Early Modern How-to Books

🚨Call for Papers: The 18th St Andrews/USTC Book History Conference on 'Print and Education' will take place 18–20 June 2026.

👉 Further details here: www.ustc.ac.uk/conference

📅 Application deadline: 12 December 2025

📖 We look forward to receiving your proposals!

#CfP #bookhistory #skystorians

Elmswell Hall in Yorkshire, where 17th-century landowner Henry Best handwrote a farming #how-to book for his son.
In our latest blog, @jamesafox.bsky.social compares Best's advice on beekeeping with a printed equivalent. 📚🐝

👉 howtobook.hypotheses.org/4150

#bookhistory #bees #nationalwritingday

Those Who Patch Know. On How-Toes that Flourish A flat bicycle tire is never welcome. It usually happens at the worst possible moment: on the way to my seminar or at the start to an excursion to the idyllic lakes in Brandenburg. Strangely, it almos...

New on our blog: Stefan Laube on the #howto of thrift, sustainability and making do...

📚 read more here: howtobook.hypotheses.org/3935

#blog #skystorians #thrift #sustainability

I am looking very much forward to reading the publication!

Detail of Abraham Ortelius' hand coloured map of Europe focused on the North Sea with Antwerp and London depicted.

Registration for the Tudor England and the Antwerp Book Trade conference (8-11 July 2025) is now open!

Join us in person in wonderful Antwerp and sign up: tinyurl.com/TudorAntwerp! #EarlyModern #BookHistory #RareBooks

Spread the woooooord!

Last month the Scottish 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and German 🇩🇪 sides of our project met in Glasgow. In our latest blog post, Alina Lange reports on a successful trip 👇
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3851

Call for Papers Between Marginal and Mainstream: Negotiating Experimental Practices and Medical Knowledge, 1600–1900 We are delighted to invite papers for our international conference Between Marginal and Mainstre…

Between Marginal and Mainstream: Negotiating Experimental Practices and Medical Knowledge, 1600–1900, with Paola Bertucci, Lauren Kassell, and Markku Hokkanen as keynotes #earlymodern #histmed elbowresearch.com/call-for-pap...

No laughing matter? The curious case of Cocker’s Arithmetick | Scilicet Why was Cocker’s Arithmetick, the most successful arithmetic textbook of its day, the butt of a joke?

Happy #NumeracyDay! ✖️➕➗🔢 We're celebrating by revisiting some excellent numeracy-related blog posts by @jamesafox.bsky.social First, we have the curious case of Cocker's Arithmetick being the butt of a joke scilicet.org.uk/no-laughing-... #SkyStorians #BookHistory #Numeracy

Really enjoyed working on this collaborative piece with @jamesafox.bsky.social and @guyfassler.bsky.social Hopefully the first of many more! #skystorians

How to Find Traces of Use in Old Books. At Venerable Shelves in Wolfenbüttel In an age when books are categorized on Amazon by their condition — ‘like new,’ ‘good,’ ‘with minor signs of wear’ – blemishes seem to be considered a flaw. But what if these very traces are the real ...

The latest offering from @howtobooks.bsky.social — howtobook.hypotheses.org/3784

Whether on conduct or conversion, early modern etiquette manuals said much on the concept of 'galanterie'. 📖
Read more in our latest blog post by Stefan Laube 👇
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3633

#bookhistory #skystorians

Whether on conduct or conversion, early modern etiquette manuals said much on the concept of 'galanterie'. 📖
Read more in our latest blog post by Stefan Laube 👇
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3633

#bookhistory #skystorians

SHARP LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography Submit citations for the SHARP LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography! We are accepting citations for many different types of resources having to do with LGBTQIA+ book history. There are no restrictions o...

#BookHistory friends! Work has begun on the LGBTQIA+ Book History bibliography, and the team is looking for you to share your citations! If you know of or have published something on LGBTQIA+ book history, submit it to this Google form! forms.gle/c1pkNBPbbyCF...

Well said, Christian 🙌

Looks excellent! Long live the practical, knowledge-sharing books. My favourites!

