If you are a cheese lover, you know that there are hundreds of different types of cheeses and an almost limitless number of ways to enjoy cheese. If you are a cheese historian (yes, that’s a thing), you know that cheese has been enjoyed by people for many thousands of years. While not quite that old, The University Of Leads’ Cultural Collections have acquired a book at auction and made it available digitally to anyone who is interested.

The book was purchased in 2023, but it was written in the 1580’s, making it what experts believe to be the oldest book about cheese in the English language, if you were wondering. It is titled, “A Pamflyt Compiled of Cheese, Contayninge the Differences, Nature, Qualities, And Goodnes, of the Same.”

A catchy name to be sure.

The author of the book is not known, but he was clearly a cheese lover and wanted to share as much information about the subject with his readers as he could. This included important details about how to make cheese, what types of milk make good cheeses, and much more. If you don’t want to take the time to read the book, you will be missing out on details including the fact that he thinks that camel, mare, and ass milk all make for good cheeses.

You might also be interested to know that, according to the author, dog milk cheese can cause a women to deliver her child before the normal time.

So, needless to say, this book isn’t 100% accurate by today’s scientific and nutritional standards, but it is still a great historical artifact. Peter Brears is a food historian, and said in a statement about this book:

“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.”

Those who are interested in reading this very old book on cheese can find it HERE, though be warned, while it is in English, it it is nothing like modern English and may be very hard to read for many.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.