VINETUM BRITANNICUM:; or, a treatise of cider, and such other wines and drinks that are extracted from all manner of fruits growing in this kingdom. Together with the method of propagating all sorts of Vinous fruit-trees. And a Description of the new-invented Ingenio or Mill, for the more expeditios and better making of cider. And also the right method of making Metheglin and Birch-Wine. With copper plates

London: J.C. for Tho. Dring and Tho. Burrel, 1676. First Edition. Small 8vo, pp. (24), 186, 6, including the license leaf (often lacking) and index. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and two engraved plates and a small marginal woodcut. Title-page lightly browned, some light toning to the text. Bound in old speckled calf, rebacked in antique style, red morocco spine label. A very nice copy. Wing W3608; Janson, Pomona's Harvest, p. 137; Bitting p. 504; Gabler 43130; Henrey Vol. 1, p. 206; Simon Gastronomica 1632 & Vinaria p. 86. The first edition of a key British wine book. Worlidge is "generally considered one of the most enlightened of the seventeenth - century writers in gardening and husbandry ..." (Henry): little is known of him except that he lived in Petersfield, Hampshire. His SYSTEMA AGRICULTURAE, which gathered into focus the scattered information published during the Commonwealth, was the first systematic treatise on husbandry on a large and comprehensive scale. and was undoubtedly a very wide step in the advancement of the art.
The present work is a guide to the history and production of cider and wine. Chapters include a history of drinks in antiquity, various beverages made from natural substances, the propagation of fruit trees, medicinal virtues of fruit drinks, a list of different fruits and nuts and how to cultivate them in England. The frontispiece depicts cider being made and various devices for milling apples.