Dr Alex Bamji (History 1999) is an Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leeds who has contributed to revealing the fascinating and nauseating contents of the earliest-known English book about cheese.
Held by Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds, the earliest-known English book about cheese is revealing its fascinating and sometimes nauseating contents to the public for the first time. A new transcription, made by Tudor re-enactors at Kentwell Hall, is now available to read online alongside the digital version of the original handwritten manuscript.
‘A pamflyt compiled of Cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodnes, of the same’ was unpublished and unknown until it surfaced at auction in 2023 and was acquired by the University with the support of a grant from Friends of the Nation’s Libraries. The 112-page vellum-bound manuscript is thought to date from the 1580s.
“Over the last 50 years we’ve seen a great revival of English cheeses of every variety”, says food historian Peter Brears. “The ‘Pamflyt’ really shows us that we have a cheese heritage in this country.
“I’ve never seen anything like it: it’s probably the first comprehensive academic study of a single foodstuff to be written in the English language. Although cheese has formed part of our diets since prehistoric times, there was still little evidence of its character and places of production by the Tudor era. The Pamflyt shows that cheeses of different kinds were being considered, and also studied from a dietary point of view.”
Readings from the new transcription can be heard for the first time on the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme.
:: Dr Alex Bamji spoke to BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme on Saturday 19 April. Listen by clicking this sentence, and read the related article on the BBC website.
