Sir Hugh Plat: The Search for Useful Knowledge in Early-modern London - Hardcover

Sir Hugh Plat (1552-1608) is remembered today for his two books, The Jewell House of Art and Nature (1594) and Delightes for Ladies (1602), but he was more than a mere occasional author, cookery writer or agricultural improver. The son of a London brewer and a lawyer by training, he spent much of his life exploring the mysteries of the world around him, his interests spanning alchemy, agriculture, gardening, cookery, cosmetics, distilling, food preservation, medicine, arms and armaments, military transport and raising rabbits in suburban surroundings. He was an inventor and adapter, a man of science in all but name. He takes his place in the community of innovators of early modern London, precursors of the age of science and reason that was about to flower.

While much quoted, Plat's life and works have been little studied for what they can tell us about his own career and his scientific and technological preoccupations. Malcolm Thick describes a man whose ideas came to be valued in the later 17th century; he explores his pioneering work on agricultural fertilizers and the recycling of the by-products of London's nascent industries; and he discusses the interface between speculative alchemy and practical invention and innovation. Sir Hugh Plat was the man who brought pasta and macaroni to the notice of the English. For that, and for much else, he should be celebrated.

Malcolm Thick is a former inspector of taxes and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. For many years he has studied the agriculture and horticulture of the 17th and 18th centuries, contributing a chapter to the Agrarian History of England and Wales, and several papers and articles on topics tanging from vegetable consumption in early modern England, to the history of cookery and Tudor military and naval victualling. His books include The Neat House Gardens, a study of early market gardening around London, and editions of William Ellis's Country Housewife's Family Companion (1750) and William Lawson's A New Orchard and Garden, with The Country Housewifes Garden (1618). Malcolm Thick lives in Oxfordshire and describes himself as a keen cook and a lousy gardener.