High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Boydell & Brewer was formed in 1978. It merged two companies, Boydell Press and D.S. Brewer, whose founders, Richard Barber and Derek Brewer, were themselves scholars. Brewer was a Chaucer specialist and Lecturer in English at Cambridge (subsequently Professor of English and Master of Emmanuel College), Barber was a medieval historian and Arthurian. Medieval studies originally formed the core of the list, but it expanded to embrace the humanities in all periods up to and including the nineteenth century: Colin White s edition of Nelson The New Letters was considered one of the more enduring publications commemorating the 200th anniversary of the admiral s death.