Category: Material Description (Page 2 of 2)

          French Cookery, The Modern Cook, a Practical Guide to Culinary Art in All its Branches, by Charles Elme Francatelli, stuck out to me out of a myriad of other books. It’s a cookbook, and therefore, it stuck out to me because of the rich history a cookbook can hold. I am very interested in studying and working closely with a book that families would have relied on to cook meals. The content of the book intrigues me as the recipes are very universal. Some are for Indian food, some are French recipes, and some are for filets and other meals that are still very popular. Some of the recipes are rare, like turtle soup, and some still hold up, such as the section on beef roasts. This book has a lot of really interesting recipes that show the book’s age as well as indicators of its past life as a functional recipe book.

          The book’s cover does not include the book’s name or any text in general (see Figure 1). The cover, however, has a golden illustration that looks like a stamp. It is the image of a platter of food with a bowl in the center with serving instruments poking out of the food. It has been indented into the book. It feels like it’s been embedded into the cover as it is bumpy to the touch; the foil, however, feels very smooth. The cover also includes a border called a blind. The blind is in a floral pattern like a vine. Unlike the stamp, this is raised instead of embedded into the cover. Part of the name is included on the spine. The spine says: French Cookery by Francatelli, with another golden image of a similar yet different platter of food. The first time the whole title appears is on the title page.

        The title page includes more information, stating that the cookbook has been “Adapted as well for the largest establishments as for the use of private families.” Under the author’s name, he gave credit to his mentor, saying, “Pupil of the celebrated careme and late mater d’hôtel and chief cook to her majesty the queen.” The title page includes “with numerous illustrations.” Lastly, the title page states that this book was published in Philadelphia by Lea and Blanchard in 1846 (see Figure 2). Two separate editions were published, one being the “London Edition.” It states nowhere that this is the London edition, so assumably, this is the other edition. There is no editor credited, and since this is a cookbook of a very accomplished chef, there most likely wasn’t one. This book also includes a forward, an index, and a glossary. The book includes 588 pages total, including blank pages. Of the 588 pages, 576 of these pages had type on them, and 540 pages of this book were recipes. In total, there are 1447 recipes included in this cookbook. The physical book is 10 inches high, 6.5 inches long, and 1.5 inches wide.

        This book is made with fairly high-quality paper. All but three pages are still fully intact. The paper is thick, and the only damage is on the edges of the page. The binding is made of cloth bound by glue and string (see Figure 3). This is clear because the bottom of the spine has started to break and separate from the cover. You can see the cover and the cloth starting to peak out of the bottom. I could not determine the font; however, the qualities are similar to Times New Roman; the letters have similar head serifs. This cookbook includes multiple illustrations. Every illustration is in the same design as the cover illustration, without the gold coloring; they are all in black and white (see Figure 4). They all depict serving platters or suggest proper servings for certain recipes. In total, there are 55-60 illustrations accompanying the recipes. The end of the book includes 36 pages of advertisements (see Figure 5). Most of these advertisements include images, and they all are for other lifestyle books.

      The book is broken up into chapters and sub-chapters. At the beginning of a chapter, the general recipe types are laid out under the title of the section. Each page that includes recipes has a very consistent layout. Each recipe is titled in an italicized font, and the recipe is a paragraph describing the steps and ingredients needed for the dish; this does not include any measurements. If there is an illustration, it is under the recipe. When a new sub-section is introduced, it is separated from the previous section by a squiggly black line. Each page is headed by what type of recipe is on the page. Some recipes have a note at the bottom of the page indicated by an asterisk. Some other discrepancies from the typical layout are later recipes that refer back to the earlier ones (such as sauces), using parenthesis to indicate this. Near the end of the book, before the advertisements, there is a section of recipes correlating to a day a year; these also break the typical layout. There are different ideas for meals based on the day of the year, in total, there are 365 meal ideas.

       The recipe book feels very used and loved. The pages are oily, which reminds me of my grandmother’s old cookbooks that have cooking oil on each page. This book has clearly been used for cooking. A handful of pages are dog-eared, which indicates that these pages include recipes that the original owner frequently used. It’s a sturdy book, which is good for a cookbook as these books endure a lot. If being used in a kitchen, it’s going to be around food, fire, and other things that can hurt the book if it’s not durable. It’s not that heavy, however, which is another quality that is good for a cookbook because whilst cooking, books get moved around frequently. The book is intended for domestic use as well as professional; the title page states its intended use. A few pages of the book have started separating from the binding, showing its age. Reading and touching the book as an artifact feels a bit wrong. It seems very intimate as this was used by someone who appreciated the recipes and presumably cooked for their family. It also feels very nostalgic as it transports me to a time when I would cook with my family.

