THE HAVEN OF HEALTH.
Cheifely gathered for the comfort of Students, and consequently of all those that have a care of their health; amplified upon five words of Hypocrates, written Epid.6. Labor, Cibus, Potie, Somnus, Venus. Hereunto is added, a preservation form the Pestilence, with a short censureof the late sickness in Oxford. By Thomas Coghan, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Physicke. Ecclesiasicus oap.37.30. By surfeit have many perished: but he that dieteth himselfe prolongeth his life. The fourth Edition, corrected and amended. LONDON, Printed by Anne Griffin, for Roger Ball, and are to be sold at his shop without Temple-barre, at the Golden Anchor next the Nags-head Taverne. 1636.
Small 4to. 2feps with bookplates of Aldenham and W.G. Peene. Title page. [1] 8p Epistle Dedicatorie. 6p To the Reader. 1+2-321. [1] 22p The Table. 2feps. Modern quarter calf with marbled boards, slightly rubbed. Spine with gilt lines and black label with gilt lettering. Title page age darkened. Some soiling and marginal damp-staining. C1 defective with lower outer portion torn. Closed tear to E4. Lower outer corner of H3 torn without loss of text. Final leaf (V4) slightly damp frayed and with two small worm holes affecting lettering of final line of recto. Small neat scattered pencil marginalia throughout especially on the feps.
- The first printed English cookery book, the ‘Boke of Cokery’ produced by Pynson in 1500, was based on 15th-century texts. There was no immediate rush to print cookery books; what did appear were books of advice on diet and health, and on household and estate management, two areas which are often associated with receipts in medieval manuscripts. The best known of the first type are Sir Thomas Elyot’s 'Castel of Health'. 1539, (see item 11253 on this site) and Andrew Boorde’s ‘Dyetary of Health’ circa 1542. The two books are remarkably similar, giving advice on healthy lifestyle based on Galen, although both authors offer comments on what is suitable for Englishmen, thus adapting Galenic theory to their readers. Thomas Coghan, a later rival to these authors, based his 'Haven of Health' (1584) on Elyot, but changed the order of his book to follow Hippocrates rather than Galen, and supplied a much more extensive commentary on a wider variety of herbs than the earlier writer. In these texts one can begin to discern signs of change at the dinner-table, with Elyot’s remarks on the wholesomeness of beef for the healthy Englishman, and with Coghan’s comments on salads, eaten at the beginning of the meal, and on apple tarts, eaten at the end. The second type of publication is best represented by Thomas Tusser’s doggerel writings, ‘A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie’ 1557, expanded to 'Five Hundreth Points' in 1573. The expanded version gives advice to housewives, stressing their role as providers of care and medicines for the sick, as well as managers of the daily routine of the household. Thomas Coghan advised students to breakfast on light, digestible foods, to avoid overloading the stomach with a variety of meats at one meal, to cut down on salt and to drink milk as a counteractant to melancholy. He recognized that excessive study made students prone to mental breakdown and recommended that they take regular breaks from study to avoid exhausting their mental energy, and that they refresh their minds with recreations such as music or games” (Norman 493). “It is a book of good sense… By the use of ‘one dish onely at one meale, and drinking thereto but small drinke’ he became slender” (Osler 2331). Coghan divided preventative health into five categories: labor or exercise of body and mind, eating, drinking, sleeping and sexual relations. Includes recipes for a variety of healthy drinks, including aqua vitae, rofa solis, cinnamon water, wormwood wine and buttered beer. Norman 493. STC 5481. Lowndes, 487. See Cagle 621-22, Osler 2331-33, Walleriana 2036.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11045