The event will begin at 6pm in our foyer with a wine reception. Then, from 6.30pm - 7.30pm, you will have the opportunity to hear Professor David Gentilcore on the subject of Food, Drink and the Maintenance of Health, 1500-1800.

How did people in the past decide what to eat and what not to? What factors shaped their decisions? How did they obtain the information necessary to shape these decisions? And how did this information evolve over the course of the ‘early modern’ period (1500-1800)? We shall look at the changing nature of the genre and the sort of advice it provided, as well as some of the key factors which were meant to shape people’s individual relationship with food and drink – taste, gender, locale, occupation, social rank – before attempting to gauge how far early modern Europeans engaged with this advice.

The wine reception will then continue until 8.30pm with tours of our new exhibition.