How to Behave in Public, 1663
It is a point of cleanliness, and of wholsomness, to wash ones hands and face as soon as one is up…
17th century
How to Dye Your Hair Black, 1650
How to make Red, or Gray haire, black…
How to Avoid the Plague, 1630
There be some, who thinke it a great preservative against the pestilent Aire to keepe a Goat in their houses…
How to Pest-Proof Your House, 1639
To repel flies, spiders, scorpions, and other animals…
How to Spend July, 1612
In July. Now arrives the Sommers Solstice…
How to Choose Tinted Glasses, 1653
Of Spectacles of pleasure. Simple Spectacles of blew, yellow, red…
How to Prevent Drunkenness, 1612
Shew me a way how a man may drinke much wine and yet not be drunke…
How to Prepare a Humble Feast, 1638
Now for a more humble feast, or an ordinary proportion…
How to Spend October, 1612
In October… Arme your body soundly with pleasant wines or spiced drinks…
How to Watch an Eclipse Safely, 1579 and 1658
Whosoever desyres to see the Sun eclipsed without hurting their eyes…
How to Beautify Your Face, 1660
An ointment that takes away all Bunchings and Speckles of the face…
How to Make Fireworks, 1633
Of the making of Rockets and other Fireworkes. For the making of Rockets of sundry kinds…
How to Interpret Dreams, 1698
To dream that you have your Arm dried up, is very unfortunate…
How to Study, 1636
The best time for studie is early in the morning…
How to Care For Your Teeth, 1613
To keepe and preserve the teeth cleane. First if they bee very yellow and filthie…
How to Express Your Feelings, 1689
Expressions of Love and Friendship of Men towards Men…
How to Encrypt a Message, 1641
The second way of secrecy in speech, is by an alteration of any knowne language…
How to Interpret Small Hands, 1651
The hands very short, doth signifie a gross and rude person…
How to Cure Congestion, 1682
For a Cold and stuffing in the Head, to draw Rheum from the Head…
How to Cure a Stuffy Nose, 1658
If any man shall but touch or kiss with hismouth the snowt or nostrils of a Mouse…
How to Have a Healthy Summer, 1656
The regiment for the time of Summer, June, July, and August…
How to Dye Your Hair Blonde, 1650
How to make ones haire to become of a yellow Golden Colour…
How to Stop Sneezing, 1680
To stay the sneezing scratch the Soles of the Feet…
How to Give Up Wine, 1658
There are many who when they have drank much Wine, that is the worst…
How to Plan for Snow, 1600
Now the daies are shortened, & the nights prolonged, winds are sharp…
How to Cure a Cough, 1651
And a little Frog climbing up a tree, if any one shall spit in his mouth…
How to Eat in Autumn, 1600
Autumne beginneth, when the sunne entreth the first degree of Libra…
How to Get Rid of Stinging Insects, 1633
Francesco Stelluti, Persio (1630) University of Oklahoma
How to Use Chocolate, 1672
It revives the drooping spirits, and chears those that are ready to faint…
How to Grow Eggplants, 1616
Manie men being verie desirous to adorne and set forth their Garden…
How to Deodorize, 1605
We will here discouer and discourse of the lothsome stench of the armepits…
How to Run, 1657
Swift motion, renders the body thin and compacted. Slow motion…
How to Avoid Bad Weather, 1660
Whosoever are defended by a skin of a River Horse called Hippotamus, are never touched by the Thunder…
How to Care for Your Dog, 1607
It is the nature of a Dogge when he maketh water, to holde vp his legge…
How to Have Long-Lasting Shoes, 1660
To be at small charges for Shooes, you may have the best, and almost everlasting…
How to Cure Bad Breath, 1664
The Breathing is faulty when it stinketh. As when the Breath smells of Excrements…
How to Grow Hair, 1660
Of Ointments to restore the Hair… The shells of Sea Hedge-hogs burnt…
How to Stop Sneezing, 1664
In Neesing, there is a sudden sending forth of Air…
How to Be a Serious Actor, 1699
Laughing on stage at the wrong time is a defect…
How to Fake a Nose Injury, 1635
How to seeme to cut ones nose halfe off. For the effecting of this feate…
How to Schedule Your Child, 1695