        The book includes a signature on the title page, belonging to a Mrs. B. Stilingfleck (see Figure 2). This is the only writing in the book that is not the original text. Every page has light brown stains; these stains are mildew due to aging and the way it was stored. This is called foxing and is common in old books. On page 475, there is a very small amount of crushed-up brown powder that resembles coffee grounds. This substance created an oil that seeped through and stained the next four pages. Between pages 42 and 43, there is a long, frayed gold fabric coming from the spine (see Figure 6). I believe this is part of the binding that has started to unravel. Lastly, as mentioned before, three pages (273, 392, 393) of the book are torn on the sides. Each page is torn similarly it can be assumed that this was an error in the book-making process. It looks as if the pages weren’t cut, and the owner cut them after buying it.

Works Used:

French Cookery, The Modern Cook, a Practical Guide to Culinary Art in All its Branches, by Charles Elme Francatelli

The Secrets of Alexis

Evangeline Clausson

Fig. 1 – Title Page

Vastly popular throughout the mid-16^th and early 17^th centuries (The Hospital), The Secrets of Alexis is a collection of remedies for any number of ailments and recipes for everything from hair growth and clearing acne to removing stains or making inks. It was published first in 1555 in Venice (in Italian) under the name De’ Secreti del Reverendo Donno Alessio Piemontese (WorldCat). Many editions were published in various languages (The Hospital, 313) over the next several decades, such as this English 1615 edition. The title page expands upon the title, calling it The Secrets of Alexis: containing many excellent remedies against divers diseases, wounds, and other accidents. With the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, dyings, colors, fusions, and meltings. This edition is described as “newly corrected and amended, and also somewhat more enlarged in certaine places, which wanted in the former editions.” It was printed by William Stansby in London for Richard Meighen and Thomas Iones [Jones] [Fig. 1].

Fig. 2 – Title Page for Part 3

The book is divided into five sections, the middle three having special title pages. These pages accredit William Warde as translator for parts two and three and Richard Androse for the fourth. These pages are dated 1614, suggesting that they had been printed earlier or that the book was re-dated to seem more up to date. They also feature a printer’s device showing a bear and three crests in a border with “NON SOLO PANE VIVET HOMO: Luke 4” (“man shall not live by bread alone”) written on it around a man-dog-angel hybrid with a scythe and wheat standing before a large book which says “bevbum Dei manet in afernum:” (“the child of God remains in the afterlife”) [Fig. 2].  This religious imagery is fitting with the book’s 6 pages of “The Epistle,” which explain how these remedies do not mean to remove suffering or give men the powers of God, but simply to help men live better by the will of God.

Fig. 3 – Dedication Page

The front matter consists of the epistle, a “to the reader,” and a dedication “To the Right Honovrable Francis, Lord Rvssell, Earle of Bedford” (A2). [Fig. 3] Francis Russell was a royal envoy recieving the Prince of Piedmont in 1554 and then was in Italy in 1555, meaning this dedication wasn’t arbitrary: Russell was a political figure with connections to the author’s home (Dale).

Fig. 4 – Bookplates

This volume features a bookplate showing mountains with a bird and a cloud and the name “Charles Coleman Sellers” at the bottom. Sellers gifted this book to the Dickinson College archives in memory of his late wife, Helen Earle Gilbert, as noted on a Dickinson commemorative bookplate on the adjacent page. [Fig. 4]

Each page is roughly 7.5 inches tall and 5. 63 inches wide. The book is 1.56 inches thick with 348 numbered leaves and 8 unnumbered—6 of the epistle and a blank page at the beginning and end of the volume. The front cover and several of these first pages have become detached from the whole. The volume has also split in two at page 130. The edges of each page are to varying degrees discolored, leaving them a warm brown as compared to the inner-page’s sandy-peach color. Many pages have small dot stains, where perhaps a drop of something had fallen on the page. A few pages have larger areas of discoloration, likely due to a liquid being spilled, though these areas are confined to just a few pages and do not hinder the book’s readability. [Fig. 3]

Fig. 5 – Cover

The cover is simple in appearance. It is dark brown and quite splotchy, likely made from mottled calf skin or another variety of leather. [Fig. 5] The only decorative elements are thin black lines pressed into the cover. The edges are frayed, with particularly damaged locations, such as the dent on the outer edge, revealing an almost orange underside of the leather as well as what appears to be pasteboards underneath. The raised bands on the spine indicate it is cord bound. [Fig. 6] The paper is incredibly durable, with only the edges and first few pages, which are more exposed, seeing any deterioration.

