Note to prospective readers: It may be quite a while before I can complete the rest of these pages.

In the meantime, readers might like something about the almanac, since all the other essays are said to relate directly to the form, content and ordinary uses of an almanac.

Here therefore is a filler. Its the "Encarta" on-line encyclopaedia's entry about Almanacs.

I don't necessarily agree with every word in the entry, but iat least it will provide readers with an idea about how the Almanac's contents and uses in late medieval Europe can be said to be mirrored in the those of the card-pack.

Tid-bit (in the coming essay): The Chinese word for an Almanac means 'Book of 10,000 things'.
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Almanac (Spanish Arabic al manakh, roughly translated "a calendar of the heavens"), book or table containing a calendar, together with astronomical and navigational data and, often, religious holidays, historical notes, proverbs, and astrological and agricultural forecasts.

Almanacs in various forms date from antiquity and were probably the first publications of most countries in the world. Ancient almanacs were carved on wooden sticks–Egyptian priests called these "fingers of the sun"–as well as on stone slabs; medieval almanacs, from as early as the 12th century, were recorded on parchment. The earliest existing printed almanac is that of the German mathematician and astronomer Regiomontanus (originally named Johannes Müller), whose illustrated, 12-leaf Kalendarium Novum was printed in 1476 in both red (for lucky days) and black, in Venice, Italy.

II. Almanacs and Astrology
From their beginning, almanacs contained predictions of the future based on the position of heavenly bodies, and during the 15th and 16th centuries astrological prognosticating (see Astrology) became their dominant feature. Some of the predictions became so frightening (foretelling the deaths of kings, for example) that in 1579 King Henry III of France forbade almanac makers by law to make prophecies.
Sixteenth-century "Philomath" almanacs, known as such because their editors affixed this word, meaning "lover of learning," to their names, served as calendars, atlases, agricultural and medical advisers, and textbooks. Although astrology was then included among the sciences, almanac editors emphasized increasingly that "astrological predictions serve only to delude and amuse the Vulgar."

III. Early American Almanacs
The first American almanac was An Almanack for New England for the Year 1639, compiled by "William Pierce, Mariner," in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the 17th and 18th centuries almanacs outnumbered all other books published in America. American farmers' almanacs were started by John Tulley, from Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1687 he compiled an almanac that included, for the first time, a weather forecast. As the 18th century progressed, and competition among almanacs became intense, anecdotes, proverbs, riddles, poems, essays, artwork, and humorous items were added to their contents.

Distributed in bookshops, by the printers themselves, or by peddlers, almanacs were widely circulated. From 1726 to 1764 Nathanael Ames, Sr., of Dedham, Massachusetts, sold 50,000 to 60,000 copies annually of his Astronomical Diary and Almanack. The most famous of early American almanacs, renowned for its aphorisms, was Poor Richard's Almanack, published by printer and author Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders, Philom." Franklin issued the almanac from 1732 to 1757; long after his connection with it was in name only, Poor Richard's still had enormous circulation. In 1766, for example, 141,257 copies were sold.
The leader in the almanac field, however, was Robert Bailey Thomas, of West Boylston, Massachusetts, who in 1792 began his 54 years of compiling The Farmer's Almanac. Since 1848, as The Old Farmer's Almanac, it has been published annually in the same format, providing information on agriculture and giving long-range weather forecasts interspersed with humorous anecdotes, homespun verses, and moral tales. With a circulation in the millions, it also has the distinction of being the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States.
In addition to The Old Farmer's Almanac a few other modern almanacs survive from the past. Old Moore's Almanac, started in the late 17th century in England and revived in 1966 in the United States, continues the 15th-century tradition of predicting catastrophic events. Baer's Agricultural Almanac, published in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has existed since 1826.

IV. Modern Almanacs
During the 19th century a great variety of topical almanacs were published: temperance, political, health, antislavery, anti-Masonic, and comic almanacs, among others. Almanacs are still published in fairly large numbers, but in general they have returned to the serious information concept of the Philomath almanacs. The Information Please Almanac (1947- ) states that its purpose is to "answer virtually all the questions the general reader might ask." Similar compilations of facts and figures include the Corpus Almanac of Canada (1965- ), the English Whitaker's Almanack (1869- ), and such American publications as The World Almanac and Book of Facts (1868- ) and the Reader's Digest Almanac (1965- ). Several topical works that call themselves almanacs do not include any astronomical information. Thus, "almanacs" such as The Almanac of American Politics (1972- ), The Mother Earth News Almanac (1973), The Christmas Almanack (1979), the Biography Almanac (1981- ), and the Places Rated Almanac (1981- )– all published in the United States–are simply compendiums of information on, respectively, U.S. elected officials, the self-sufficient lifestyle, Christmas lore, famous people, and metropolitan areas in the United States.
The Planetary Ephemeris Program, developed in 1961 at the Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, for the use of scientists, is one of the most advanced astronomical almanacs, or ephemerides. It is an enormous body of computer-generated data giving highly detailed astronomical observations from 1750 to the present. After 8000 years of almanac evolution, perhaps a modern almanac such as this is the ultimate "calendar of the heavens."

Contributed By:
Judson D. Hale, B.A.
Editor, Yankee Magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac.
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
"Almanac," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

© 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.