N. D., The Vertues of Coffee. Set forth in the Works of Lord Bacon his Natural Hist., Mr Parkinson his Herbal, Sir George Sandys his Travails, James Howel Esq; his Epistles. Collected and Published for the Satisfaction of the Drinkers thereof (London, W.G. [William Godbid], 1663), 8pp.; 8°. BL: T.339. ESTCR175890. Hünersdorff.

An eight-page octavo pamphlet compilation of English coffee scholarship, designed to appeal to a learned but not specialist reader among London coffee-drinkers. In the preface, the author states that he has often ‘drunk Coffa … for Company more then of any Knowledge I had of the Vertue of it’. His publication is designed to supply coffee scholarship from ‘the workes of eminent Authors of our own Nation’. The writer must have had access to a good library. ‘N.D.’ is also the author of An Antidote Against Melancholy: Made up in Pills, Compounded of Witty Ballads, Jovial Songs, and Merry Catches (London and Westminster, Mer. Melancholicus, 1661), a collection of ballads and catches by various authors, concerned especially with drinking. The preface comprises a poem signed by N.D. which claims that ‘There’s no Purge ’gainst Melancholly’ like the jolly poems in the anthology, although ‘If ’gainst Sleep, and Fumes impure, / Thou, thy Senses would‘st secure, / Take this, Coffee’s not have so sure’. The tract on coffee was published by William Godbid, a printer of scientific books and music who operated from premises ‘over against The Anchor in Little Britain’. He succeeded Thomas Harper in 1656, and took over the printing of all of John Playford’s musical publications. A variant imprint of the same year states the book was printed by ‘W.G. for John Playford’.