www.pickeringchatto.

com/tavern

Public Drinking in the Early

Modern World: Voices from the Tavern,
1500–1800
General Editor: Thomas E Brennan
Volume Editors: James Brown, David Hancock, Beat Kümin, Michelle McDonald and B Ann Tlusty
5 Volume Set: c.2000pp: April 2011
978 1 85196 284 6: 234x156mm: £450/$795

The public drinking house provides a unique

vantage point for studying the evolution of the state
and its relationship to individuals and families.
It allows us to examine patterns of consumption,
conviviality, crime, social control, gender, families
and popular culture.
This five-volume reset edition presents a vast array
of primary resources from a wide geographical
and chronological spread. Split into four sections,
the edition exposes the history of drinking in the
following locations: France, England, the Holy
Roman Empire and America. Documents include
police reports, public records, written accounts of
social gatherings, legal regulations, travel reports
‘Gin Lane’ by William Hogarth
and medical literature. While the geographical
(Originally 1751; this re-engraving 1807 by Samuel Davenport)
spread of these materials allows for extensive
comparative analysis, sources are focused and
illuminate revealing episodes within each region’s
history. • Full editorial apparatus: general introduction,
Nearly all of the sources in this collection have headnotes, endnotes and volume introductions
not been published before. The edition provides •D
 raws on a wide variety of sources including
new transcriptions taken from a wide variety of previously unpublished archival documents
archives throughout Europe and North America. A transcribed by the editors
significant number are also translated into English
for the first time enabling extensive new research • All documents translated into English
and analysis. It will be of particular interest to
•C
 onsolidated index in the final volume
social and economic historians, as well as those
engaged in the emerging fields of the history of •A
 rchives include the National Archive at Kew, the
consumption and material culture. City Archive of Augsburg, the Archives Nationales
and the archives of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania
 www.pickeringchatto.com/tavern
Indicative contents:
Volume 1: France
The sources in this volume are from the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries and drawn from a range of police and
public archives. The police archives, found at the Archives
Nationales, include three main kinds of records: the
reports of inspections and rounds by the guard and night
watch, the formal complaints made by citizens and the
cases that were judged by one of several courts. Documents
also include regulations and edicts, as well as works by
lawyers and travellers that offer a vision of tavern culture,
often in disapproving terms.
The Purveyance of Drink: Dalibray, The Auberge
(1653)*; Lister, Journey to Paris in the Year 1698 (1699)*;
Nemeitz, Stays in Paris (1727)*; Mercier, Tableau de Paris
(1782)*; Andrews, Letters to a young gentleman on his
setting out to France (1784)*; Dulaure, New Descriptions
of Parisian Curiosities (1787)*. Regulatory Regimes:
Police ordinance against gambling in cafes (1699)*;
Interrogation of drunk insulting the King (1751)*; Parents
have daughter arrested for carousing in taverns (1761)*;
Police report about carousing in rural taverns (1770)*;
Freminville, Dictionnaire ou Trait de la Police (1771)*.
Publicans and the Public: Tavern keeper refuses to
serve women (1701)*; Brandy seller fights with customers
(1741)*; Complaint against a customer trying to debauch
the tavern keeper’s wife (1741)*; Complaint about insulting
drawings in a tavern (1751)*; Dispute over tavern bill
(1753)*; Complaint against tavern keeper over food (1761)*;
Business arrangements amongst wine merchants (1761)*.
Violence and Honour: Complaint about drinking toasts
to insult someone’s wife (1691)*; Tavern keepers complain
against a customer who regularly causes a disruption
(1711)*; Complaint against customer urinating in another
customer’s hat (1741)*; Complaint against aristocrats
attacking commoners in a cafe (1761)*; Brawl among stone
cutters (1761); Fight in a rural tavern (1770)*; Slander by a
guild colleague (1771)*. Customers and Customs: Fight
over singing dirty songs in a tavern with women present
(1711)*; A testimony about friends conducting business
(1751)*; Guild officials meet in tavern to settle dispute
(1751)*; A soldiers’ brawl terrifies a neighborhood (1761)*;
Complaint and testimony about a brawl provoked by a
dance (1791)*. Family and Gender: Police report beer
seller harbouring prostitutes (1724)*; Testimony about a
drunk female customer (1751)*; Husband’s complaint about
his wife’s debauchery (1752)*; Witness describes hearing
a woman in a cab confess to murdering someone (1752)*;
Fight among female customers (1761)*; Complaint by a
customer robbed by prostitutes (1761)*.
