CULINA Famulatrix Medicinae:
OR, Receipts in Modern Cookery; WITH A MEDICAL COMMENTARY, WRITTEN BY IGNOTUS, AND REVISED BY A. HUNTER, M.D. F.R.S. L.&E. Magistre artis, Ingeniique Largitor Venter ---------Perseur. THE FIFTH EDITION, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED. YORK: Printed by T.Wilson and E.Spence High-Ousgate. For J.Mawman, in the Poultry, London, and for Wilson and Spence, York; Sold also by J.White, and J.Murray, Fleet-street, and J.Harding, St James Street, London; A.Constable and Co. Edinburgh: and by J.Todd, Sotheran and Son, and J.Wolstenholme, York. 1807
12mo. 202x122mm. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece of a Roman stewpan. Title page with an age shadow of the stewpan. [1] 1p Dedication. [1] (1)6-14 Preface. (1)16-296. (1)298-310. (1)2-20 Men and Manners. 21-22 A domestic character. 1fep. A nice modern rebind in dark calf and marbled boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt lines and two black morocco labels with gilt lettering. Very clean, with original untrimmed and uncut pages. A very collectible and desirable copy.
- In Sophie Schneideman’s tenth catalogue of rare books she informs: -- Dr. Hunter, a Scottish physician, helped to establish the York Lunatic Asylum, and to be honest, there is something of Bedlam about this book. It is a highly opinionated book and a marvellous read. Each recipe is followed by ‘Ignotus’s’ or rather ‘Hunter’s’ observations on it, often including the effect on the body. Of Mock Turtle Soup he writes “This is a most diabolical dish, and only fit for the Sunday dinner of a rustic, who is to work the six following days in a ditch bottom. It is the very essence of Pandora’s box. So, – Get thee behind me Satan!”. The appendix gives 267 pieces of advice on Men and Manners. All pithy and often witty, one declares “Never enter an auction room, for there you will tempted to buy what you do not want”, another “Do not blame a man for hard drinking, if he belongs to a thirsty family”.-- Quite why Hunter implies the work is written by 'Ignotus' which is Latin for: unknown, obscure, ignorant and ignoble, when he was the author is unknown. Possibly he spent a little too long with the inmates.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11149