The military ascendency of Spain did not fail to influence the culinary civilisation of those countries to which it temporarily extended its rule; and in a Venetian work entitled “Epulario, or the Italian Banquet,” printed in 1549, we recognise the Spanish tone which had in the sixteenth century communicated itself to the cookery of the Peninsula, shewing that Charles V. and his son carried at least one art with them as an indemnity for the havoc which they committed.

The nursery rhyme of “Sing a song of sixpence” receives a singular and diverting illustration from the pages of this “Epulario,” where occurs a receipt “to make Pies that the Birds may be alive in them, and fly out when it is cut up.”  Some of the other more salient beads relate to the mode of dressing sundry dishes in the Roman and Catalonian fashion, and teach us how to seethe gourds, as they did in Spain, and to make mustard after the manner of Padua.

I propose here to register certain contributions to our acquaintance with early culinary ideas and practices, which I have not specifically described:—­

1.  The Book of Carving.  W. de Worde. 4to, 1508, 1513.  Reprinted down to 1613.

2.  A Proper New Book of Cookery. 12mo, 1546.  Often reprinted.  It is a recension of the “Book of Cookery,” 1500.

3.  The Treasury of Commodious Conceits and Hidden Secrets.  By John Partridge. 12mo, 1580, 1586; and under the title of “Treasury of Hidden Secrets,” 4to, 1596, 1600, 1637, 1653.

4.  A Book of Cookery.  Gathered by A.W. 12mo, 1584, 1591, etc.

5.  The Good Housewife’s Jewel.  By Thomas Dawson.  In two Parts, 12mo, 1585.  A copy of Part 2 of this date is in the British Museum.

6.  The Good Housewife’s Treasury. 12 mo, 1588.

7.  Cookery for all manner of Dutch Victual.  Licensed in 1590, but not otherwise known.

8.  The Good Housewife’s Handmaid for the Kitchen. 8vo, 1594.

9.  The Ladies’ Practice; or, a plain and easy direction for ladies and gentlewomen.  By John Murrell.  Licensed in 1617.  Printed in 1621, and with additions in 1638, 1641, and 1650.

10.  A Book of Cookery.  By George Crewe.  Licensed in 1623, but not known.

11.  A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen. 12mo, 1630.

12.  The Ladies’ Cabinet Opened.  By Patrick, Lord Ruthven. 4to, 1639; 8vo, 1655.

13.  A Curious Treasury of Twenty Rare Secrets.  Published by La Fountaine, an expert Operator. 4to, 1649.

14.  A New Dispensatory of Fourty Physical Receipts.  Published by Salvatore Winter of Naples, an expert Operator. 4to, 1649.  Second edition, enlarged:  same date.

The three last are rather in the class of miscellanies.

15.  Health’s Improvement; or, Rules comprising the discovering the Nature, Method, and Manner of preparing all sorts of Food used in this Nation.  By Thomas Muffet (or Moffat), M.D.  Corrected and enlarged by Christopher Bennett, M.D. 4to, 1655.