Early modern life
Savory biscuits from a 17th-century recipe
Want to add variety to your Thanksgiving? Try this modernized 17th-century recipe from the Folger collection for savory biscuits, fluffy and sweet and savory and firm and spiced all at the same time, recorded around 1672 in Constance Hall’s recipe book.
In the spirit of Oktoberfest: Food, drink, and changing times in early modern Europe
As October comes to an end, we celebrate food, drink, and culture in the German cities of Shakespeare’s day, including the creation of beer and wine and the harvest festivals each fall, marked by our modern-day tradition of Oktoberfest.
A world of poison: The Overbury scandal
The poisoning in Shakespeare’s play King John, and in Romeo and Hamlet, too, had real-world parallels, too. Delve into the infamous story of Thomas Overbury’s death at the Tower of London in 1613.
Toil and trouble: Recipes and the witches in 'Macbeth'
Shakespeare’s witches, like nearly all witches of Shakespeare’s time, have their roots in the kitchen more than in the study.
Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes
Mince pies and a honey-spiced drink called mirth are just two of hundreds of recipes found in a 17th-century handwritten recipe book once owned by Leticia Cromwell.
Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London
Guest post by Surekha Davies From at least the sixteenth century, overseas artifacts found their way into European princely and scholarly collections. There they were catalogued, analyzed, and displayed alongside natural and artificial curiosities from classical cameos to blowfish. I am…
News, News, News
How do you get your news today? TV? Radio? Printed newspapers? Online news sites? Social media? Today we seem to be inundated by the news 24/7 and it sometimes takes a conscious effort to step away from the barrage. News…
A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th-century England
One of the earliest recipes for pumpkin pie can be found in the Folger vaults: “To make a Pumpion Pie,” which appears in a 17th-century cookbook by Hannah Woolley, one of the first women in early modern Britain to earn a living by her writing.
Etiquette in early modern England (part 2)
Books on manners became so popular during the Elizabethan period that it was only a matter of time before someone satirized them.
Etiquette in early modern England (part 1)
“Manners maketh man” was the motto of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Would your own table manners pass inspection?
Early modern legal violence: for the common good?
A guest post by Dr. Sarah Higinbotham In a 1628 sermon preached before the Assize court at Oxford, Robert Harris reminds the “Sheriffes, Iustices, Iudges” that they have taken “an oath for the common good.” He reminds them that they…
An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England
As the arts and culture flourished in Shakespeare’s England, musical life blossomed as well.