Images of foldouts in the manuscript are included at the end of the book.
"Manuscript in black ink on paper, with occasional headings or short passages of text in reddish-brown ink, ink drawings with coloured gouaches of birds, flowers, fruits, snails, insects, leaves, fish, etc. on most pages, some related to passages in the text and others largely decorative, all in a charming folk-art style. There are also a few uncoloured drawings more explicityly illustrating the text. The text and headings are neatly written in a Ducth gothic script. Contemporary p;imp vellum, sewn on 3 vellum supports, laced through the cover.
[1], 76 II. plus 1 whole sheet folded in 4."
"A rare and interesting example of an early 17th-century Dutch recipe book, covering not only recipes for cooking and otherwise perparing foods, but also with 3 pages (leaves 58-59) devoted to mixing and darkening artists' paints (about 25 recipes, some explicityly recommended for painting plants, fruits, skin tones and other subjects0 and 32 pages of medicinal recipes. This was the dawn of the Dutch golden age, nine years after the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) [Wikipedia: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC, "United East India Company"], so herbs and spices, both culinary and medicinal, and exotic pigments were beginning to reach the Netherlands from its rapidly expanding international trade. The manuscript therefrore offers a fascinating window into this changing world and the materials it provided, when Rembrandt wouldhave been five years old. The charming coloured drawings scattered through the entire manuscript, simple folk art, enliven the text and may have made use of some of the recipes for mixing pigments. The heading for the first two of the three pages devoted to paint reads, "Om coleuron te temberen om met te schilderen" (To temper (here meaning mix) colours for painting) and that for the third page reads, "Om coleuen te diepen" (To darken colours). The ingredients mentioned include white leat, red lead, vermilion, verdigris, lake, saffron, umber, azure,indigo, turnsole, potash, "orliana" and others.
The manuscript opens with recipes for sweet pastry: "Spaens beschuyt", "beschuyt de Naples", "Beschuyt de Milan", "Macrones", etc., followed by many recipes for conserving and preserving fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, etc., making them into jellies or jams, or caonying them in order to preserve them until Christmas or longer. IT also contains many recipes for pastries and pies, some with names unknown to us, and recipes to preserve fish (herring, sprat, lobster, crab). The folding sheet gives long lists of foods that can be preserved in the form of biscuit, pies, candies, jams, etc.
The manuscript ends (leaves 61-76) with medical recipes to treat constipation, jaundice, stomach-, tooth-, eye-, and headache, deafness, inflammation, stings and bites of snakes and other animals, a general recipe to treat plague, and recipes for plasters, elixers [sic] and balms, partly made from fruits, etc.
The author, Abraham de Bous (or Bouse? a letter may have been lost after the s), is wholly unkown, but the contemporary owner's inscription (see below) suggests the manuscript might have a Sephardic Jewish origin. The manuscript colates: [A]6 [chi]1 [B]2 [C]-[F]16 [G]=77 II, plus a folded sheet (37 x 30 cm). The singleton lea [chi] does not come from the same sheet as quire B and there isno evidence that it had a conjugate leaf. The first leaf (with only the year, author's name and lengthy contemporary owner's inscription) is unnumbered and leaves 4-14 were mistakenly numbered 5-15, so that 4 is omitted and leaf 15 unnumbered. The folding sheet falls betwen leaves "13" and "14".
With 9-line contemporary owner's inscription on the recto of the first (unnumbered) leavf beginning: "desen bouck behoert toe aen de weduwe d'heer vander planche commende van maseir olleviera...." (this book belongs to the widow of Mr. Vander Planche coming from Maser Oliveira?). Further with the ca. 1890 bookplate of Jean Baptista Vervliet, Antwerp bibliophile, author, and editor of la presse universelle. Generally in good condition, somewhat frayed and with occasional marginal chips or minor tears, the firstr and last few pages dirty and slightly stained, some of the reddish-brown ink slightly faded but still easily readable. BInding soiled and slightly curled, with a couple chips in the spine."
Measurements: 19.25 cm x 17 cm
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A448935/datastre...
