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Who is Peter Kidd? A Documented Case of Harassment, Defamation, and Conflict of Interest
Peter Kidd formerly worked as a contract cataloguer at the British Library and is currently active as an unaffiliated manuscript consultant and blogger. He has no academic position or institutional affiliation. Through his personal blog and his collaboration with private collectors and auction houses, he regularly promotes dismembered manuscript leaves, often extracted from medieval Books of Hours and Psalters.
Since December 2022, Peter Kidd has engaged in a sustained campaign of defamation against Prof. Carla Rossi, a philologist internationally recognised for her work on the digital reconstruction of dismembered manuscripts and her firm stance against the manuscript leaf market. His attacks began just days after Prof. Rossi published a documented appeal denouncing the online sale of illuminated folios and filed a report with the Italian Carabinieri’s Art Crimes Unit.
Using his blog as a platform, Kidd has published more than twenty defamatory posts targeting Prof. Rossi, the Research Centre for European Philological Tradition (RECEPTIO) research centre, her collaborators, and even her legal counsel. These posts contributed to a series of harmful consequences:
– Fake obituaries announcing Prof. Rossi’s death were published online.
– Anonymous death threats were received by email.
– Defamatory emails were sent using mailing lists from academic societies, violating data privacy.
– Journalists were contacted directly, leading to the publication of smear articles based on demonstrably false claims.
Kidd’s writings repeatedly deny Prof. Rossi’s academic credentials, question the existence of her institutions, and insinuate misconduct without any evidence. This goes beyond professional disagreement: it constitutes a deliberate and systematic campaign of reputational destruction.
It must also be noted that Peter Kidd has authored or contributed to the description and promotion of multiple leaves from dismembered manuscripts which Prof. Rossi has studied and digitally reconstructed in published academic volumes. The conflict of interest is glaring, and the retaliatory nature of his campaign is undeniable.
OProM strongly denounces this hostile behaviour and expresses full support for Prof. Rossi and her work to protect the integrity of medieval manuscript heritage. We believe that the systematic dismemberment of manuscripts, and the silencing of those who oppose it, constitute a threat to both cultural memory and academic freedom.
This page is published as a formal response to a documented case of harassment. The facts are public, verifiable, and serious. OProM stands in defence of truth, scholarly dignity, and the ethical handling of cultural heritage.