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Tricks of the Medieval Trades. The Trinity Encyclopedia: A collection of fourteenth-century English craft recipes

An extraordinarily detailed 14th century English encyclopedic collection of instructions and recipes for a variety of craft techniques.


The anonymous Trinity Encyclopedia (translated here from Middle English for the first time) is an assemblage of unusually detailed fourteenth-century English craft recipes – collected from several individuals and 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, and various tests to check for the quality of materials, progress and completion.

Mark Clarke
Tricks of the Medieval Trades: The Trinity Encyclopedia: A collection of fourteenth-century English craft recipes
London: Archetype Publications Ltd (2018)
ISBN 978-1-909492-65-3

Order a copy: orders@archetype.co.uk


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Last updated 6 November 2021       Mark Clarke       http://www.clericus.org/TRICKS.htm