A paperback edition of a classic of 17th-century English writing
about food and drink. There is perhaps none more frequently quoted
than this, no title more familiar. Its reappearance, therefore,
will be very welcome to both the academic market, and the general
reader. Digby was a European figure of some renown in scientific,
philosophical and mathematical circles (besides being a military
man, a pirate and a womaniser). This recipe collection made by him
(in line with similar collections made by male enthusiasts and
intellectuals of the time, for example the diarist John Evelyn) was
published after his death by his former assistant George Hartman.
It is perhaps the most literate of such cookery books. Digby was a
natural writer, as entertaining as instructive. Many of the recipes
are for drinks, particularly of meads or metheglins, but the
culinary material provides a remarkable conspectus of accepted
practice among court circles in Restoration England, with extra
details supplied from Digby's European travels. The editors also
include the inventory of Digby's own kitchen in his London house,
discovered amongst papers now deposited in the British Library, and
they have provided a few modern interpretations of Digby's recipes.
The work was last printed in 1910, in a sound edition that is no
longer easily available. This new version has several improvements.
The editors discuss the role of George Hartman in the compilation
of the book, and relate its contents to the work that appeared in
1682 under Hartman's own name, The True Preserver and Restorer of
Health . There is a full glossary and the reader will be helped by
the extensive biographical notes about people named in the text as
the source of recipes. Sir Kenelm Digby (1611-1665) was born of
gentry stock, but his family's adherence to Roman Catholicism
coloured his career. His father, Sir Everard, was executed in 1606
for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. Digby went to Gloucester Hall,
Oxford, in 1618. He spent three years in Europe between 1620 and
1623. Around 1625, he married Venetia Stanley. He had also become a
member of the Privy Council. In 1628, Digby became a privateer,
with some success, particularly in the Mediterranean. He returned
to become a naval administrator and later Governor of Trinity
House. His wife died suddenly in 1633. Digby, stricken with grief
and the object of enough suspicion that the Crown had ordered an
autopsy (rare at the time) on Venetia's body, secluded himself in
Gresham College and attempted to forget his personal woes through
scientific experimentation. Digby received the regional monopoly of
sealing wax in Wales and the Welsh Borders and monopolies of trade
with the Gulf of Guinea and with Canada. In the Civil War he went
into exile in Paris, where he spent most of his time until 1660. He
became Chancellor to Queen Henrietta Maria. Digby was regarded as
an eccentric by contemporaries, partly because of his effusive
personality, and partly because of his interests in scientific
matters. Notable among his pursuits was the concept of the Powder
of Sympathy. This was a kind of sympathetic magic to cure injuries.
His book on this salve went through 29 editions. He was a founding
member of the Royal Society. His correspondence with Fermat
contains the only extant mathematical proof by Fermat. His
Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants (1661) proved
controversial. He is credited with being the first person to note
the importance of "vital air," or oxygen, to the sustenance of
plants. Digby is also considered the father of the modern wine
bottle. During the 1630s, Digby owned a glassworks and manufactured
wine bottles which were globular in shape with a high, tapered
neck, a collar, and a punt.
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