Index to remarkable passages : recipe book

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0097-Item 0154

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This manuscript volume, titled “Index to Remarkable Passages,” comprises recipes for medical conditions, household problems, and agricultural concerns, and was made by an unknown creator in approximately 1803-1804.

Many of the recipes in this volume relate to medical treatment for various ailments, including cures for cancer, fever, rabid dog bites, and dysentery. The recipes incorporate common foodstuffs, herbs, and plants as well as decoctions of antimony, sulfur, and hartshorn. In addition to human illnesses, several recipes relate to the treatment of ailments in horses, cattle, and sheep.

Other recipes focus on household and agricultural concerns. The creator recorded recipes for making beer, taking spots of out linen, and purifying tainted meat as well as advice about keeping pests from crops, fattening calves, and protecting livestock from ticks.

Several of the entries were attributed to published advice manuals, including Cornaro’s The Immortal Mentor: or, Man’s Unerring Guide to a Healthy, Wealthy, and Happy Life. and Willich’s The Domestic Encylopaedia, indicating the creator’s familiarity with some prescriptive literature. On the first page, the creator labeled this volume “Index to Remarkable Passages,” suggesting that many of the entries were drawn from other sources.

In addition to the recipes, this volume contains several diary entries dated to 1803 and 1804, which relate to the planting and harvesting of crops. The creator recorded his techniques for preparing seeds, plowing rows, and fertilizing crops, occasionally noting which methods produced the best results.

This volume has stiff, black paper covers and a handstitched binding. It contains sixteen leaves of unlined, laid paper with handwritten text in black ink.

Dates

Creation: approximately 1803-1804

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Historical Note

The creator of this manuscript included references to entries in Cornaro’s The Immortal Mentor and Willich’s The Domestic Encyclopaedia, both of which were first published in 1802. Willich’s Encyclopaedia was first published in London, but an American edition was available by 1804. The diary entries at the back of this volume were created between 1803 and 1804 and appear to be contemporaneous with the copied recipes. Information about planting potatoes and other crops and the treatment of livestock suggest that the creator was a farmer.

Cornaro, Luigi, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Scott. The Immortal mentor: or, Man’s unerring guide to a healthy, wealthy, and happy life. In three parts. Philadelphia: Printed for the Rev. Mason Weems, 1802.Knight, Thomas Andrew. Some Doubts Relative to the Efficacy of Mr. Forsyth’s Plaister in Filling up the Holes in Trees, &c. London: J. White, 1802.Willich, A.F.M. The Domestic Encyclopaedia, or, A Dictionary of Facts, and Useful Knowledge. Philadelphia: W.Y. Birch, 1803-1804.The Library of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge. London: J. Baxter, 1830.Information derived from the collection.