Fascinating!

Many congratulations to @g-g-clay.bsky.social 🥇winner of the 2025 Hakluyt Society Essay Prize, and to runners up Peter Wells & James Fox
www.hakluyt.com
🏆👏🏆👏🏆👏

"The salad dresser, in Evelyn’s eyes, was nothing short of a maestro"
I like to think I make a fine salad (and dressing)!

You may have heard of the 17th-century English diarist John Evelyn, but did you know he wrote a book on salad??
🥗 In our latest blog post, Alina Lange offers a taste of what Evelyn's 1699 Acetaria had to say on the subject of leafy meals...
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3708
#bookhistory #foodhistory

#earlymodern how-to books often feature colourful and sometimes perplexing medical recipes involving 'abracadabra' charms...
#bookhistory

Abracadabra: the magical history behind Lady Gaga’s latest hit | Scilicet Lady Gaga’s new pop anthem, 'Abracadabra', is the latest chapter in a 2,000-year magical history.

Lady Gaga’s pop anthem #Abracadabra is the latest chapter in a 2,000-year magical history 🪄 In this post, @jamesafox.bsky.social explores the history behind the themes of Gaga’s work. Of interest for #LittleMonsters and history enthusiasts alike! 🎶 #skystorians scilicet.org.uk/abracadabra-...

Call for Papers Between Marginal and Mainstream: Negotiating Experimental Practices and Medical Knowledge, 1600–1900 We are delighted to invite papers for our international conference Between Marginal and Mainstre…

📣Call for Papers📣
For the international conference, 'Between Marginal and Mainstream: Negotiating Experimental Practices and Medical Knowledge, 1600–1900' to be held at the University of Helsinki on 11–13 March 2026.
Deadline for proposals: 8 June 2025
#histmed #histSTM

This magnificent Tudor gatehouse stands at what was once a centre of the London booktrade. Recently #how-to researcher @jamesafox.bsky.social visited this and other sites following in the footsteps of #earlymodern how-to book buyers 📚
Read more on our blog: howtobook.hypotheses.org/3581
#bookhistory

Find out more about John Evelyn’s passion for salads on the HABlog:
diglib.hab.de?link=204

Thank you so much Roland, great to have you along!!

I am very happy to have discovered these people and look forward to digging into their work... #earlymodern #bookhistory... Follow them!

Some Impressions from the Workshop Talk in Wolfenbüttel ‘Read me and Wishes Come true’ – that was the title of the workshop talk that Hartmut Beyer and I organised. This is a format that has been informing the staff of the Herzog August Library about resea...

New on our blog: Stefan Laube reports on a recent workshop at the Herzog August Bibliothek, introducing the #how-to books project 👇
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3426

Precious Drops: Seventeenth-Century Ready Reckoners from Wolfenbüttel and Glasgow By Hartmut Beyer and James Fox In autumn 2024, the auction house Reiss & Sohn auctioned off valuable books on the subject of wine from the library of Friedrich Bassermann-Jordan (1872–1957). The law g...

In our latest #blog Hartmut Beyer and James Fox examine some 17th C #rarebooks used for calculating the price of wine and other commodities 🍷📖🧮
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3364

Learning How to Drive I have always been a late bloomer. And it seems only fitting that one important rite of passage has happened for me only recently. Since last Wednesday, I am the proud owner of a driver’s licence. A m...

The latest from our blog: Alina Lange on the #howto of learning to drive 🚗
howtobook.hypotheses.org/3206

2025 Transcribathon Schedule Set Want to know more about early modern recipes before the big day? Join us for an online Transcribathon Preview discussion devoted to recipes and women’s health on  Friday 7 March, 5pm – 6pm GMT/12pm – ...

If you're interested in #EarlyModern recipes, medicine, digital humanities etc., please follow my Early Modern Recipes Online colleagues @hnunn.bsky.social @maggiesimon.bsky.social and @historyelaine.bsky.social. We will be skeeting our upcoming #transcribathon and events. emroc.hypotheses.org/4479