Paper as Commodity in Medieval Magical and Medical Practices
By Orietta Da Rold ‘He then looked and saw an amulet sewn into the tarboosh, which he took and opened’ (The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights) The tale of Nur al-Din and his son Hasan is a...
View ArticleHow to establish trust
By Agnieszka Rec How do you make a recipe look effective? How do you convince a reader that your recipe will work before they’ve even tried it? One solution, as discussed by Sietske Fransen for medical...
View ArticleAn Early Modern DIY Guide to Making Paper
By Gabriella Szalay After about half an hour of working it over everything was already so small and delicate that I could scoop, or rather make fine sheets out of it. These sheets allowed themselves to...
View ArticleA 17th-Century Italian’s Encounter with Uzbek Plov
By Scott Levi The Venetian doctor Niccolao Manucci lived in India for some fifty-five years, nearly his entire adult life. Working in a variety of capacities on behalf of his Mughal hosts, in the...
View ArticleAncientbiotics: Medieval Medicines for Modern Infections
By Erin Connelly In 2015, Youyou Tu jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of a new therapy (Artemisinin) to treat Malaria, a disease which has been on the rise since...
View ArticleFour Seasons in Shakespeare’s World…
By the Shakespeare’s World team Cross-posted on https://blog.shakespearesworld.org with some slight differences. One year ago the Early Modern Manuscripts Online project at the Folger Shakespeare...
View ArticleNotes from a Newly Discovered English Recipe Book
By Francesca Vanke Sir Robert Paston (1631-1683) of Oxnead Hall in Norfolk was known in his own time for his loyal support of Charles II, his magnificent house and kunstkammer collection, his political...
View ArticleTales from the Archives: English Gingerbread Old and New
In September, The Recipes Project celebrated its fourth birthday. We now have over 470 posts in our archives and over 117 pages for readers to sift through. That’s a lot of material! (And thank you so...
View ArticleFrom the dry sands of Egypt… Greek medicine labels on papyrus
By Isabella Bonati Amongst the many objects depicted in the “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus (II cent. CE) there is a drug container (unguentarium) with a narrow, probably folded, papyrus tag...
View ArticleFrom Dificio di ricette to Bâtiment des recettes: The Afterlife of Italian...
By Julia Martins In 1525 a book called Opera nuova intitolata dificio di ricette was published in Venice. The book promised to reveal all kinds of secrets to the reader, from cosmetic to medical...
View ArticleWorkshop Notice: “Kitchens in Britain and Europe, 1500-1950” (London, 18th...
For all of you interested in kitchens and material culture – this workshop sounds like it’s a must-go! Take note: Registration closes 11th January, 2017. The Centre for the Study of the Body and...
View ArticleEditing The Recipes Project – 5 years on
Editorial: This is the second of a series of reflection posts from Recipe Project contributors and editors. By Elaine Leong I often start my blog posts with ruminations on how quickly time flies – most...
View ArticleWhat lies behind the name? Rest-harrow – A medieval herbal enigma
By Theresa Tyers ‘Mystery, magic and medicine: in the beginning they were one and the same’ so begins Howard Haggard’s 1930s book on the rise of scientific medicine.[1] Exploring medieval manuscripts...
View ArticleTales from the archives: Keeping Time in the Victorian Kitchen
In September 2016, The Recipes Project celebrated its fourth birthday. We now have over 500 posts in our archives and over 120 pages for readers to sift through. That’s a lot of material! (And thank...
View ArticleRecipes for Magic
By Frank Klassen My house was remarkably crowded and had a bit of a holiday feel about it. It was mid-winter and twenty or so students from the University of Saskatchewan had taken up my invitation to...
View ArticleSeasonality @ The Recipes Project
By Elaine Leong Happy May Day everyone! I am very excited to be on-point editor for the 2017 May edition of The Recipes Project. Living in Germany, where there is a ‘saison’ or a ‘- zeit’ for almost...
View ArticleTales from the Archives: A November Feast in Medieval Europe
In September 2016, The Recipes Project celebrated its fourth birthday. We now have over 500 posts in our archives and over 120 pages for readers to sift through. That’s a lot of material! (And thank...
View ArticleLiving in Seasons: Mulberry Wine, or the Moral Perils of Recipes in Times of...
By He Bian April and May on the US east coast = temperature swings = confusing and sickly weather. This year especially reminds me of the sobering admonition from the ancient Chinese classic of...
View ArticleSeasonality and the (Re)creation of Early Modern Color Worlds
By Jenny Boulboullé Color played an important role in the early modern world across a number of areas from arts and crafts to Christian religion to politics to natural history and philosophy. In recent...
View ArticleWhat is a Recipe? Week 2
Hi everyone, welcome to week 2 of our virtual conversation. First, thank you all for the interesting and stimulating conversation on Friday. For this recipe enthusiast, there were a large number of...
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