A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by one or more people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example inscriptions that are chiselled upon a hard material or scratched (the original meaning of graffiti) as with a knife point in plaster or with a stylus on a waxed tablet (the way Romans made notes), or are in cuneiform writing, impressed with a pointed stylus in a flat tablet of unbaked clay. The word manuscript derives from the Medieval Latin manuscriptum, a word first recorded in 1594 as a Latinisation of earlier Germanic words used in the Middle Ages: compare Middle High German hantschrift (c. 1450), Old Norse handrit (bef. 1300), Old English handgewrit (bef. 1150), all meaning "manuscript", literally, "handwritten".

In publishing and academic contexts, a manuscript is the text submitted to the publisher or printer in preparation for publication, usually as a typescript prepared on a typewriter, or today, a printout from a PC printer, prepared in manuscript format.

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American philosopher, psychonaut, researcher, teacher, lecturer and writer on many subjects, such as human consciousness, language, psychedelic drugs, the evolution of civilizations, the origin and end of the universe, alchemy, and extraterrestrial beings.

Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado. He was introduced to geology through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the arroyos near his home. From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.

At age 16, McKenna moved to Los Altos, California to live with family friends for a year. He finished high school in Lancaster, CA. In 1963, McKenna was introduced to the literary world of psychedelics through The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley and certain issues of The Village Voice that talked about psychedelics.

McKenna claimed that one of his early psychedelic experiences with morning glory seeds showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing." In an audio interview Terence Mckenna claims to have started smoking cannabis regularly during the summer following his 17th birthday.

Johann Jakob Froberger (baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical traditions through his many travels. He is also remembered for his highly idiomatic and personal descriptive harpsichord pieces, which are among the earliest known examples of program music.

Only two of Froberger's many compositions were published during his lifetime, but his music was very widely spread in manuscript copies and he was one of the very few 17th century composers who were never entirely forgotten. His works were studied in the 18th century (although perhaps not very extensively, and certainly without influence on the emerging Classical style) by Handel, Bach and, extraordinarily, even Mozart and Beethoven.

Johann Jakob Froberger was baptized on 19 May 1616 in Stuttgart. The exact date of his birth is unknown. His family came from Halle, where his grandfather Simon lived and his father Basilius (1575–1637) was born. In 1599 Basilius moved to Stuttgart and became a tenor in the Württemberg court chapel. At some point before 1605 he married Anna Schmid (1577–1637), who came from a Schwabian family living in Stuttgart. By the time Johann Jakob was born, his father's career was already flourishing, and in 1621 Basilius became court Kapellmeister. Of his eleven children with Anna, four became musicians (Johann Jakob, Johann Christoph, Johann Georg and Isaac; all but Johann Jakob served at the Württemberg court in Stuttgart), and so it is likely that Johann Jakob received his first music lessons from his father.

Ludger Rémy (born 4 February 1949 in Kalkar) is a German harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist.

Ludger Rémy studied the harpsichord in Freiburg im Breisgau and continued his studies with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris. He was a teacher at several German academies including the Folkwang Hochschule and the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar. In 1998 he was appointed professor for Early music at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.

His main interest is to research German music of the 17th and 18th century and to revive the discovered works in performances and recordings, taking into account their position in historic and literary context.

In 1994 he founded the orchestra Les Amis de Philippe, named after Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. From 1995 to 1999 he directed the Telemann Chamber Orchestra of Michaelstein. He has been teaching at the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein. On 23 September 2005 he revived the opera Didone abbandonata of Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, successful in 1724, in a shortened concert version, performed at the Schloss Elisabethenburg in Meiningen by Les Amis de Philippe.

My Dying Bride are an English doom metal band formed in Bradford, England in 1990. To date, My Dying Bride have released eleven full-length studio albums, three EPs, one demo, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, and one live CD/DVD release. Along with bands such as Anathema, Paradise Lost, and Katatonia, they are one of the forerunners of the death/doom metal genre. While bands like Paradise Lost and Katatonia have expanded their musical styles beyond doom metal, though Paradise Lost later returned to the genre, My Dying Bride has continued to play doom metal since its foundation.

My Dying Bride were formed in Bradford in the north of England in June 1990 after guitarist Andrew Craighan and drummer Rick Miah co-formed the band after they had split from Abiosis, joining vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Calvin Robertshaw while ending Abiosis. After six months of rehearsing, the band recorded and released their demo, Towards the Sinister, which was produced by Tim Walker of Voltage Records. Its title was taken from a line in the song "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium". The band would soon release their first single, "God Is Alone", on a small French label called Listenable. After the single had sold out almost immediately, they were picked up by Peaceville Records, and they could release their first EP, Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium, which also featured their latest recruit, bassist Adrian Jackson. The EP was soon followed by their first full-length album, As the Flower Withers.