An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. Astronomical data and various statistics are also found in almanacs, such as the times of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, eclipses, hours of full tide, stated festivals of churches, terms of courts, lists of all types, timelines, and more.
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The etymology of "almanac" is hazy. It was borrowed into English from Old French almanach or Medieval Latin almanachus, from the Spanish-Arabic word al-manakh[1] "calendar, almanac", citing the "Kitab al-Manakh," a 13th century publication by eminent Moroccan scholar, mathematician and astronomer, Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi.[2] This word is probably from Late Greek almenichiakon "calendar",[3] akin to Patristic Greek almenichiata,[4] "the supernatural rulers of the celestial bodies", from Coptic. However, the ultimate origin of the word is unknown.[5] The Arabic manah,[6] "to reckon" has been suggested. Most sources do not trace much beyond the Greek and Latinate etymologies, thus ignoring evidence of the word's usage in Egyptian or Arabic languages.
The origin of the almanac can be traced back to ancient Babylonian astronomy, when tables of planetary periods were produced in order to predict lunar and planetary phenomena.[1]
The precursor to the almanac was the Hellenistic astronomical and meteorological calendar, the parapegma, an inscribed stone, the days of the month indicated by movable pegs inserted into bored holes. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Parapegma was the title of a book by Democritus. Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer (2nd century) wrote a treatise, Phaseis—"phases of fixed stars and collection of weather-changes" is the translation of its full title—the core of which is a parapegma, a list of dates of seasonally regular weather changes, first appearances and last appearances of stars or constellations at sunrise or sunset, and solar events such as solstices, all organized according to the solar year. With the astronomical computations were expected weather phenomena, composed as a digest of observations made by various authorities of the past. Parapegmata had been composed for centuries. Similar treatises called Zij were later composed in medieval Islamic astronomy.
Ptolemy believed that the astronomical phenomena caused the changes in seasonal weather; his explanation of why there was not an exact correlation of these events was that the physical influences of other heavenly bodies also came into play. Hence for him, weather prediction was a special division of astrology.[7]
The modern almanac differs from Babylonian, Ptolemaic and Zij tables in the sense that "the entries found in the almanacs give directly the positions of the celestial bodies and need no further computation", in contrast to the more common "auxiliary astronomical tables" based on Ptolemy's Almagest. The earliest known almanac in this modern sense is the Almanac of Azarqueil written in 1088 by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Latinized as Arzachel) in Toledo, al-Andalus. The work provided the true daily positions of the sun, moon and planets for four years from 1088 to 1092, as well as many other related tables. A Latin translation and adaptation of the work appeared as the Tables of Toledo in the 12th century and the Alfonsine tables in the 13th century.[8]
After almanacs were devised, people still saw little difference between predicting the movements of the stars and tides, and predicting the future in the divination sense. Early almanacs therefore contained general horoscopes, as well as the more concrete information. In 1150 Solomon Jarchus created such an almanac considered to be among the first modern almanacs. Copies of 12th century almanacs are found in the British Museum, and in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1300, Petrus de Dacia created an almanac (Savilian Library, Oxford). This was the same year Roger Bacon, OFM, produced his as well. In 1327 Walter de Elvendene created an almanac and later on John Somers of Oxford, in 1380. In 1386 Nicholas de Lynne, Oxford produced an almanac. In 1457 the first printed almanac was published at Mainz, by Gutenberg (eight years before the famous Bible). Regio-Montanus produced an almanac in 1472 (Nuremberg, 1472), which was continued in print for several centuries in many editions. In 1497 the Sheapheard’s Kalendar, translated from French (Richard Pynson) is the first English printed almanac. By the second half of the sixteenth century, yearly almanacs were being produced in English by men such as Anthony Askham, Thomas Buckminster, John Dade and Gabriel Frende. In the seventeenth century, English almanacs were bestsellers, second only to the Bible; by the middle of the century, 400,000 almanacs were being produced annually (a complete listing can be found in the English Short Title Catalogue). Richard Allestree (who is not the same as Richard Allestree) wrote one of the more popular English almanac, producing yearly volumes from 1617 to 1643, but his is by no means the earliest or the longest-running almanac. In British America, William Pierce of Harvard College published the first American almanac entitled, An Almanac for New England for the year 1639 Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard became the first center for the annual publication of almanacs with various editors including Samuel Danforth, Oakes, Cheever, Chauncey, Dudley, Foster, et alia. An almanac maker going under the pseudonym of Poor Richard, Knight of the Burnt Island began to publish Poor Robin's Almanack one of the first comic almanacs that parodied these horoscopes in its 1664 issue, saying "This month we may expect to hear of the Death of some Man, Woman, or Child, either in Kent or Christendom." Other noteworthy comic almanacs include those published from 1687-1702 by John Tully of Saybrook, Connecticut. The most important early American almanacs were made from 1726-1775 by Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, Massachusetts. A few years later James Franklin began publishing the Rhode-Island Almanack beginning in 1728. Five years later his brother Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack from 1733-1758. The best source for American almanacs is Milton Drake, Almanacs of the United States (1962), 2 volumes.
