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Early Modern How-to Books

@howtobooks.bsky.social

270 followers 470 following 29 posts

DFG- & AHRC-funded project researching early modern how-to books and the histories of knowledge, science and the book 📖 Based at Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and Glasgow University 🇩🇪🤝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Check out our website: howtobook.eu/

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Jan 21

How does one learn practical skills from a book? Why were how-to books so popular in the early modern period, who used them and how, and can they even be considered a clearly defined genre? Find out the answer to these and other questions in our edited volume: brill.com/display/titl...

Tracts of Action

"Tracts of Action" published on 21 May 2024 by Brill.

brill.com

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Scilicet - History of Knowledge @scilicetblog.bsky.social · 11h

In our latest article, @jamesafox.bsky.social charts the meteoric rise and eventual decline of #18thcentury mathematician 🧮 Thomas Simpson.

👉 Read more here: scilicet.org.uk/becoming-a-m...

#history #mathematics #skystorians

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 18h

You're probably right! Ornamentation like that would've been almost impossible with movable type, so this is likely some kind of wood block technique.

Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 1d

Amazing, isn't it!?!

Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 1d

In our latest blog post, intern Sandrine Hoppe explores the earliest known recipe book authored by a woman in vernacular German, Anna Wecker's Ein köstlich new kochbuck (1598)

howtobook.hypotheses.org/4596

#bookhistory #cookbook #blog

Title page of Ein köstlich new kochbuck (1598)

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Scilicet - History of Knowledge @scilicetblog.bsky.social · 7d

🤔 Is it better to learn from the wisdom of the ancients or from your experience gained over time?

📚 In our latest blog post, @guyfassler.bsky.social explores a 15th-century Tuscan dialogue debating that very question...
scilicet.org.uk/whats-the-po...

#bookhistory #medieval #knowledge

Leon Battista Alberti, (possibly) Self-Portrait, c. 1435

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 14d

🐝 Beekeeping was a staple of early modern how-to books. A new blog post by @jamesafox.bsky.social explores the changing tone of English apicultural books...

#beekeeping #bookhistory

Scilicet - History of Knowledge @scilicetblog.bsky.social · 14d

What do beekeeping books tell us about changes in early modern science and society? @jamesafox.bsky.social has some suggestions, especially in relation to #17thCentury England scilicet.org.uk/the-hive-tur...
#Skystorians #EarlyModern #Bees #AnimalHistory

An early pamphlet printing of The World Turn’d Upside Down (1647).

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 21d

🚨 New publication from our Research Associate @jamesafox.bsky.social

#bookhistory

James Fox @jamesafox.bsky.social · 21d

The latest issue of Scottish Archives has now been published, featuring work from @mchapelproject.bsky.social @nicolemaceira.bsky.social @ksmcgregor.bsky.social and myself, among others. If anyone would like a PDF of my article, just send me a message!

#bookhistory #scottishhistory #Archives

First page of 'Record-Keeping and the Business of Books in Pre-Union Edinburgh' by James Fox

Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · 28d

In our latest #blog post, Stefan Laube explores the role of #how-to knowledge in the long span of human history

Read more here: howtobook.hypotheses.org/4498

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Sep 3

Earlier this summer, project members Billy Grove and @luisgomes.bsky.social introduced our project at the 13th Society for Emblem Studies conference in Vienna. Read more here:

howtobook.hypotheses.org/4453

#howto #emblems #conference

Emblematically How-to in Vienna

Every three years, in the height of summer, scholars from around the world come together to exchange ideas and explore new directions in emblem studies. This year’s conference, organized as always by ...

howtobook.hypotheses.org

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Sep 1

New on our #blog: @jamesafox.bsky.social explores the unique #marginalia in a one-of-a-kind 16th-century French arithmetic book from the Herzog August Bibliothek 📖🇩🇪🧮

Read more here: howtobook.hypotheses.org/4415

#bookhistory #rarebooks #knowledge #mathematics

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Aug 11

In our latest blog post @jamesafox.bsky.social examines the only surviving copy of the first Paracelsian medical text printed in English, 1575 - an important milestone in the history of Anglophone how-to books.

howtobook.hypotheses.org/4371

#bookhistory #rarebooks #medicalhistory

A rare treasure in the Ferguson collection: The true and perfect order to distill oyles (1575)

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Aug 5

In our latest blog post, Stefan Laube reflects on growing up in the 'true How-to Land' of Hagen in West Westphalia.

howtobook.hypotheses.org/4187

Where the How-to Land Is – A Sort of Milk and Honey

The longer I work on our How-to project, the clearer it becomes: I grew up in a true How-to region – right in the heart of a city built on metalworking. A place where things weren’t made to be beautif...

howtobook.hypotheses.org

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Universal Short Title Catalogue @universalstc.bsky.social · Jul 1

🚨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

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Jun 25

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

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Jun 23

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

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...

howtobook.hypotheses.org

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lisbettarp.bsky.social @lisbettarp.bsky.social · Jun 20

I am looking very much forward to reading the publication!

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Zanna Van Loon @zannavanloon.bsky.social · Apr 17

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!

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

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · Jun 9

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

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Dr Eva Johanna Holmberg @evajohannaholmberg.bsky.social · Jun 7

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...

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…

elbowresearch.com

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Scilicet - History of Knowledge @scilicetblog.bsky.social · May 21

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

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?

scilicet.org.uk

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Natalie M. Smith @nataliesmith.bsky.social · May 19

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

Scilicet - History of Knowledge @scilicetblog.bsky.social · May 19

We all need to eat, but the way we cook and share food says a lot about class, culture and identity. In our latest post, @guyfassler.bsky.social, @jamesafox.bsky.social and @nataliesmith.bsky.social dig in to some historical recipes from across Europe 🍽️
scilicet.org.uk/food-for-tho... #Skystorians

Food for thought: Recipe books through history | Scilicet

We all need to eat, but the way we do says much about our place in society. Looking at a range of recipe books through history shows this has long been the case.

scilicet.org.uk

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Bob MacLean @bobmaclean.bsky.social · May 19

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

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 ...

howtobook.hypotheses.org

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · May 15

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

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Early Modern How-to Books @howtobooks.bsky.social · May 15

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Alex Wingate @bibliowingate.bsky.social · May 7

#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...

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...

forms.gle

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