CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Gin

Distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Gin is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. It originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists in the 12th Century in Salerno, Italy. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands to provide aqua vita from distillates of grapes and grains, becoming an object of commerce in the spirits industry. Gin became popular in England after the introduction of jenever, a Dutch and Belgian liquor. Although this development had been taking place since the early 17th century, gin became widespread after the 1688 Glorious Revolution led by William of Orange and subsequent import restrictions on French brandy. Gin emerged as the national alcoholic drink of England during the Gin Craze of 1695–1735.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gin” is distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Distilled, alcoholic and drink, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1688, 1695, 1735—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Distilled, alcoholic and drink is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1688, 1695 and 1735.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Gin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Gin primary sources, Gin archive and Distilled research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gin”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Gin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.