Currently published almanacs such as Whitaker's Almanack have expanded their scope and contents beyond that of their historical counterparts. Modern almanacs include a comprehensive presentation of statistical and descriptive data covering the entire world. Contents also include discussions of topical developments and a summary of recent historical events. Other currently published almanacs (ca. 2006) include TIME Almanac with Information Please, World Almanac and Book of Facts, The Farmer's Almanac and The Old Farmer's Almanac. In 2007, Harrowsmith Country Life Magazine launched the first Canadian Almanac, written in Canada, with all-Canadian content. There are almanacs with "Canadian Edition" or "For Canada" on the cover, but these are American books, which simply "spill" into Canada, with a few pages of Canadian weather predictions, etc. added.
Major topics covered by almanacs (reflected by their tables of contents) include: geography, government, demographics, agriculture, economics and business, health and medicine, religion, mass media, transportation, science and technology, sport, and awards/prizes.
Modern or contemporary use of the word almanac has come to mean a chronology or time-table of events such as The Almanac of American Politics published by the National Journal, or The Almanac of American Literature, The Almanac of British Politics, etc.
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ALMANAC, a book or table containing a calendar of the days, weeks and months of the year, a register of ecclesiastical festivals and saints' days, and a record of various astronomical phenomena &c. The derivation of the word is doubtful. The word almanac was used by Roger Bacon (Opus Majus, 1267) for tables of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies. The Italian form is almanacco, French almanach, and the Spanish is almanaque; all of which, according to the New English Dictionary, are probably connected with the Arabic al-manakh, a combination of the definite article al, and manakh, a word of uncertain origin. An Arabic-Castilian vocabulary (1505) gives manakh, a calendar, and manah, a sun-dial; manakh has also been connected with the Latin manacus, a sun-dial.
The attention given to astronomy by Eastern nations probably led to the early construction of such tables as are comprised in our almanacs; of these we know little or nothing. Thefasti of the Romans are far better known and were similar to modern almanacs. Almanacs of a rude kind, known as clogg almanacs, consisting of square blocks of hard wood, about 8 in. in length, with notches along the four angles corresponding to the days of the year, were in use in some parts of England as late as the end of the 17th century. Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696), keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and professor of chemistry at Oxford, describes one of these in his Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford, 1686); and another is represented in Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia (1806, vol. ii. p. 499).
The earliest almanac regarding which J. J. L. de Lalande (Bibliographic astronomique, Paris, 1803) could obtain any definite information belongs to the 12th century. Manuscript almanacs of considerable antiquity are preserved in the British Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Of these the most remarkable are a calendar ascribed to Roger Bacon (1292), and those of Peter de Dacia (about 1300), Walter de Elvendene (1327) and John Somers (1380). It is to be remembered that early calendars (such as the Kalendarium Lincolniense of Bishop Robert Grosseteste) frequently bear the names, not of their compilers, but of the writers of the treatises on ecclesiastical computation on which the calendars are based. The earliest English calendar in the British Museum is one for the year 1431. The first printed almanac known was compiled by Piirbach, and appeared between the years 1450 and 1461; the first of importance is that of Regiomontanus, which appears to have been printed at Nuremberg in 1472. In this work the almanacs for the different months embrace three Metonic cycles, or the 57 years from 1475 to 1531 inclusive. The earliest almanac printed in England was The Kalendar of Shepardes, a translation from the French, printed by Richard Pynson about 1497.
