ALMANAC, from the Arabic article al, and manah, to count, a word received by the European nations from tire east, denoting a book or table containing a calendar of the civil divisions of the year, the times of the various astronomical phenomena, and other useful or entertaining information. Till a comparatively modern date, this additional matter consisted of astrological predictions and other analogous absurdities ; it now embraces, in the best almanacs, a wide variety of useful notes and information, chrono logical, statistical, political, agricultural, etc.—The Alexandrian Greeks had almanacs. The time at which they first appeared iu Europe is not precisely known. The oldest of which copies (in manuscript) still exist, are of tire 14th c. ; there are specimens in the libraries of the British museum and ,of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge. The earliest European A. worthy of notice was.coniPiled by the celebrated astrOnOmer Purbach, and appeared between the years 1450 and 1461; but the first printed A. was that composed by his pupil, Regiomontanus, for the thirty years from 1475 to 1506, for which he received a munificent donation from Mathias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Beniard de Grano lachs of Barcelona commenced the publication of an A. in 1487; the printer Engel of Vienna, in 1491 ; and Stoiller of Tubingen, in 1524. Copies of these arc now very rare. In 1533, Rabelais published. at Lyon, his A. for that year, and renewed the publication in 1535, 1548, and 1550. The fame and popularity of the celebrated astrologer, Nostra damns, who prophesied minutely the death of Henry II. of France, the execution of Charles L of England, the great fire of London, the restoration, etc., gave such an impulse to the publication of predictions, that in 1579, Henry III. of France prohibited the insertion of any political prophecies in almanacs—a prohibition renewed by Louis XIII. in 1628. Before this, in the reign of Charles IX., a royal ordonnance required every A. to be stamped with the approval of the diocesan bishop.
Prophetic almanacs still circulate to an incredible extent in France in the rural dis tricts, and among the uneducated. The most popular of all these is the Almanach Liegeois, a venerable remnant of superstition. It was first published at Liege—according to the invariable title-page which takes no note of time—in 1636, by one Matthieu Laensbcrgh, whose existence, however, at any time seems very problematical. The Almanach Lieg(ois is a most convenient one for those who are unable to read, for by certain symbols attached to certain dates, the most unlettered persons can follow its instructions: thus the rude representation of a vial announces the proper phase of the moon under which a draught of medicine should be taken; a pill-box designates the planet most propitious for pills; a pair of scissors points out the proper period for cut ting hair, a lancet for letting blood. Of course, amidst innumerable predictions, some
may naturally be expected to come to pass. So in 1774, this A. predicted that in the April of that year a royal favorite would play her last part. Madame Dubarry took the prediction to herself, and repeatedly exclaimed : I wish this villainous mouth of April were over.' In May, Louis XV. died, and Madame Dubarry's last part was really played. The credit of old Matthieu was established more firmly than ever. In 1852, a number of commissioners, appointed by M. Maupas, minister of police, having examined between 7000 and 8000 of the national chapbooks, which included a great number of almanacs, pronounced them so deleterious, that it became necessary forcibly to check their circulation. Although still in vogue amongst the ignorant peasantry, it is gratify ing to learn that their popularity is greatly on the wane, and that various periodicals on a better plan have started up in France of late years.
In England, so far was any restraint from being put upon the publication of pro phetic almanacs, or " prognostications," as they were usually called, that the royal letters-patent gave a monopoly of the trade to the two universities and the stationers' company, under whose patronage, and with the imprimitur of the archbishop of Canter bury, such productions as .tifoore's A. and Poor Robin's A. flourished vigorously ; although " it would be difficult to find, in so small a compass, an equal quantity of ignorance, profligacy, and imposture, as was condensed in these publications." The memory of Partridge, long employed as the prophet of the stationers' company, is pre served in the lively diatribe of Swift, writing under the name of Bickerstaff. In 1775, a decision of the court of common pleas, in favor of a bookseller named Carnan, abolished the monopoly of the stationers' company. In 1779, lord North brought in a bill renewing their privileges. After a powerful speech against the measure by Erskine, who exposed the pernicious influence of the productions published under the monopoly, it was rejected. The stationers' company, however, still maintained their ground by buying up all rival almanacs ; and it was not until the publication, in 1828, of the British A. by the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge, that the eyes of the English public became opened to the irrational and deleterious nature of the commodity which their own indifference or folly, as much as the selfishness of their purveyors, had hitherto maintained in existence. The success of this admirable publication—which still continues to appear annually—stimulated the stationers' company to improvement, and they accordingly published the Englishman's A. The British 4. is itself now pub lished by the stationers' company.