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Early modern life

Savory biscuits from a 17th-century recipe
Savory Cogs Biscuits. All photography by Brittany Diliberto. www.beetwosweet.com
Shakespeare and Beyond

Savory biscuits from a 17th-century recipe

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Author
Elisa Tersigni Jack Bouchard

Interested in adding variety to your Thanksgiving dinner? Try this modernized 17th-century recipe for savory biscuits based on a manuscript in the Folger collection.

In the spirit of Oktoberfest: Food, drink, and changing times in early modern Europe
Hartmann Schopper. Panoplia omnium… 1568. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

In the spirit of Oktoberfest: Food, drink, and changing times in early modern Europe

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Author
Jack Bouchard

As October comes to an end, we celebrate food, drink, and culture in the German cities of Shakespeare’s day, including the creation of beer and wine and the harvest festivals each fall, marked by our modern-day tradition of Oktoberfest.

A world of poison: The Overbury scandal
Tower. Richard III, Act III, scene 5. Thomas Medland. ART File L847t2 no.3 (size XS). Before 1812. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

A world of poison: The Overbury scandal

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Author
emma poltrack

The poisoning in Shakespeare’s play King John, and in Romeo and Hamlet, too, had real-world parallels, too. Delve into the infamous story of Thomas Overbury’s death at the Tower of London in 1613.

Toil and trouble: Recipes and the witches in 'Macbeth'
recipes
Shakespeare and Beyond

Toil and trouble: Recipes and the witches in 'Macbeth'

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Author
David B. Goldstein

Shakespeare’s witches, like nearly all witches of Shakespeare’s time, have their roots in the kitchen more than in the study.

Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes
Recipe for mirth from the cookbook of L. Cromwell
Shakespeare and Beyond

Mince pies and mirth: Transcribed 17th-century recipes

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Author
Sarah Powell

Mince pies and a honey-spiced drink called mirth are just two of hundreds of recipes found in a 17th-century handwritten recipe book once owned by Leticia Cromwell.

Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London
Collation

Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London

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Author
Surekha Davies 

Guest post by Surekha Davies  From at least the sixteenth century, overseas artifacts found their way into European princely and scholarly collections. There they were catalogued, analyzed, and displayed alongside natural and artificial curiosities from classical cameos to blowfish. I am…

News, News, News
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News, News, News

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

How do you get your news today? TV? Radio? Printed newspapers? Online news sites? Social media? Today we seem to be inundated by the news 24/7 and it sometimes takes a conscious effort to step away from the barrage. News…

A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th-century England
Pumpkin pie
Shakespeare and Beyond

A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th-century England

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Author
Amanda Herbert

In this pumpkin pie recipe from the late 1600s, you peel and slice the pumpkin into thin wedges, dipping them in egg before frying them. Apples, raisins, currants, and sherry also get added to the pie.

Etiquette in early modern England (part 2)
Folger Shakespeare Library V.a.311
Shakespeare and Beyond

Etiquette in early modern England (part 2)

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Author
Karen Lyon

Books on manners became so popular during the Elizabethan period that it was only a matter of time before someone satirized them.

Etiquette in early modern England (part 1)
Folger Shakespeare Library. ART Vol. c91, no. 8c
Shakespeare and Beyond

Etiquette in early modern England (part 1)

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Author
Karen Lyon

“Manners maketh man” was the motto of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Would your own table manners pass inspection?

Early modern legal violence: for the common good?
Image of stocks
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Early modern legal violence: for the common good?

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Author
Sarah Higinbotham

A guest post by Dr. Sarah Higinbotham In a 1628 sermon preached before the Assize court at Oxford, Robert Harris reminds the “Sheriffes, Iustices, Iudges” that they have taken “an oath for the common good.” He reminds them that they…

An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare and Beyond

An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England

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Shakespeare & Beyond

As the arts and culture flourished in Shakespeare’s England, musical life blossomed as well.

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