Dr Peter Elliott

Peter is one of our College Research Associates and the 2025 recipient of the Anthony Whiting Fund in intellectual and cultural history. His research focusses on the relationship between music, philosophy, science, and theology in early modern Europe and the role of plucked-string musical instruments in the production, systematisation, and transmission of conceptual knowledge across these different domains. Peter’s current project examines the use of lutes as metaphors in the writings of the Cambridge Platonists and the extent to which certain key philosophical concepts were grounded in the material and musical constraints of these instruments and their contemporary repertory. Peter obtained his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2025 and is a member of the Cambridge Cohort for Guitar Research. He has articles published with Medium Aevum, Early Music, and Metal Music Studies, and an edition of early 18th-century chitarrone francese music published with the Lute Society Music Editions. Peter also holds degrees from the University of Oxford and King’s College London and a licentiate diploma in classical guitar performance from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin.