Recipes, gold and information exchange: Workshop cultures in the Early Modern metropolis

Kilburn-Toppin, Jasmine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8790-7590 2025. Recipes, gold and information exchange: Workshop cultures in the Early Modern metropolis. Weller, Toni, Black, Alistair, Mak, Bonnie and Skouvig, Laura, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Information History, London: Routledge, (10.4324/9781003310532-29)

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Abstract

This chapter explores the role of recipes and books of secrets as forms of information exchange among London goldsmiths from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth century. Focusing upon the largely unknown manuscript of goldsmith-assayer Thomas Aunsham—who spent much of his professional life at the Tower of London—the chapter uses this maker's text as a lens to explore broader themes in early modern artisanal writing and to consider the significance of information in craft and institutional cultures. Close examination and contextualisation of artisanal-authored texts reveal deep cultural and political significance. Communication of recipe information, especially relating to the investigation and transformation of precious metals, could impact profoundly on social, political, and epistemological status among goldsmiths. Recording, preserving, and sharing workshop information was a means of enhancing social standing and competing for coveted institutional roles in the early modern city. Moreover, against the backdrop of metropolitan experimental science—which encouraged active exploration into matter and nature—close observation and note-taking in workshops had heightened epistemological worth. The chapter examines the cultural valency of information for artisans, and how craftsmen were central agents in the communication and exchange of information about the natural world.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781032316079
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2025 14:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174956

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