Early almanacs had commonly the name of "prognostications" in addition, and what they professed to show may be gathered from titles like the following, which is quoted by J. O. Halliwell: "Pronostycacyon of Mayster John Thybault, medycyner and astronomer of the Emperyall Majestic, of the year of our Lorde God Mcccccxxxij., comprehending the iiij. partes of this yere, and of the influence of the mone, of peas and warre, and of the sykenesses of this yere, with the constellacions of them that be under the vij. planettes, and the revolucions of kynges and princes, and of the eclipses and comets." Among almanacs of this class published in England, and principally by the Stationers' Company, are Leonard Digges's Prognostication Everlasting of Right Good Effect, for 1 553, 155 5 &c.; William Lilly's Merlinus Anglicus Junior for 1644, &c., and other almanacs and "prognostications"; John Booker's Bloody Almanac and Bloody Irish Almanac for 1643, 1647, &c. - the last attributed erroneously to Richard Napier; John Partridge's Mercurius Coelestis for 1681, Merlinus Redivivus, &c. The name of Partridge has been immortalized in Pope's Rape of the Lock; and his almanacs were very cleverly burlesqued by Swift, who predicted Partridge's own death, in genuine prognosticator's style. The most famous of all the Stationers' Company's predicting almanacs was the Vox Stellarum of Francis Moore (1657-1715 ?), the first number of which was completed in July 1700, and contained predictions for 1701.
Its publication has been continued under the title of Old Moore's Almanac. Of a different but not a better sort was Poor Robin, dating from 1663, and published by the company down to 1828, which abounded in coarse, sometimes extremely coarse, humour.
The exclusive right to sell "almanacs and prognostications" in England, enjoyed in the time of Elizabeth by two members of the Company of Stationers, was extended by James I. to the two universities and the Stationers' Company jointly; but the universities commuted their privilege for an annuity from the company This monopoly was challenged by Thomas Carnan, a bookseller, who published an almanac for three successive years, after having been thrice imprisoned on that account by the company. The case came, in 1775, before the court of common pleas, and was decided in Carnan's favour, the question argued being, "Whether almanacs were such public ordinances, such matters of state, as belonged to the king by his prerogative, so as to enable him to communicate an exclusive right of printing them to a grantee of the crown?" In 1779 Lord North attempted to reverse this decision by a parliamentary enactment, but the bill was thrown out. In consequence of this the universities lost their title to their annuity, and in lieu of it they received a parliamentary grant. The company, however, virtually retained its monopoly for many years, by buying up as much as possible all the almanacs issued by other publishers, but in more recent times this power has altogether ceased, although a considerable proportion of the almanacs published in England still issue from the hall of the Stationers' Company. A description of "Almanac Day" at Stationers' Hall will be found in Knight's Cyclopaedia of London (185,), p. 588.
On the 1st of January 1828 the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge issued the British Almanac for that year - a publication greatly superior in every way to the almanacs of the time. The success of the British Almanac, with its valuable supplement, the Companion to the Almanac, led to a great improvement in this class of publications. The Stationers' Company issued the Englishman's Almanac, a work of a similar kind. The entire repeal in 1834, by the 3rd and 4th Will.IV. c.57, of the heavy stamp duty, first imposed in 1710, on all almanacs of fifteenpence per copy, gave an additional stimulus to the publication of almanacs of a better class, and from that time the number has greatly increased. Since 1870, the British Almanac and Companion have been the principal almanacs published by the Stationers' Company. Whitaker's Almanac, commenced in 1868 by Joseph Whitaker (1820-1895), is perhaps the best known of modern almanacs.
In Scotland, almanacs containing much astrological matter appeared to have been published at about the beginning of the 16th century; and about a century later those published at Aberdeen enjoyed considerable reputation. In 1683, the Edinburgh's True Almanack, or a New Prognostication, appeared; a publication which improved with years and was issued after 1837 as Oliver and Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanac, a standard book of reference for Scottish affairs. Thom's Irish Almanac (since 1843) deals mainly with Ireland.
The earliest almanac published in the United States is probably to be ascribed to Bradford's press in Philadelphia, for the year 1687. Poor Richard's Almanac, commenced in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of "Richard Saunders," and continued by him for twenty-five years, gained a high reputation for its wise and witty sayings; it may have been suggested by a somewhat similar publication by Thomas, of Dedham, Massachusetts. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge was published at Boston from 1828 to 1861; a continuation, The National Almanac, was published only twice, for 1863 and 1864. The Old Farmer's Almanac enjoys considerable popularity and has been published for many years. At the present time nearly every religious denomination, trade and newspaper have almanacs or year-books.
