almanac

1. An annual publication including calendars with weather forecasts, astronomical information, tide tables, and other related tabular information.
2. A usually annual reference book composed of various lists, tables, and often brief articles relating to a particular field or many general fields.

[Middle English almenak, from Medieval Latin almanach, perhaps from Late Greek almenikhiaka, ephemeris, perhaps of Coptic origin.]

A book that contains astronomical or meteorological data arranged according to days, weeks, and months of a given year and may also include diverse information of a nonastronomical character. This article is restricted to astronomical and navigational almanacs.

The Astronomical Almanac contains ephemerides, which are tabulations, at regular time intervals, of the orbital positions and rotational orientation of the Sun, Moon, planets, satellites, and some minor planets. It also contains mean places of stars, quasars, pulsars, galaxies, and radio sources, and the times for astronomical phenomena such as eclipses, conjunctions, occultations, sunrise, sunset, twilight, moonrise, and moonset. This volume contains the fundamental astronomical data needed by astronomers, geodesists, navigators, surveyors, and space scientists. The theory and methods on which The Astronomical Almanac is based are provided in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac. See also Astronomical coordinate systems; Ephemeris.

While The Astronomical Almanac is basically designed for the determination of positions of astronomical objects as observed from the Earth, The Nautical Almanac and The Air Almanac are designed to determine the navigator's position from the tabulated position of the celestial object. The Nautical Almanac contains hourly values of the Greenwich hour angle and declination of the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and the sidereal hour angle and declination of 57 stars for every third day. Monthly apparent positions are tabulated for an additional 173 navigational stars. The positions are tabulated to an angular accuracy of 0.1 minute of arc, which is equivalent to 0.1 nautical mile (0.2 km). Since tabular quantities must be combined to derive the navigational fix, this tabular accuracy is sufficient to produce a computed position with an error no greater than 0.3 to 0.4 nmi (0.6 to 0.7 km). The Air Almanac gives the positions of the Sun, first point of Aries, three planets, and the Moon at 10-min intervals. As necessary, information is adjusted so that the tabulated data at any given time can be used during the interval to the next entry, without interpolation, to an accuracy sufficient for practical air navigation. While designed for air navigators, The Air Almanac is used by mariners who accept the reduced accuracy in exchange for its greater convenience compared with The Nautical Almanac.

The latest source of high-precision astronomical data is the Multi-Year Interactive Computer Almanac (MICA), which provides data on compact disks. Thus, in addition to being able to compute the almanac data as published, the user is able to compute data for a particular location and time.

For more information on almanac, visit Britannica.com.

One of the first publications to issue from the press in British North America was An Almanack for New England for 1639, printed by Stephen Daye in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Almanacs have been part of American culture ever since, adapting themselves to changing times while preserving their essential character.

In addition to monthly calendars and tables of astronomical events, almanacs included advice for farmers, medical and domestic recipes, and miscellaneous literary fare. Unlike their English counterparts, which often emphasized astrology and necromancy, the earliest almanacs in America stressed practical instruction and improvement. This was due partly to the Puritans, and partly to the environment of the more enlightened eighteenth century. Even so, most almanacs featured the "man of signs" or "the Anatomy," a crude wood-cut of a human figure, with corresponding links to the signs of the zodiac governing various parts of the body.

As printing spread throughout the colonies, so too did almanacs, which became an essential aspect of the printing business in colonial America. Timothy Green, James Franklin (elder brother of Benjamin), Daniel Fowle, and William Bradford were among several printers who originated almanacs in the colonies. By their very nature almanacs had to be adapted for local conditions and could not be imported. Almanacs were also used effectively in the propaganda wars at the time of the American Revolution. Nathaniel Ames, Benjamin West, Isaiah Thomas, Benjamin Edes, John Gill, Sarah Goddard, and Nathan Daboll produced almanacs that supported the patriots' cause through verse, essays, and graphic illustrations. The most famous compiler of almanacs in the eighteenth century was unquestionably Benjamin Franklin. Assuming the mantle of Richard Saunders, Franklin issued his first Poor Richard in Philadelphia in 1733.

In the nineteenth century, almanacs moved west with the country and continued to guide their readers through the seasons of life. As a rule, almanacs came with an explanation of the calendar, a list of eclipses for the year, the common notes, the names and characters of planets, signs of the zodiac, and the anatomy. They also included such practical things as interest tables, courts and court days, lists of government officials, population tables, postal rates, bank officers, exchange rates, and times and places of religious meetings. For studying the development of local economies on the frontier, almanacs are useful sources. Beyond the statistical matters, almanacs entered the realm of literature, broadly defined. Epigram, ballad, song, satire, elegy, ode, epistle, essay, recipe, joke, legend, proverb, belief, and anecdote were present in abundance.

