RESOURCES

A Chronological Collection of Pre-1900s Manuscripts and Books


A list of historic ailments here

11th century

Tacuinum Sanitatis by Ibn Butlan - a later version on Gallica website and another from 1460 on the New York Public Library

15th century

First half of the 15th century manuscript - Medical recipes (Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 69)


1430s - Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer and John Lydgate

1431 - Herbal with Old English glosses, Bodleian Library

c.1440 - Astronomical calendar with Zodiac Man, Bodleian Library

c.1450-1512 - The vertuose boke of dystillacyon - Hyeronimus Brunschwig (EarlyEnglish Books and Wellcome Collection)

1450 - 1525 - Collection of medical tracts and recipes (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.1.15)

1461 - Tradescant's Orchard, Bodleian Library

1467 - Anonymous, ‘A noble book off cookry ffor a prynce houssolde or eny other estately houssolde’  - one of the best-preserved early English cookery books in existence. This is a 1882 edition.

🌿1490?-1549 - A compendyous regyment or a dyetary of healthe made in Mountpyllyer  by Andrew Boorde, Welsh traveller, physician and writer. Other books by Andrew Boorde here

1491 - Ortus Sanitatis (Wellcome Collection)

1494 - Fasiculo de Medicina by Johannes de Ketham 


Late 15th century -  Astrological and medical texts (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Charles Fairfax Murray MS 17)

16th century

1504 - The Tudor Pattern Book, Bodleian Library 

c.1515 De Costa hours - Illuminated by Simon Bening

1525 - Banckes' Herbal or A Boke of the Properties of Herbs also called an Herball (first published anonymously in 1525 by Richard Banckes)



1543 - De corporis humani fabrica libri septem - by Andreas Vesalius

1551 - A new herball - by William Turner (on the Library of Congress and Early English Books)

1573 - The treasurie of commodius conceits - by John Partridge (Early English Books)

1573 - Five hundreth points of good husbandry - Thomas Tusser. And a later 1580 edition. Another on Archive.org

1573 - 1663 - English Medical Book - a notebook containing medical recipes (Welcome Library)

1575 - A proper Booke of Cookery - on Medieval Cookery

1576 - The Government of Health- by William Bullein (Early English Books)

1579 - Bullein's Bulwarke by William Bullein (archive.org)

1581- Urbium praecipiuarum totius mundi by Georg Braun

1584 - The discouverie of witchcraft - on the Library of Congress

1586 - The Olde Mans Dietarie - by Thomas Newton (Early English Books)

1581 - 1651 - A choice manual of rare and select secrets - by Lady Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent (Early English Books), digitised on  Wellcome Collection and on archive.org)

🌿 1587 - The Good Huswifes Jewell - by Thomas Dawson. Digitised book PDF

🌿 1588 - The widowes treasure - by John Partridge. Digitised book PDF

1588 - The accomplisht cook - Robert May

1591 - The treasurie of commodius conceits - by John Partridge (Early English Books)

1595 - The Castel of Helthe - by Thomas Elyot (on Early English Books). Also as scanned manuscript here.

1595 - A Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin - by Thomas Dawson (on Foods of England)

1597 - The Great Herball by John Gerard is published. See further down links to the 1633 and 1636 editions

1599 - The English secretary, or Methode of writing of epistles and letters - Angel Day

1568 - 1637? - The English House-vvife - by Gervase Markham (EarlyEnglish Books)

1596 - Ioyfull news out of the New Found world - by E.Allde (archive.org)

1599 - Dyets Dry Dinner - by Henry Buttes ( Early English Books)

17th century


🌿 1602 - Delightes for ladies - by Sir Hugh Plat. Digitised 1632 book PDF

1606 - Mrs' Corlyon's digitised manuscript on Wellcome Collection


1620 - 1706 - The Diary of John Evelyn, published in c.1901

1621 - The anatomy of melancholy - Robert Burton

1621 - The optick glasse of humors by Thomas Walkington (National Library of Medicine)

