Selected Special Collections

Katherine Golden Bitting Collection

Publications and manuscripts on gastronomy, fifteenth through twentieth centuries

Between 1939 and 1944 Dr. Arvill Wayne Bitting presented to the Library of Congress the 4,346-volume gastronomic collection assembled by his wife, Katherine Golden Bitting (1868-1937), food chemist for the Department of Agriculture and the American Canners Association and author of nearly fifty pamphlets and articles on food preservation and related topics. To facilitate her investigations, as the Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress (1940) states, she collected "materials on the sources, preparation, and consumption of foods, their chemistry, batereriology, preservations, etc., from earliest times to the present day." The Bitting Collection containing numerous English and American publications on food preparation from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and a sampling of notable French, German, and Italian works. American regional cooking is well-documented. The treasure of the collection is a mid-fifteenth century Italian manuscript entitled "Libro de arte coquinaria" of Maestro Martino which was a source for the earliest printed cookbook, Platina's De Honesta Voluptate (ca. 1475). Leonard N. Beck discusses the manuscript in his article "Praise Is Due Bartolomeo Platine: A Note on the Librarian Author of the First Cookbook" in QJLC, V.32 July 1975, p. 238-253

Digitized Materials From the John Davis Batchelder Collection

	A Christmas Carol / By Charles Dickens; With Illustrations by A. C. Michael. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, [1911]. Page Turner - PDF (50.24MB) Bibliographic Information
	A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway. London; New York: F. Warne, [1900]. Page Turner - PDF (8.14MB) Bibliographic Information
	Audot, L.-E. (Louis-Eustache), 1783-1870. Bréviaire du gastronome utile et récréatif,. Paris, Audot [18-]. Page Turner - PDF (98.2 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Beck, Leonard. Two loaf-givers : or a tour through the gastronomic libraries of Katherine Golden Bitting and Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Page Turner - PDF (69.1 MB) Bibliographic Information
	Bitting, Katherine Golden. Gastronomic bibliography. Page Turner - PDF (257 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Bradley, Richard, 1688-1732. The country housewife and lady's director. Dublin, Printed by J. Watts, 1727. Page Turner - PDF (156.4 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Briand. Dictionnaire des alimens, vins et liqueurs. Volume 1: Page Turner - PDF (220 MB) Volume 2: Page Turner - PDF (223.2 MB) Volume 3: Page Turner - PDF (212.1 MB) Bibliographic Information
	Brisse, Leon, baron, 1813-1876. Le calendrier gastronomique pour l’anneé 1867 : les 365 menus du baron Brisse : un menu par jour. Paris : Bureaux de la Liberté, 1867. Page Turner - PDF (129.7 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	The British jewel; or, Complete housewife's best companion ... London, Printed and sold by J. Miller, 1769. Page Turner - PDF (28.6 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Berchoux, J. de (Joseph), 1762-1838. La gastronomie; ou, L’homme des champs à table, pour servir de suite à L’homme des champs, par J. Delille. Page Turner - PDF (55.3 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Buc’hoz, Pierre-Joseph, 1731-1807. Dissertation sur le cacao. À Paris, chez F. J. Desoer, 1787. Page Turner - PDF (39.2 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Buc’hoz, Pierre-Joseph, 1731-1807. Dissertation sur le café. À Paris, chez F. J. Desoer, 1787. Page Turner - PDF (29.5 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Compleat Cook. London, 1656. Page Turner - PDF (197.1 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Dallas, E. S. (Eneas Sweetland), 1828-1879. Kettner's book of the table. Page Turner - PDF (168.1 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol; With Illustrations by A. C. Michael. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, [1911]. Page Turner - PDF (50.24MB) Bibliographic Information
	Dumas, François Guillaume. Almanach des gourmands pour 1862. Paris, Librairie Nilsson. Page Turner - PDF (96.5 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Elyot, Thomas, Sir, 1490?-1546. Castel of Helth. Page Turner - PDF (90.6 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	[Fayot, Alfred Charles Frédéric], 1797-1861, [from old catalog] ed. Les classiques de la table. Paris, Au Dépôt, Dentu; [etc., etc.] 1843. Page Turner - PDF (224.2 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	French, John, 1616-1657. Art of Distillation. Page Turner - PDF (126.5 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	García de la Leña, Cecilio, 1726-1793. Recomendacion y Defensa del Famoso Vino Malagueño Pero Ximen y Modo de Formarlo ... Malaga: ... por Luis de Carreras ..., año 1792. Page Turner - PDF (64 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Gerard, John. The herball: or, Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde ... very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson ... Page Turner - Bibliographic Information
	Hayward, A. (Abraham), 1801-1884. Art of dining; or, Gastronomy and gastronomers. London, J. Murray, 1853. Page Turner - PDF (86.2 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	A Lyon, A Lescu de Coloigne, 1541. Bastiment de receptes. A Lyon, A Lescu de Coloigne, 1541. Page Turner - PDF (50.7 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Lebas, J. Festin joyeaux, ou, La cuisine en musique, en vers libres ... Paris, 1738. Page Turner - PDF (135.9 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Lémery, Nicolas, 1645-1715. Le Nouveau Recueil de Curiositez Rares & Nouvelles des Plus Admirables Effets de la Nature & de l’art À Leide: Chez Pierre Vander Aa ..., 1685. Page Turner - PDF (275 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Markham, Gervase, 1568?-1637. English House-wife. Page Turner - PDF (100 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Opsopäus, Vincentius. De arte bibendi Lvgd. Batav., 1648. Page Turner - PDF (163 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Quentin, Pierre. L'art de conserver et d'employer les fruits : contenant tous les procédés les plus économiques pour les confire et pour composer les liqueurs, sirops, glaces, boissons de ménage, etc. : pour faire suite à La cuisinière de la campagne et de la ville. Paris : Audot, 1823. Page Turner - PDF (62.4 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Rude, Maxime. Tout-Paris au café. Page Turner - PDF (65 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Ruscelli, Girolamo, d. ca. 1565. The Secretes of the Reverende Mayster Alexis of Piemount: Conteinyng Many Excelle[n]t Remedies Agaynst Dyuers Diseases, Woundes, and Other Accidentes ..., Londini: [Henry Sutton], anno à virgineo partu 1559, 12 die mens. Nouemb. Page Turner - PDF (162.06) - Bibliographic Information
	Soyer, Alexis, 1809-1858. Soyer's culinary campaign. Being historical reminiscences of the late war. With the plain wit of cookery for military and civil institutions the army, navy, public, etc. etc. By Alexis Soyer ... Page Turner - PDF (244.5 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Tellier, Ch. (Charles), 1828-1913. Conservation de la viande et des matières organiques alimentaires par des moyens naturels. Paris : H. Dunod et E. Pinat, 1913. Page Turner - PDF (10.7 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Tryon, Thomas, 1634-1703. Treatise of cleanness in meats and drinks... Page Turner - PDF (15.45 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Warner, Richard, 1763-1857. Antiquitates culinariae, or, Curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the old English, with a preliminary discourse, notes, and illustrations. London : Printed for R. Blamire ..., 1791. Page Turner - PDF (65.2 MB) - Bibliographic Information