Historical Herbal & Culinary Resources

Historical Herbal & Culinary Resources

This page is a growing list of primary and historical sources that inform our articles on medieval and early modern herb use, flower cookery, and historical gardening.

Jump to: 🍖 Medieval Cookbooks & Household Guides | 🍞 Tudor & Stuart Printed Cookbooks | 🍯 Stillroom & Closet Manuals | 🌱 Herbals & Gardening Books | 🍷 Continental & Classical Influences | 📚 Modern Scholarly & Gateways

🍖 Medieval Cookbooks & Household Guides

• The Forme of Cury (c.1390) – Royal English cookbook; spice blends, almond milk, and pottages foundational to late-medieval fare.
• Harleian MS. 279 (c.1430) – English manuscript; frequent source for our almond-based sauces, porridges, and syrups.
• The Babees Book (15th c.) – Courtesy/household guide; useful for understanding dining etiquette and household management.
• Buch of Cookery (Middle English; archived) – Transcriptions/translations of medieval recipes used for cross-checking variant versions.
• OldCookery.com (archived index) – Aggregates links/transcriptions for multiple medieval manuscripts (helpful when IA/EEBO navigation is clunky).
• Gentyll Manly Cokere (MS Pepys 1047) (c.1490) – Source for recipes like Egges yn Brewte; handy for late medieval into Tudor transitions.

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🍞 Tudor & Stuart Printed Cookbooks

• A Booke of Cookrye (A.W., 1591) – Tudor printed cookbook; pies, pottages, sauces; frequent almond milk references.
• The Second Part of the Good Huswifes Jewell (Thomas Dawson, 1597) – Banqueting stuff, preserves, and herb use; complements the 1585 edition.
• The Widowes Treasure (1582) – Early printed “closet” book; preserves, medicines, household receipts.
• The Ladies Delight (1638) – Cookery, preserves, perfumes; intersects kitchen and stillroom practice.
• The English Huswife (Gervase Markham, 1615; readable text) – Core manual on cookery, preserves, and medicinal waters.
• The English Huswife (Gervase Markham, 1615; EEBO) – Primary facsimile source.
• Country Contentments (Gervase Markham, 1615) – Expanded household management, including the English Huswife content.

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🍯 Stillroom & Closet Manuals

• A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1608) – Floral syrups, conserves, and household remedies.
• The Queen’s Closet Opened (1655) – Conserves, preserves, syrups, and distilled waters; “never before published” receipts.
• The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie (1669) – Famous for recipes with flowers, herbs, and meads; part of the English “closet” tradition.
• Delights for Ladies (Sir Hugh Plat, 1609) – Preserves, sugar work, perfumes, and waters; a flower-cookery essential.
• The Ladies Cabinet Opened (1639) – Perfumes, conserves, waters; overlaps with Plat/Markham traditions.
• The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits (John Partridge, 1580) – Household cookery, remedies, and cosmetic recipes.
• The Treasurie of Hidden Secrets (John Partridge, 1596) – Companion volume; preserves and medicinal/culinary uses for herbs and flowers.
• Prepositas His Practise (1588) – Household medical manual with oils, syrups, and floral conserves (e.g., violets); bridges stillroom and kitchen.

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🌱 Herbals & Gardening Books

• A Nievve Herball (1554; trans. Henry Lyte) – English herbal rich in plant lore and “virtues.”
• Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes (John Gerard, 1597) – Hugely influential English herbal, combining botany, medicine, and culinary uses.
• Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (John Parkinson, 1629) – Influential English gardening book; virtues and uses of flowers and herbs.
• Culpeper’s School of Physick (1659) – Culinary/medicinal uses; includes roses, violets, almond preparations.
• An English Herbal (1690) – Late 17th-c. text aligning planetary rulership with herbal virtues.

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🍷 Continental & Classical Influences

• Apicius: De Re Coquinaria (Roman) – Earlier than our main focus, but influential on later herb/spice traditions.
• Opera dell’arte del cucinare (Bartolomeo Scappi, 1570) – Monumental Renaissance cookbook; sauces to feast menus.
• De Honesta Voluptate (Platina, c.1465) – First printed European cookbook; blends classical dietetics with Renaissance cuisine.
• Le Ménagier de Paris (1393) – French household guide mixing moral instruction, gardening, and cookery; a key window into late medieval domestic life.
• Le Cuisinier françois (La Varenne, 1651; facsimile) – Pivotal shift from medieval to “modern” French cuisine; herbs in stocks, sauces, and vegetables.

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📚 Modern Scholarly & Gateways

• The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Redon, Sabban, Serventi) – Reliable modern translations with context; frequent comparative reference.
• MedievalCookery.com – Searchable collection of transcribed medieval/Renaissance cookbooks, including Harleian manuscripts.
• LOC Pennell MS (2012pennell17891) – Early modern English recipe book; preserves and medicinal items.
• LOC Pennell MS (2011bit28418) – Handwritten household recipes, c. 17th–18th c.
• LOC Pennell MS (2011bit22420) – Household manuscript with preserves/medicinals; useful for later comparisons.

Note: Where possible we link to publicly accessible facsimiles (Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, EEBO previews, Library of Congress). Some Early English Books Online items may require institutional access for full page images.

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⚠️ Note: Primary works are referenced in their original spelling and language. For ease of use, Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, EEBO, and Library of Congress links are provided where available.