1629 - Paradisi in Sole Paradisus terrestris by John Parkinson

1633 - The Herball by John Gerard  on the Library of Congress

1636 - The Herball by John Gerard on archive.org. Also on Exclassics.com

1640 - Theatrum botanicum by John Parkinson. And a later copy from 1784 - Theatrum botanicum 



1664 - Botanologia - Robert Turner. Digitised on Wellcome Collection

1668 - Choice and experimented receipts in physick and chirurgery - Sir Kenelm Digby 

1670 - The queen-like closet - Hannah Woolley. Also on the Library of Congress

1670 - The gentlewomans companion - Hannah Woolley

1675 - The acomplish'd lady's delight - Hannah Woolley

1675 - Receipt Book of Margaret Baker, a digitised manuscript on Folger Shakespeare Library  

1677 - The Compleat Servant Maid - Hannah Wolley 

1678 - The family physician - Harvery Gideon

1625 - 1680 - Lady Ann Fanshawe's recipe book 

1680 - The kitchen physician - T.K. , Doctor in Physick (and on Pro Quest)

1682 - The True Preserver and Restorer of Health - G. Hartman on Wellcome Collection    

1687 - The Cries of London - Marcellus Laroon 


1688 - The Lady's New Years Gift or Advice to a Daughter - George Savile, Maquis of Halifax

1690 - The treasury of drugs unlock'd - Berlu (John Jacob)

1693 - The compleat gard'ner - Jean de la Quintinie


18th century 

c. 1700- 1775 - Cookery Book of Anne Goodenough, digitised manuscript on Folger Shakespeare Library 

1704 - A treatise of foods by Louise Lemery


1735 - The whole duty of a woman - Written by a Lady

1737 - A compleat history of druggs - Pierre Pomet

1737 - A curious herbal by Elizabeth Bracknell; and on Archive.org

1748 - The house-keeper's pocket-book - Sarah Harrison of Devonshire

1753 - The Lady's Companion by Sir Hans Sloane on Archive.org

1779 - The Toilet of Flora by Pierre Joseph Buc'hoz

1790 - Medical Botany by William Woodville

1794 - Domestic economy or A complete system of English housekeeping by Maximilian Hazlemore


ONLINE COURSES AND TALKS :

Paleography course - the study of old handwriting, on National Archives

Archaeology of Reading - 36 digitized versions of early printed books with tens of thousands of handwritten notes left by John Dee and Gabriel Harvey

Future Learn - The Tudors (free course)

Future Learn - A History of Royal Fashion (free course)

English Handwriting 1500 - 1700 - online course

University of Oxford - Investigating the Elizabethans - online course

Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries - a new two-year project to digitise, catalogue and conserve over 180 medieval manuscripts

The Casebooks Project, University of Cambridge - studying the medical records of the astrologers Simon Forman and Richard Napier, c.1600

Gresham College - Elizabeth's Ghost: The Afterlife of the Queen in the Stuart Era

Gresham College - Medical and Surgical Therapeutics: Scientific Advances in the Tudor Era

Gresham College - The Natural Environment of Tudor London


BLOGS, ARTICLES & TOOLS :



Currency converter - National Archives

Useful measurements - The Tudor Tailor

Medieval and Renaissance Material Culture - a vast collection of links and resources

New Year's gifts for Queen Elizabeth

The Mary Rose Museum - artefacts gallery

Mendelschen and Landauer 12 Brothers House Foundations - illustrations of manufacturing processes and handicrafts in Nuremberg, Germany

The Cleveland Museum of Art - textile collection

Dr Alun Whitey - historian of medicine and of the body

History Extra - medicine and health

Circle of the Year - the Tudor Stillroom

Aulis.org - converting between old and new date styles

Living with the Tudors - video about Kentwell Hall recreation events

Signed, sealed and undelivered - dedicated to a fascinating collection of undelivered 17th century letters

Letterlocking - on the technology of folding and securing letters before the invention of the envelope in the 19th century

History of medicine timeline

Letter writing in Renaissance Engand - Folger Shakespeare Library

Free coat of arms maker












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