Print Conventions and Authority in Three English Recipe Manuscripts

Abstract This article considers the uses of stylistic and visual conventions drawn from print books in three seventeenth‐ and eighteenth‐century recipe manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania. We begin by analysing the title page, dedicatory epistle, catchwords, and headers of MS Codex 627, which imitates an edition of Hugh Plat's Delights for Ladies without reproducing the contents of this popular print text. These features evoke the authority of print while retaining the flexibility and personal character of manuscript recipe books. We then consider the title of MS Codex 251, which synthesizes print title conventions to emphasize the novelty, volume, and variety of its contents. Its creator, Mary Statham, also claims altruistic motives in a manner common among print texts. Our third case study, MS Codex 625, is a copy of Edward Kidder's culinary recipes with a print title page, which we compare to Kidder's engraved edition of these recipes. Both texts combine print and manuscript conventions to enhance Kidder's authority, aligning his recipes with the valued familial knowledge of domestic manuscripts while emphasizing his importance as sole author. Finally, we address the continuing transformations of conventions across media and their relationships to authority via a twentieth‐century edition of Kidder's Receipts .