[Cookery:] Galateo; Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners: From the Italian of Monsig. Giovanni de la Casa, Arch Bishop of Benevento. Also, the Honours of the Table. With the Whole Art of Carving; Illustrated with a variety of cuts Giovanni Della Casa ; [John Trusler] Baltimore Imprints,Catholica,Culinary History,Etiquette,Food & Drink

Baltimore: Printed for George Hill. B. Edes, Printer, 1811. 24mo (approx. 6 x 3¾ inches). xiii, [2], [15] 274 pp. Contemporary full sheep, spine with fragment of black morocco label ("GALA "). Spine chipped and perished with losses at head and foot, boards heavily worn; joints cracked but holding. Text block sound and complete. A well-handled, unsophisticated copy in original condition. First American edition of this hybrid manual of conduct and culinary instruction, blending the Florentine cleric Giovanni Della Casa s influential courtesy treatise Il Galateo with a richly illustrated American adaptation of John Trusler s The Honours of the Table. Originally published in the 1550s, Della Casa s work shaped Renaissance and Elizabethan ideals of decorum, manners, and etiquette. This American version adds a distinctly domestic lens: an extensive preface by the anonymous translator, sections aimed at women and children, and practical guidance on table manners and household provisioning. An extended section on carving, and issued with a separate title page (pp. 155 263), features over twenty-five woodcut illustrations and offers detailed instructions for carving fish, fowl, poultry, meat, and game. This text is noted by Cagle and Stafford as "the first American edition of John Trusler s The Honours of the Table originally published in Engliand (London, 1788)." The final leaves continue the book s instructional tone with short moral lessons and behavioral advice for children (pp. 264 271) and "Instructions peculiarly adapted to young women." (pp. 272 274) This Baltimore edition is cited in Finotti s Bibliographia Catholica Americana (1872) and suggests early American efforts to adapt European Catholic texts for a republican audience. Its printing in Baltimore, a national center of Catholic life, highlights the city s influence on Catholic publishing in the early United States. Shaw and Shoemaker 22485. Lincoln, p. 104 (AAS only). Lowenstein 50. p.300. Cagle & Stafford 214. Bibliographia Catholica Americana (1872).