entries. Scholars, students, and general readers who are interested in ancient history will find this a valuable reference work about the Hittites and about the rediscovery of the Hittites.

The letters of the great eighteenth-century historian of music and man of letters, Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814), friend of Samuel Johnson and Joseph Haydn, are here collected and published in chronological order for the first time. This initial instalment of a projected four-volume edition of the Letters, edited from manuscript and other sources, opens with the earliest surviving letter, written in 1751 when Burney was an obscure country organist. It concludes in December 1784 with the death of Samuel Johnson. These are the letters of the active years which saw Burney's remarkable rise to the head of his chosen profession, music. They chronicle his musical travels in Europe, and his literary activities as a scholar and author of the Continental Tours, the first two volumes of his famous History of Music, and the Commemoration of Handel, written at the behest of George III. They also document Burney's membership in the celebrated literary coterie at Streatham, and the emergence as a novelist of his daughter Fanny, whose Evelina and Cecilia appeared in these years.