Tricks of the Medieval Trades: The Trinity Encyclopedia, a Collection of Fourteenth Century English Craft Recipes

The anonymous Trinity Encyclopedia (translated here from Middle English for the first time) is a collection of unusually detailed 14th century English craft recipes, collected from several individuals and from a number of written sources, for manufacturing pigments, dyeing, preparing skins and furs, imitating expensive imported leathers, counterfeiting semi-precious materials, ‘multiplying’ (adulterating) verdigris, and for making soaps and confectionery. In many cases, the recipes attempt to codify and make explicit the practical knowledge of the craftsmen, conveying it by means of tips, clues, indicators of progress, tests for quality of materials, tests for progress, and tests for completion. Contents: List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; The technical content: overview and highlights; The Trinity Encyclopedia as a source of lost technical vocabulary; The manuscripts; Composition and compilation: the typology of the recipes and their sources; Author, title and date; Purpose and audience; As the manner is; The Trinity Encyclopedia in context: craft recipes in medieval England; Principles of the translation; Tools and equipment; The Trinity Encyclopedia: Translation; Appendix 1 London, British Library, MS Sloane 73 (MS S): contents, concordance, additional recipes; Appendix II Typology of the recipes; Appendix III Earlier studies; Appendix IV Revisions to the Early English Text Society edition of the Trinity Encyclopedia; Glossary; Bibliography.