A New System of Domestic Cookery

A new system of domestic cookery was the most famous and deservedly popular cookbook in England in the first half of the 19^th century.  First published anonymously “by a Lady” in 1806, and credited to Maria Eliza Rundell (1745-1817) only after her death, it stayed in print through more than 60 editions into the 1860s.  It was these many editions that made the fortune of the book’s publisher, John Murray, which became one of the pre-eminent firms in London (publishing, for example, all of Charles Darwin’s works).

The Smithsonian Libraries’ copy is from the personal library of the Institution’s founder, James Smithson.  The title page notes that the book cost “Seven Shillings and Sixpence in Boards,” meaning that it was sold with the printed pages sewn into a text-block with hard covers (but the buyer would still need to pay separately for a stronger and more permanent binding in leather).  Smithson’s copy remains just as issued, in plain boards.