AL'MANAC (Of disputed origin). A book or table containing a calendar of the civil divi sions of the year, the times of the various astro nomical phenomena, and other useful or enter taining information. Till a comparatively mod ern date, this additional matter consisted of astrological predictions and other analogous ab surdities; it now embraces, in the best almanacs, a wide variety of useful notes and information, chronological, statistical, political, agricultural, etc.
The history of almanacs, like all earlyhistory of astronomy, goes back to very ancient times. The Alexandrian Greeks certainly had almanacs, though the time when they first appeared in Europe is not precisely known. The oldest of the copies (manuscript) existing are of the thir teenth and fourteenth centuries; there are speci mens in the libraries of the British Museum and of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The earliest known printed European almanac was compiled by the celebrated astronomer Purbach, and appeared between the years 1450 and 1461; but the first almanac of importance was that compiled by his pupil, Regiomontanus, for the fifty-seven years from 1475 to 1531, for which lie received a munificent donation from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. Bernardo de Grano lachs of Barcelona commenced the publication of an almanac in 1487; the printer Engel of Vienna, in 1491 ; and Staler of Tiibingen, in 1524. Copies of these are now very rare. In 1533 Rabelais published at Lyons his almanac for that year, and renewed the publication in 1535, 1548, and 1550. The fame and popularity of the as trologer .Nostradamus, who prophesied the death Henry II. of France, gave such an impulse to the publication of predictions, that in 1579 Henry 111. of France prohibited the insertion of any political prophecies in almanacs—a. pro hibition renewed by Louis XIII. in 1628. Before this, in the reign of Charles IX., a royal cordon nance required every almanac to he stamped with the approval of the diocesan bishop.
Prophetic almanacs have circulated very large ly in France in the rural districts and among the uneducated. The most interesting of these is perhaps the old Almanach Liegimis, 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 Laensbergh, whose existence, however, at any time seems very problematical. The Alnzanach Liegcois is a most convenient one for those who are unable to read, for by certain symbols attached to certain dates the most unlet tered 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 desig nates the planet most propitious for pills; a pair of scissors points out the proper period for cutting hair, a lancet for letting blood. Of
course. amid innumerable predictions, sonle naturally be expected to come to pass. So in 1774 this almanac predicted that in April of that year a royal favorite would play her last part. Madame du Barry took the prediction to herself, and repeatedly exclaimed: "I wish this month of April were over." In Nay XV. died, and Madame dtt Barry's last part was really played. The credit of old Matthieu was established more firmly than ever. In 1852. a commission 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, their popularity is greatly on the wane.
In England, so far was any restraint from being put upon the publication of prophetic almanacs, or "prognostications," as they were usually called, that royal letters patent gave a monopoly of the trade to the two universities and the Stationers' Company, under whose pat ronage, and with the imprimatur of the Arch bishop of Canterbury, such productions as lloore's Almanac and Poor Robin's Alumnae 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 preserved in the lively diatribe of Swift, writing under the name of Bickerstaff. There is a legal decision on record in the year 1775, in favor of a book seller named Carnan, abolishing 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, how ever, still maintained their ground by buying up all rival almanacs: and it Was not until the pub lication, in 1828, of the British Almanac, 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 pur veyors, had hitherto maintained in existence.