A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations, for the Government of the Royal Household, Made in Divers Reigns. From King Edward III. to King William and Queen Mary.
London: Printed for the Society of Antiquaries by John Nichols, 1790.
Quarto, xxii + 476 pages. [leaf containing pages 169/170 in duplicates]. First edition of this collection of English Royal Household Manuscripts. The text discusses the duties and management of all of the staff of a royal household, including wages. The book concludes with the first printing of a collection of Fifteenth Century and earlier recipes, "From a Ms. in the Library of the Royal Society, Arundel Collection, no. 344, page 275-445." Recipes include: 'Nombules of a Deer', 'Farsure for Hares', 'Browet of Alemayne', 'Pejons Stewet', 'Goos in Hochepot' and many others. Internally very clean and fresh, with just a touch of light foxing. In full tree calf, rebacked and with a gilt-titled spine label. With a paper label indicating provenance pasted on to the rear end paper. From the library of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, English Shakespearean scholar and antiquarian. Halliwell-Phillips, son-in-law by his first wife to the great antiquarian Thomas Phillips, was banned from the British Library under suspicion of theft of manuscripts from Trinity College Cambridge. [Bitting, page 532; Maclean, page 30; Oxford, page 119].
Price: $1,200.00