Thomas Tryon, Wisdom’s dictates, or, Aphorisms & rules, physical, moral, and divine, for preserving the health of the body, and the peace of the mind (London, 1691) A convert to Anabaptism (a branch of radical Protestantism), the seventeenth-century English merchant Thomas Tryon published a number of ‘self-help’ books. Wisdom’s dictates was his guide to good living following a vegetarian diet, which argued that a more godly and healthier life was possible without ‘that depraved Custom of Killing and Eating [one’s] Fellow Creatures’. It contained 75 dishes that could be ‘easily procured without Flesh and Blood, or the Dying groans of God’s innocent and harmless Creatures, which do as far exceed those made of Flesh and Fish’, including simple pottages made of vegetables.

The Syndics of Cambridge University Library (Hunter.e.69.12)