In France prophetic almanacs circulated very freely among the poorer and rural classes, although an ordonnance of Charles IX. required the seal of a diocesan bishop on all almanacs. In 1579 Henry III. prohibited the publication of predictions relating to political events, a prohibition renewed by Louis XIII. Of such almanacs, the most famous was the Almanach Liegeois first published in 1625 at Liege by Matthieu Laensbergh, a person of very problematic existence. Publications of this class subsequently increased in number to such an extent that, in 1852, their circulation was forcibly checked by the government. The most important French almanac is the Almanach Royal, afterwards Imperial, and now National, first published in 1679.
A number of publications, issued in Germany, from the middle of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, under such titles as Musenalmanach, modelled on the Almanach des Muses, a contemporary almanac published at Paris, contain some of the best works of some of the most celebrated German poets. The Almanach de Gotha, which has existed since 1763, published since 1871 both in French and German, gives a particular account of all the royal and princely families of Europe, and ample details concerning the administration and the statistics of the different states of the world.
For the Nautical Almanac and similar publications, see Ephemeris.
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Categories: ALK-ALT | The calendar
An annual table, book, or the like, comprising a calendar of days, weeks, and months. Among the Jews it was the holy prerogative of the patriarch or president of the Great Sanhedrin to fix the calendar and according to it proclaim the new moon. Witnesses who reported their having perceived the new moon were heard, their statements carefully examined, and perhaps compared with the result of some esoteric calculation. Hence the phrase "sod ha 'ibbur" (the mystery of the calculation), though it may perhaps apply altogether to the intercalation. These observations and researches gradually crystallized into a science, the oral traditions having been reduced to a literature on the Calendar (see Chronology).
Luaḥ, the Hebrew equivalent for Almanac, means literally a table or tablet. Most of the works on chronology naturally contained such a calendar. It included the proper designation of every day as part of the week as well as part of the month; the designation of the parashah (the weekly Sabbath portion of the Pentateuch); the dates of feasts and general and local fasts; furthermore, the exact date of the molad (new moon) and the teḲufot (the quarter-days of the year), as well as the beginning and end of the shealah (the time when a short prayer for rain is added to the eighteen benedictions).
Quite another appearance is borne by calendarswhich are calculated for more than one year, for a hundred years, or when they are meant to be perpetual. These must be classified as chronological literature. The Hebrew calendar contained originally no literary supplements, its only aim being to give a list in order of time of the days of the year. This changed, however, with the composition of the Jewish calendar in a European language. The nineteenth century introduced the literary annual which has become an almost indispensable part of the Almanac.
The Almanac first appeared as a tablet, then as a booklet, sometimes appended to the prayer-book or Pentateuch. In the synagogue the tablet was used exclusively. Written Hebrew calendars were easily lost; and, therefore, few have come down to us. But among the discoveries made in the Genizah of Cairo there are also some calendars, the margins of which are illuminated with arabesques. Only through the spread of the art of printing did this kind of literature grow up.
The first printed Almanac known came from the printing-office of di Gara at Venice, 1597. It is printed on a folio sheet. In towns where Hebrew printing-offices existed there appeared every year an Almanac on a single sheet or in a booklet. Thus almanacs have been annually published in the city of Prague since 1655, at Venice since 1670, and at Frankfort since about 1670. Owing to the great fire in the last-named city, 1711, the Almanac was published at Homburg; and from it was evolved the well-known Rödelheim Almanac, which is still being published there. Gradually these calendars were enlarged by the insertion of the memorable days in Jewish history, the civil dates, the Christian festivals, and the days of various fairs. Similar in composition and size are the bibliographically well-known calendars printed at Amsterdam since 1707, at Dyhernfurth since 1712, at Wilmersdorf since 1715, at Mantua since 1727, at Altona since 1738, at Berlin since 1739, and at Fürth since 1745. The Sulzbach Almanac contains not only all memorable days, among which it counts the fires at Prague (1689), Frankfort-on-the-Main (1715), Posen (1718), Nikolsburg (1721), but also the birthdays of the rulers and princes of Europe. Since 1758 a list of the most important highways has been added. The calendar printed at Cassel in 1790 gives a list of the Hesse-Cassel princely family and "information when all the mails at Cassel leave and arrive." The calendar of Metz gives also a list of the festivals and names of the months which were instituted by the French Revolution. The first Almanac which contained a literary supplement was published by J. Heinemann in Berlin, 1818-20, under the title "Almanach für die Israelitische Jugend," as the Oxford publication, "The Jewish Kalendar in the Year 5452" (1692), does not belong to this category.
   | American Almanac Collection - Ball State University Archives and Special Collections Research Center - American Almanac Collection |
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