As soon as they are up in the Morning, they shall spend one Hour in Reading…
How to Whiten Your Teeth, 1607
The horne of an Vnicorne being beaten and boyled in wine…
How to Cure Stomach Pain, 1697
If you apply a living duck, the feathers being pulled off behind, to the Stomach…
How to Maintain Facial Hair, 1609
John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis (1650)
How to Cure Tooth Problems, 1673
Take the Powder of double refined Sugar, and Powder of White Pepper of each alike…
How to Play with a Cat, 1658
How to make dainty sport with a Cat…
How to Settle Your Stomach, 1695
The Oyl of Wormwood by Decoction, Oyl of Quinces, and Oyl of Mastich…
How to Eat at Sea, 1607
A cheape, fresh and lasting victuall, called by the name of Macaroni amongst the Italians…
How to Improve Hearing, 1658
For to make a man hear. Take a red Onion and pick out the top…
How to Prevent Sunburn, 1665
To keep the face from Sunburn, you had best wash with water drawn from the whites of eggs…
How to Eat a Peach, 1693
The excellency of peaches… further appears when we cut a Peach with the Knife…
How to Mouse-Proof Your Cheese, 1649
How to make a Receit, that neither Rat nor Mouse shall eat or gnaw of your Cheese…
How to Dress a Wound, 1653
To stanch the bleeding of a Wound. Take a Hounds Turd…
How to Spit, 1651
Spet not farre off thee, nor behinde thee, but aside, a little distant…
How to Send a Secret Message, 1677
Now we will teach the techniques for writing on various objects…
How to Nap, 1607
If R be in the month, their judgements erre, That thinke that sleepe in afternoone is good…
How to Know if You’re Pregnant, 1684
The women are troubled with nauseating and loathing of their meat…
How to Eat Bread, 1634
Bread that commeth hote from the Oven is unwholesome…
How to Wake or Sleep, 1685
To make one wake or sleep. You must cut dexterously the Head of a Toad, alive…
How to Make Snail Bread, 1685
A sort of Bread, of which a Mouthful can maintain a Man eight daies…
How to Wear Platform Shoes, 1600
Now in order to walk nicely, and to wear chopines properly on one’s feet, so that they do not twist…
How to Cure Gas, 1685
Against the Wind in the Belly. Apply a living Tench to the Patients Navel…
How to Break Up a Party, 1659
A fine Conceit, to clear a Room of drunken, or rude company…
How to Sweet Talk Your Lady, 1656
Instructions for Lovers, teaching them, how to demean themselves towards their Sweet-hearts…
How to Speak French, 1694
Que faites vous? What do you do?…
How to Discuss Meat Carving, 1673
In cutting up all manner of small Birds, it is proper to say, Thigh them…
How to Make a Rainbow, 1633
The Rainebow is a thing admirable in the world, which ravisheth often the eyes and spirits of men…
How to Make Fake Bacon, 1687
To make Frayse appear like Rashers of Bacon. Take of fine Flowre half a peck…
How to Prevent Drunkenness, 1653
How to prevent drunkenness. Drink first a good large draught of Sallet Oyl…
How to Stockpile Lobsters, 1660
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Still Life with Lobster (1781)
How to Invite a Man Home, 1642
To invite one home. Sir, I have often desired your company at home…
How to Make Cock Ale, 1697
To make Cock-Ale. Take nine Gallons of Ale, and let it Work…
How to Wash Your Head, 1612
You shall finde it wonderfull expedient, if you bath your head foure times in the yeare…
How to Compliment a Lady, 1663
Her Dove-like eyes…
How to Light a Fire, 1628
An easie way to procure Fire speedily. Take a round Glasse, and fill it with faire water…
How to Make a Pumpkin Pie, 1670
To make a Pompion-Pie. Having your Paste ready in your Pan…
How to Fatten Up, 1660
A Potion to make the Body fat. Take of the flour of Vetches, Beans, Barley, Rice, each alike parts…
How to Make Facial Toner, 1660
Of Waters that adorn the Face… Take of the Decoction of a Chicken, Capon, or Hen, three pints…
How to Choose Wine, 1689
Good Wine ought to be clean, pure, and clear, inclining to a red, called Claret…
How to Make Chocolate, 1685
Take seven hundred Cacao Nuts, a pound and a half of white Sugar, two ounces of Cinnamon…