* Indicates that a text has been translated into English
Volumes 2 and 3: The Holy Roman Empire
These volumes present a range of sources from the fifteenth
to eighteenth centuries. Most of the documents derive
from state and city archives, including those of Augsburg,
Bern and Munich. Selections include court documents,
legislative and administrative sources, documents relating
to specific establishments and publicans and reflections
in literary texts of the period (travel reports, chronicles,
moral tracts, sermons, carnival plays), as well as a small
collection of visual records.
Imperial and Territorial Authorities: Imperial Police
Ordinance (1530)*; Extracts from official registers of public
houses in Zurich, Bavaria and Bern (1530, 1580, 1789)*;
Recesses of the Swiss Diet (16th and 17th centuries)*;
Public house ordinances by the Council of Bern (1628)
and the Bavarian Elector (1631)*; Regulations for the Pays
de Vaud region (1730)*. Ecclesiastical Authorities:
Reformation-related debates in public houses (flysheets
from the 1520s)*; Measures to promote godly behaviour
taken by the Reformed Council of Bern (1530)*; Attack
on excess drink by Eberhardt Weydensee, State Library
of Augsburg (c. 1540)*; Clerical concerns about the
high number of public houses, Vaud (1786)*. Local
Authorities: Augsburg Council bans alms recipients
from visiting taverns (1542)*; Brandy legislation by the
Council of Nuremberg (1567)*; Wartime decree on moral
behavior by the Council of Nördlingen (1631)*; Extracts
from Bavarian customary law and the Collection of Swiss
Legal Sources (15–18th centuries)*; Licensing documents
(for various inns and bathing houses, 1454–1784)*;
Ordinance of the publicans’ guild at Villingen (1668)*;
Wine tax records of the city of Bern (1688)*; Publicans’
manorial dues in the district of Dachau, Bavarian State
Archive (1750)*. Travel Reports: Waldheim, Hans,
Welti (1474)*; De Beatis, Antonio, Pastor (1517)*; Stumpf,
Escher (1544)*. Travel Manuals and Conduct
Literature: Lehmann, Peter Ambrosius, Die vornehmsten
europäischen Reisen (1703)*; Freiherr von Knigge, Adolph,
Über den Umgang mit Menschen (1790)*; de Genlis,
Stéphanie-Félicité, Manuel du Voyageur ou recueil de
dialogues, de lettres etc. suivi d’un itinéraire raisonné
à l’usage des François en Allemagne et des Allemands
en France (1799)*. Diaries and Autobiographies:
Butzbach, Odeporicon (1506)*; Platter, Thomas,
Lebensbeschreibung (16th century)*; Weiss, Johann,
Family archive (1615)*; Preis, Caspar, Bauernleben im
Zeitalter des Dreissigjährigen Krieges: Die Stausebacher
Chronik des Caspar Preis (1636–67)*. Drama, Comedy
and Novels: Sample tavern-pranks from Eulenspiegel’s
Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von dil Ulenspiegel (1515)*; Hans
Rudolf Manuel, ‘Das Weinspiel [1548]’ (carnival play set in
tavern)*; Grimmelshausen’s short stories, novels, e.g. Das
wunderbarliche Vogelnest, pt 1 (1672)*; Lessing, Minna
von Barnhelm (1763)*. Moral and Medical Literature:
Wolff, Johannes, Beichtbüchlein (1478)*; Fries, Lorenz,
Spiegel der Arzney (1532)*; Brunschwick, Hieronymous,
 www.pickeringchatto.com/tavern
Das Buch zu Distilieren (1532)*; Friderich, Matthäus,
The Devil of Drink (1557)*; Hippolytus Guarinonius, The
Devastation of the Human Race (1610). Other Genres:
The Emperor forbids toasting, State Library of Augsburg
(1559)*; Making a joke of the Emperor’s speech against
toasting (ibid., 1559)*; Satirical descriptions of Swiss public
houses by Hans Franz Veiras (1658)*. Publicans, Staff
and Premises: Entries from an early account book kept
by a Bernese innkeeper (1400)*; Selection of oaths for
civic employees involved in alcohol trade, City Archive of
Augsburg (1584)*; Oaths taken by Swiss publicans (1617)*;
Dealings of the Swiss Diet relating to publicans’ offences
(16-17th centuries)*; Beer tapsters in the Bavarian town of
Dachau (1650)*; Portraits of the Weiss postmaster dynasty
at Bruck/Bavaria (17-18th centuries)*; Building contract
for a new inn at Spiez, State Archives of Bern (1743)*;
Problems of publican elections in the Bernese Simmental
(ibid., 1786)*; Trading card of a Stuttgart inn (c.1800)*.
