Lot 136
  • 136

David, Elizabeth.

Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
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Description

  • A group of four Italian cookery books with her bookplate and with her notes.
Romoli, Domenico. La singolare dottrina... dell'ufficio dello scalco. (Venice: Michele Tramezzino, 1570), 8vo, woodcut initials, contemporary limp vellum with ties, [Censimento 16 CNCE 35432], paper flaw in Bb3 affecting a few words, small hole in final leaf affecting one letter
Mattei, Venantio. Teatro nobilissimo di scalcheria. Rome: Giacomo Dragondelli, 1669, 4to, woodcut initials, modern boards, [Vicaire 858], title-leaf repaired with loss of a few letters
Orta, Garcia de.
Dell'historia de i semplici aromati. Venice: heirs of Francesco Ziletti, 1589, 8vo, woodcut initials and illustrations, contemporary patterned paper wrapper with paper title-label attached to foot of inside front cover, manuscript fragment in binding, [Censimento 16 CNCE 40827], binding worn
Pisanelli, Baldassare. Trattato della natura de' cibi, et del bere. Treviso: Angelo Reghettini, 1611, 8vo, later boards, preliminaries repaired and misbound, lacking final leaf (blank or bound at front?)



together 4 volumes, manuscript notes in ink by Elizabeth David inserted in some volumes

Catalogue Note

Elizabeth David (1913-1992) was a seminal writer on Mediterranean cookery. She travelled widely across southern Europe in the 1940s, partly through the exigencies of war. Her first cookery book, A Book of Mediterranean Food, was published in 1950, and in 1952 she travelled across Italy doing more research which was then published in 1954. "She was hailed not only as Britain's foremost writer on food and cookery, but as the woman who had transformed the eating habits of middle-class England. To her editors she was a stickler for detail, but to her readers she was a joy. Her books and articles were filled with historical anecdote and irreverent wit" (Artemis Cooper in ODNB).

The notes in these books relate to specific foods and general comments about eating, hygiene and nourishment, and indicate that she carried out her historical research in a thorough fashion.