A Project to Build an Online Library of Historical Culinary Texts

A project has recently been begun to build a freely accessible, online library of historical culinary texts. This long-term project will include downloadable image and text files, a searchable recipe database, an online glossary of historical culinary terms, English translations, links to adapted recipes, commentary, etc. Works to be included date from earliest times to the year 1700. This project was started in response to the inaccessibility of original source material to the general public, due both to the esoteric nature of the material, and to any restrictions placed on the original items by holding archives, collections, and libraries. Our site will be open without fee to all researchers regardless of academic or professional affiliation. Making early works digitally available on the Internet not only preserves the original documents, but also allows more people to view the documents, and to manipulate the data without damaging the fragile originals.  A growing list of culinary titles is currently freely available on the Internet. Several website owners, working independently, have made available more than 50 cookbooks dating from Roman times to the Renaissance, in various languages and in a variety of formats. However, these translations, transcriptions, and digitized images:

• are taken from both primary and secondary sources,
• are increasingly duplications of works already online,
• lack proofreading and peer review,
• are not searchable,
• are not indexed,
• are not available as facsimile image files with transcriptions and/or translations.

It is our intention to reduce duplication of effort through a systematic, coordinated, voluntary program of scanning, transcription, encoding, proofreading, and translation. The ultimate goal of this effort is to weave these and many more works into one synergistic, online, reference library of historical culinary texts that will be of use not only to culinary historians, but cross-disciplinarily to Language Studies departments, Literature, History, English, and Medieval Studies-departments, and so forth.  Progress to-date includes the formation of a discussion group, construction of an online glossary of historic culinary terms, a listing of online cookbooks, and a list of works-in-progress. The project has attracted a core group of people who are technically proficient in a variety of fields, such as database construction, library science, culinary history, etc.  Unresolved key issues include coding, packaging for users, and copyright concerns. The group welcomes input from others who are engaged in similar projects.