Food, Drink and Services: Regulations of inn meals at
Signau/Emmental (1517)*; Sharing methods for limiting
the cost of wine, City Archive of Augsburg (1544)*; A
professional card shark describes a sting (ibid., 1655)*;
Descriptions of public house cuisine and services in early
modern travel reports (1719)*; Concerns about negligent
Bernese innkeepers (1716)*. Patrons: Publican punished
for serving beggars in his public house, State Archive of
Augsburg (1533)*; Clergymen taking concubines to public
houses, Collection of Swiss Legal Sources (1555)*; Slipping
out without paying the tab dishonours the craft, City
Archive of Augsburg (1593)*; Women provoking man to
exposure at a rural Bernese inn, Neuenegg Village Archive
(1663)*; Town gate registers recording travellers’ choice
of inns, State Archives of Bern (1791-95)*; Public houses
attracting lower social groups, Bavarian State Archive
(1806)*. Sociability and Rituals: Concerns voiced by
the Swiss Diet over the haunting of public houses (1551)*;
Drinking of a settlement by a group of alms recipients,
City Archive of Augsburg (1590)*; Conrad Melder, who
swore on a glass of wine to kill an adversary (1594)*; Guild
assemblies in the rural public house of Neuenegg (1665)*.
Violence and Disorder: Interrogation of Lucas Speler
for fight with innkeeper, City Archive of Augsburg (1591)*;
Fight over refusal to drink with colleague (1593)*; Tavern-
related offences by publicans and patrons in the consistory
court records of Neuenegg (late 17th century)*; Publican
of disorderly house refusing to swear an oath to the
authorities, State Archives of Bern (1715)*. Politics and
the Public Sphere: Instructions to publicans to prevent
peasant risings (Strasbourg, 1500)*; Concern about high
inn bills incurred by officials of the Swiss Confederation
(1532)*; Publicans as sources of military information for
the Swiss Diet (1604)*; Court assemblies in Bernese rural
inns (1471-1671)*; Secret tavern-assemblies by the burghers
of Laupen, State Archives of Bern (1663)*; Enlightenment
sociability at Wädenswil/Zurich (late 18th century)*;
Closure of public house to prevent electioneering in a Swiss
dominion (1793)*.
Volume 4: America
This volume compares taverns and their social, economic,
and cultural significance across Anglo-America, including
Canada, North America and the West Indies from the early
seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. The
material selected offers insight into inns, coffeehouses
and ordinaries. Material includes newspaper articles, legal
documents, account books and engravings.
Structure and Material Life: Charles County Platt
Map, depicting tavern and adjacent courthouse and road
systems, Maryland Historical Society (1697); Probate
Inventory for George Emlen, proprietor of the Three Tuns
Tavern, Philadelphia, Philadelphia City Archives (1711);
Broadside announcing Gray’s Ferry Tavern, Schuylkill,
American Antiquarian Society Broadside Collection
(1789); Joseph Townsend, Historical Sketch of Turks
Head Tavern, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1800).
Legal Control over Taverns: Rebeckah Lee, ‘Pardon
for Fetching a Drink for an Indian Squaw’, Edward E Ayer
Collection, Newberry Library (1684); Decisions from
Philadelphia County Court of Quarter Sessions, Grand
Jury Presentments, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
(1716-1720); The Colonial Laws of New York from the
Year 1664 to the Revolution, vol. 1 (1894). Proprietors,
Employees, and Patrons: Listing of Approved
Tavern Licenses, The South-Carolina Gazette (1763);
Philadelphia Constables Reports listing all tavern and
dram shop owners listing servants and slaves, Philadelphia
City Archives (1762, 1770, and 1775); Apprenticeship
Contract, John Wolf bound to Thomas Allen, American
Antiquarian Society (1772) Business, Commercial,
and Economic Functions: James West and Gregory
Marlow, Philadelphia, PA, Accountbook, 1690–1703,
Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Notice of the opening
of Prince of Orange Tavern (Baltimore, MD), Maryland
Journal (1785); Joseph Ogden, Philadelphia, Accountbook
of Tavern, Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1769–71.