How to Whiten Your Teeth, 1675
A Dentrifice to whiten the Teeth. Take of Harts-horn and Horses Teeth…
How to Nap, 1623
Sleeping at noones causeth heavinesse of the head, dulnesse of wit…
How to Make a Salad, 1660
Take the buds of all good sallets herbs, capers, dates, raisins, almonds, currans, figs, orangado…
How to Tell a Secret, 1660
Voices may be concealed six wayes. First by absence, and this is the safest way…
How to Tell Time With Your Hand, 1633
To see onely by the hand what of the clocke it is… may bee practiced by the left hand in this manner…
How to Eat Politely, 1651
If thou soakest thy bread or meat in the sauce, soak it not againe, after that thou hast bitten it…
The Past Asks You: Apple Economics, 1698
A man sent his three Sons to Market, to his Eldest he gave twenty two Apples…
How to Cure Nausea, 1693
A speedy Remedy for Fits of Vomiting. Take a large Nutmeg, grate off one half of it…
How to Make Glow-in-the-Dark Ink, 1661
etters that are not to be read but in the night, must be written with the Gall of a Tortois…
How to Converse, 1651
Neither shake thy head, feet, or legges; Rowle not thine eyes…
How to Drink Beer, 1623
Beere that is too bitter of the hop… hurteth the sinewes, offendeth the sight, and causeth the head-ach…
How to Keep Wine from Going Sour, 1649
Pieter Bruegel, Summer (1637)
How to Predict Your Baby’s Sex, 1684
If it happen to be a Male Child, then the right Eye of the Woman will, to appearance, move swifter…
How to Put People to Sleep with Music, 1661
Fiddle strings must be made of Adders and Serpents, but of their guts…
How to Improve Your Complexion, 1665
How to cleans the sweatie and sluttish Complexion… Take thirty Snails prepared…
How to Make French Toast, 1660
French Toasts. Cut French Bread, and toast it in pretty thick toasts on a clean gridiron…
How to Kill Fleas, 1688
Take an Earthen Platter, that is broad and shallow, fill it half full with Goats Blood…
How to Change a Diaper, 1612
How the childe must be made cleane… The Nurse, or some other, must sit neare the fire…
How to Exercise in Your Orchard, 1631
To have occasion to exercise within your Orchard it shall be a pleasure to have a Bowling Alley…
How to Give Someone Gas, 1661
A light to make one Fart. The Operation of this Lamp is wonderfull…
How to Heal All Wounds, 1683
A Drink that healeth all Wounds… Take Sanicle, Milfoil, and Bugle, of each a like quantity, stamp them in a Mortar…
How to Make a Giant Egg, 1660
To make a great compound Egg as big as twenty Eggs…
How to Sing, 1650
A singer should not sing through his nose. He must not stammer…
How to Cure Seasickness, 1695
Others assure me, That the best Remedy is, to keep always, night and day, a piece of Earth under the Nose…
How to Make Men Rave, 1658
How to make men mad with Mandrake… Take the Roots of Mandrake, and but put them into new Wine…
How to Make a Rain of Fireworks, 1658
To make the golden Rain, you must get store of Goose-quills, and cut them off next the feathers…
How to Exercise, 1623
When the skinne shall be wet with sweat, it shall be good to desist from exercise…
How to Make a Dragon out of Fireworks, 1658
How to make a Dragon, or the like, to run on the Line, spitting of fire…
How to Sniggle, 1653
And because you that are but a young angler, know not what snigling is, I will now teach it to you…
How to Detect Makeup, 1677
So that we may recognize made-up faces, do thus. Chew a bit of saffron in your teeth…
How to Make Coffee, 1685
We must now particularize the preparation of this Drink made with Coffee…
How to Walk on Water, 1649
How to walke on the Water. For to doe this, take two little Timbrels…
How to Sober Up, 1628
That one shall not be drunke. Drink the iuyce of Yerrow fasting…
How to Blow Your Nose, 1616
Blowing the nose. We must not blow our nose too lowde, nor open the hand-chercher…
How to Improve Memory, 1630
Late Suppers, the too much use of Tobacco, meates that ingender grosse humors…
How to Stop Bleeding, 1664
To Stench a Bleeding Wound, Lay hogs Dung, hot from the Hog…