The damage as well as few pencil markings bracketing specific passages [Fig. 7] suggest the book was well used at some point, particularly the first half. These pages come apart more easily and the binding feels looser (not just because it’s detached from the main cover, though that may also be a result of its greater use) suggesting that the book was open to these pages more often than those later in the book.

Fig. 6 – Spine

Each page uses two fonts, a basic type font for headings and a variant of blackletter for the recipes. I ran both through two font identifiers (listed below), but I was unable to identify exactly which font either was. The center-aligned headers being in a different font paired with the larger first letter of each remedy helps clarify where sections start and end as the pages are otherwise just remedy after remedy. Occasionally pages have little blocks of printed text in the margins defining or elaborating on terms in the main text.

Fig. 7 – Sample page with pencil brackets

I chose this book because in flipping through, I initially assumed that it was a housekeeping/home remedy guide of some sort, and based on that, I thought it was written by a woman as that is who kept the house, not considering their limited literacy. It is highly unlikely that The Secrets was written by a woman, though wealthy women were known to keep little recipe sets, so it is possible (Bela, 60-61). More likely, however, is that the author was either Girolamo Ruscelli or Alessio Piemontese. As a clergyman and alchemist, Piemontese seems the more probable author, though two late 16^th century sources name Ruscelli as the author and that has generally been accepted since (Bela, 53-63).  The book is still wonderfully interesting as it gives insight into what daily ailments were and how people tried to solve them, though I am disappointed that the housekeeping-type recipes are largely confined to stain removal.

Works Cited

Bela, Zbigniew. “The Authorship of The Secrets of Alexis of Piemont” Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki, vol. 61, no. 1, 2016, pp. 52-73. ResearchGate, https://www.researchg ate.net/publication/11726225_Who_really_is_an_author_of_Alexis_of_Piemont’s_secrets.

Dale, M. K. “Russell, Francis (1527-85), of Amersham and Chenies, Bucks. and Russell (Bedford) House, the Strand, Mdx.” The History of Parliament, https://historyofparl iamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/russell-francis-1527-85. Accessed 7 October 2024

“The Secrets of Alexis: containing many excellent remedies against divers diseases, wounds, and other accidents. With the manner to make distillations, parfumes … and meltings …” WorldCat, https://search.worldcat.org/title/5621135. Accessed 3 October 2024.

“The Secrets of Alexis.” The Hospital, vol. 16, no. 407, 1894, pp. 313.

Works Consulted

Ferguson, J. “The Secrets of Alexis. A Sixteenth Century Collection of Medical and Technical Receipts.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine vol. 24,2 (1930): 225-46.

Ruscelli, Girolamo. The Secrets of Alexis [Pseud.]: Containing Many Excellent Remedies against Divers Diseases, Wounds, and Other Accidents. With the Manner to Make Distillations, Parfumes … and Meltings … Newly corrected and Amended, and also Somewhat more enlarged in certaine places, Which wanted in the former editions., Printed by W. Stansby for R. Meighen, 1615.

“The Secrets of Alexis [pseud.]” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/49043523/. Accessed 3 October 2024

Font Identifiers Used

What the Font: https://www.myfonts.com/pages/whatthefont

Font Squirrel: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/matcherator

This blogpost will concern Moby Dick with illustrations by Rockwell Kent. The book has 863 total pages and is 5.5×7.5×4 (14x19x10). With 822 of those pages begin for the text and illustrations of the novel, 41 pages of front matter, and 10 pages of back matter. The front matter is composed of the dedication, copyright information, table of contents (which includes a beautiful illustration of Captain Ahab’s ship), an Etymology section, and an extracts section. The extracts section contains quotations from sources that Melville used in the authoring of Moby Dick.

            This edition was published in 1930 by Random House, and is set in Monotype Fournier, according to the colophon, and is a condensed version of the Lakeside Press’s three volume illustrated edition of the aforementioned novel. As such, the images within are reproductions of those done by Rockwell Kent for that edition. Thus, this should be considered a special edition but not a first edition as neither the illustrations nor text are original to this particular print run.