Social, Cultural, and Political Functions: ‘An
Essay on Conversation’, describing socializing in taverns,
American Weekly Mercury (1730); For Thomas Mushett:
notice of new outdoor eating space, Pennsylvania Gazette
(1773); Toasts to the French Revolution, Dinkin’s Tavern
(Columbia, South Carolina), City Gazette and Daily
Advertiser (1794). Religious and Social Commentary
on Taverns: Sermons by Increase and Cotton Mather,
Samuel Danforth, and Nathanael Emmons decrying
increasing patronage of taverns (1673, 1679, and 1704);
editorial ostensibly by a woman in response to an article
about taverns’ frivolous nature decrying them as men’s
downfall, New-England Courant (1721); ‘Advice of Dr.
Bayhard to his Godson: Pass by a Tavern-Door, my Son’,
Weekly Rehearsal (Boston) (1735); Commentary on ‘An
Ordinance for the Better Observance of the Lord’s Day’,
South Carolina Weekly Gazette (1783).
 Volume 5: England
Sources in this volume include administrative, judicial and
probate records (drawn predominantly from the National
Archives (NA), Hampshire Record Office (HRO) and the
Southampton City Record Office (SRO)). Moving beyond
literary sources and representative economies, across nine
thematic chapters the volume presents a wide range of
previously unpublished manuscript material drawn from
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Regulation: Order stipulating opening times and
prohibiting games, SRO (1550); An Act to Avoid the
Excessive Price of Wine, State Papers (1553); Order
prohibiting unlicensed alehouse-keeping, SRO (1657).
Locations, Premises, and Material Cultures:
Complaint about brewers’ iron-bound cards, SRO (1562);
Description of The Crown inn, NA (1651); Lease of The
Globe inn to William Manners, SRO (1744). Publicans
and Servants: Order prohibiting Hugh Emery and John
Manfield from retailing ale, SRO (1571); Complaint about
tapsters paying for the privilege of operating tap-rooms,
SRO (1580); Will of John Sedgwick, NA (1604). Drink,
Food and Lodgings: Orders prohibiting the manufacture
of double beer, SRO (1557); Order reducing the price of
beer, SRO (1591); Copy of bill from The Dolphin inn, SRO
(1642). Entertainment, Politics, and News: Complaint
about disorderly games at the King’s Orchard, SRO (1579);
Description of the arrival of the Moroccan ambassador at
The Dolphin inn, SRO (1638); Complaint about ninepins
in Jenkin Hues’s alehouse, SRO (1666). Trade and
Related title
Tea and the Tea-Table in Eighteenth-Century England
General Editor: Markman Ellis
This four-volume, reset collection takes as its starting point the earliest substantial descriptions of tea
as a commodity in the mid-seventeenth century, and ends in the early nineteenth century with two key
events: the discovery of tea plants in Assam in 1823, and the dissolution of the East India Company’s
monopoly on the tea trade in 1833.
4 Volume Set: 1424pp: July 2010
978 1 84893 025 4: 234x156mm: £350/$625
www.pickeringchatto.com/tea
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Revenue: Brewer licensed to sell beer in exchange for
receiving a town’s child, SRO (1609), Poor widow ‘tolerated’
to sell beer and ale without licence, SRO (1619); Complaint
about stranger selling goods from The Crown inn, SRO
(1649). Sociability, Honour, and Masculine Identity:
Presentation of three French townsmen for fighting in
a tavern, SRO (1609); Defamation: Benjamin Stone vs.
Richard Gager, HRO (1711); Examinations of Dorothy Small
and Abigail Galley, SRO (1664). Female Drinking, Sex,
and the Household: Complaint against innholder for
permitting young couples to drink, SRO (1662); Information
of Jane Loney, SRO (1653); Defamation: Mary Cooper
vs. Henry Lee, HRO (1704). Unsavoury Patrons and
Crime: Complaint about Christopher Ubbley’s ‘evil rule’
at his alehouse, SRO (1613); Examinations of William and
Margaret Jennings, SRO (1650); Information of Elizabeth
Wells, SRO (1741).
Editorial Board
Thomas E Brennan is at the United States
Naval Academy
James Brown is at Oxford University
David Hancock is at the University of Michigan
Beat Kümin is at the University of Warwick
Michelle McDonald is at the Richard Stockton
College of New Jersey
B Ann Tlusty is at Bucknell University
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