            This volume is most likely clothbound and shows signs of use around the edges especially on the spine, and at its corners. In particular there is fraying along the top and bottom of the spine. One is also able to see the cardboard underneath the cloth at all of the book’s corners. The cover of the book has the title “Moby Dick” on it and has an image of the whale’s head breaching the water with its mouth open. While the spin says “Moby Dick Illustrated by Rockwell Kent” at the top, has an image of the whale’s tail in the middle, and says “Random House” at the bottom. The ink used for this is silver, and is recessed within the cover, that is, if one runs their hand over the illustrations and title, you can feel that they are slightly lower than the black portion.

            The illustrations in the edition are absolutely beautiful and integrated into the story seamlessly. They occupy space at the beginning of the chapter, usually at the top of the page on which it begins. In the case of Chapter One there are two images. The first, is above the words “Chapter 1” and its title. The image showcases a man lying on his stomach, facing away from the viewer, and looking out to sea. This goes perfectly with the subject matter of the chapter, as Melville details man’s calling for the sea. One can only assume that if we could see the man’s face, it would be clear he is awestruck by the beauty of the ocean. Then, at the very end of the chapter, after the conclusion of the text there is another man, this time sitting on a log, which could be a support for a pier, gazing longingly out to sea, this time with a ship in the background.

            The images are in black and white and are composed of a series of very thin lines. The lines are given length and coloring which create the shapes that Kent is portraying in his illustrations. The drawings add a tremendous amount to the reading of the novel. Particularly in chapter two, where the reader flips the page from 9 to 10, and sees a full-page drawing of Ishmael walking towards New Bedford. The only thought I had when seeing this image for the first time was, “Wow, this is fantastic.” Indeed, the images are the main reason I chose to work with this particular book. While Moby Dick Or The Whale, as is printed on the inside cover, is a classic novel in and of itself, something about the illustrations make it incredibly fun to read. Perhaps, it is because we are first acquainted with pictures in novels as children, and typically, we lose these images as we grow older and read more complicated texts. I cannot help but smile when I see the images in this edition.

            This book is fun to read and while the illustrations are absolutely the center of attention, the condition of this book contributes greatly to the reading experience. It feels very solid and does not seem brittle or fragile at all. Oftentimes when reading a book which was printed almost 100 years ago, I feel great anxiety in even touching it. Like one wrong move and this object which has survived generations of readers is going to explode in my hands, and I will be responsible for its untimely demise. This is not how I feel with this edition of Moby Dick. The binding still feels tight and strong, the paper is thick and of solid quality. It does not feel like it would rip if touched in the wrong way, which is common of many editions printed more recently. Indeed, the build quality of this book is extremely high. In addition to this the type face used in this edition is incredibly legible.

            Overall, this particular special edition of Moby Dick is a joy to read. While the illustrations are the highlight, and the distinguishing factor of this book, the font, the construction, and Melville’s timeless prose all contribute to an absolutely fantastic reading experience.

Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections Department holds significant research material ranging from medieval times to the present, and while located at a small institution, it is home to a wide range of rare books, photographs, and other artifacts. Of these historical materials, Lydia Maria Child’s revolutionary cookbook entitled “The Frugal Housewife” stands out as especially loved. At first glance, the book is barely that – it is no longer bound and must be held together by a ribbon. As we take a closer look, the cookbook is more than it seems, and it holds more than the originally printed recipes and remedies.

In a conversation with Dickinson College Archivist Malinda Triller-Doran, she informed me that while the book’s journey to our archives is not explicitly known, we can guess that it was once a part of Charles Coleman Sellers’s Library and was donated to the Archives with the rest of his collection after his death in 1980 (Triller-Doran).

The full title of the book is “The Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy.” The audience for this book is presumably the average, middle- or lower-class housewife in America. Most of the included recipes are simple and require minimal ingredients, and in addition to the normal recipes expected in a cookbook, a significant portion of the book is reserved for remedies and advice for topics outside of the kitchen, including laundry and cleaning tips.

This specific edition is the fourth edition, and was published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1831 by Carter, Hendee, & Babcock. The size of the book (5in x 7.5in x 1 in) suggests its economy. A larger-sized book would not be affordable by the audience, and it is more convenient for storage and use at this moderate size. This cookbook is 118 pages, but pages 109 – 112 are missing. This mishap could be due to the poor state of the binding and the fact that most of the pages are no longer connected. The paper itself, while no longer bound together, is thick, with clean-cut edges, and, in comparison to the deteriorating state of the binding, has held up exceptionally well over time. While yellowed and stained on every page, none of the paper is torn or ripped, and only five pages have been bent at the top right corner. This folding looks accidental but could also have been a bookmark for the owner. The typeface is difficult to determine, as it looks like Times New Roman, or some other serif font. After running a picture through font identification software, I think the font is “Aquatic Rough (WhatFontIs.com).”

While the book was not printed with illustrations or pictures, a previous owner – presumably an “M. Cady” based on the repeated signatures across the front cover – marked up the book with drawings, signatures, additional recipes, and other inscriptions. The first page of the book was once a blank protective sheet but has since been lined and written on both sides with multiple recipes for frosting, cookies, cake, sausages, and steam pudding. In addition to this once-blank page, the blank spaces on pages 80, 103, and 113 are home to more personal recipes. While the print is messy and the pencil is mostly faded, from what I can tell the recipes are for “Pork Cake Loaves,” “Sausages,” and “Good Common Cake Loaves.”

Although the front and middle of the cookbook housed mostly inscribed recipes, the back cover is covered in drawings of birds, fathers, flowers, and a face. There is a passage at the top that has since been crossed out, but from what I can tell is another recipe including ingredients like butter and buttermilk.

These recipes and the writing on the front cover were in the same handwriting and pencil as the “M. Cady” signature, and after further investigation, this woman is presumably Mary Cady (previously Mary Webb, married to Hiram Cady). Apart from the repeated “M. Cady” stamps and signatures, there is an additional signature that reads “Mrs. Hiram Cady.” After a deep internet search, I found a picture of a woman named Mary Webb who married a Mr. Hiram Cady, who passed away in 1876 (WikiTree). I cannot find much else on her other than her burial location in Washtenaw County, Michigan. There is one recipe on the back cover in a different, darker handwriting for a Beef dish. There are two more names inscribed but they are completely illegible.

The front matter of the book includes the aforementioned, no-longer-blank page, a title page, a page containing two notes, and the introductory chapter. The title page is nearly identical to the cover of the book, including the full title (“The Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy”), a dedication, two quotations – one by Benjamin Franklin and one with no source – the edition of the book, and publication information.

The page with notes contains one from Lydia Maria Child stating her reasoning and additions to this edition and one from the Clerk of the District of Massachusetts emphasizing its publication location. In place of a table of contents at the beginning of the book, there is instead an alphabetical index at the end, beginning with “Advice, General” and concluding with “Pastry.”

The organization of the book is clear and simple, and extremely easy to skip through. Since it holds recipes and remedies, a reader will use it for specific reasons and may need to skip around to find the entry they are looking for. The short paragraphs, clear titles, and alphabetical index make this a convenient manual for the average reader. Food groups include “Herbs,” “Meat Corner, or Salted, Hams &c,” “Puddings,” and more. Remedies include small healing tips, specifically for burns and cuts, in addition to more first-aid style tips. The author takes a familiar, conversational tone, using both first person and addressing the reader directly in certain passages.

The physical condition of the book emphasizes how loved this book was, proving its convenience and popularity. This is not a book that is held and flipped through. It is quick to lie flat, suggesting its long history of laying on a table or kitchen countertop. This book is similar to our modern-day “Cooking for Dummies,” with both easy, clear recipes and significant advice and remedies. Child goes above and beyond for her reader by delving deeper than the assumed recipes of a cookbook to include tips and tricks for chores and tasks outside of the kitchen. Despite this information on this cookbook, the catch-all guide to being an economical housewife holds more secrets – in both its typed content and added inscriptions – that I look forward to uncovering over the course of the semester.

Works Cited

Child, Lydia Maria. The Frugal Housewife : Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy. Fourth edition / corr. and arr. By the author, to Which are added, Hints to persons of moderate fortune., Carter, Hendee and Babcock, 1831.

“Find Any Font from Any Image.” Upload Image, www.whatfontis.com/?s3. Accessed 22 Sept. 2024.

“Mary (Webb) Cady.” WikiTree, 28 June 2023, www.wikitree.com/wiki/Webb-14437.

“Mrs. Hiram Cady (Mary Webb).” Ypsilanti Historical Society Photo Archives, quod.lib.umich.edu/y/yhsic1/x-08073/PHOTO08073?lasttype=boolean%3Blastview. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.

Triller-Doran, Malinda. Personal interview with the author. 18 September 2024.