Given such a fixed form, almanacs were surprisingly fluid and adaptable. They were frequently put into the service of various mass movements of the nineteenth century, such as temperance, antislavery, politics, and evangelical Christianity. Their ubiquity made them the natural standard-bearers for many popular crusades. Both the American Tract Society and the American Temperance Union issued hundreds of thousands of almanacs suitable for use in families, while the major protestant denominations also issued their annual registers.

But other almanacs were not intended for the parlor. As political campaigns became more sophisticated in their use of print, readers were treated to a steady stream of titles, such as the Jackson Almanac, Young Hickory Almanac, Hard Cider and Log Cabin Almanac, and Rough and Ready Almanac. While most of the campaign almanacs were filled with cartoons and invective, the Whig Almanac, published by Horace Greeley in New York, had a quasi-official status and was looked to by all parties for its accurate election returns.

Comic almanacs were also in vogue in the nineteenth century. Some tried to imitate the polite Comick Almanack of the English caricaturist George Cruikshank, but the most popular were not concerned with being polite. Turner and Fisher in Philadelphia and Robert Elton in New York were specialists in this line. With puns like "allmy-nack" in their titles, these publications carried bawdy jokes, ethnic and racial slurs, and humorous tales and anecdotes. The Davy Crockett almanacs were a genre unto themselves, combining aspects of the political and comic almanacs in one package.

After the Civil War, advertising, especially for patent medicines, drove the sales of most almanacs. Ayer's American Almanac, published by Dr. J. C. Ayer and Co., "practical and analytical chemists" of Lowell, Massachusetts, used the almanac for testimonials from satisfied users of their cathartic pills, sarsaparilla, ague cure, hair vigor, cherry pectoral, and other nostrums. This commercial emphasis continued into the twenty-first century.

In the twentieth century American corporations embraced the almanac. Ford Motor Company, Bell Telephone, Kellogg's, Seagram's, and Magnolia Petroleum are prominent examples. By sponsoring an almanac, corporations could find new audiences for their products and hope to induce brand loyalty through association. Almanacs also gained in popularity as reference tools. The World Almanac and the New York Times Almanac were well respected and frequently consulted for their accurate information. Regional publications, such as the Texas Almanac, published by the Dallas Morning News, reached targeted audiences. Religious sponsorship of almanacs continued to flourish; the Deseret News Church Almanac, published by the Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, is a notable example. The Sports Illustrated Almanac appealed both to sports fans and barroom wagerers.

While specialized almanacs were abundant in the early twenty-first century, some almanacs continued much as they always had. The Agricultural Almanac of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, began publication in 1817. The Hagers-Town Town and Country Almanack, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was established in 1797. Both would be recognizable to their founders. The Old Farmer's Almanac, of Dublin, New Hampshire, became a bit glossier and thicker than its predecessors, but even Robert Bailey Thomas, the "old farmer" who founded the series in 1792, would find in its pages much that would be familiar to him.

Andrew Ellicott wrote in the Maryland Almanack for 1783: "One year passeth away and another cometh—so likewise 'tis with Almanacks—they are annual productions, whose destination and usefulness is temporary, and afterwards are thrown by and consigned to oblivion … it is no wonder, when they become old almanacks, that we frequently see them made use of by the pastry-cooks, or flying in the tail of the school-boy's kite." Historians, as well as cooks and kite fliers, can make good use of old almanacs, which reflect the passing years through the lens of popular culture. No other publication has been present on the American scene as long. Intended to be temporary, almanacs remain enduring sources for many lines of inquiry, from the colonial period to the modern era.

Bibliography

Drake, Milton. Almanacs of the United States. New York: Scarecrow, 1962.

Kittredge, George Lyman. The Old Farmer and His Almanac: Being Some Observations on Life and Manners in New England a Hundred Years Ago. Boston: Ware, 1904.

Sagendorph, Robb. America and Her Almanacs: Wit, Wisdom, and Weather 1639–1970. Dublin, N.H.: Yankee, 1970.

Stowell, Marion Barber. Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible. New York: B. Franklin, 1977.

—Russell Martin

For other uses, see Almanac (disambiguation).

Calendarium cracoviense, an almanac for the year 1474.

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.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Early almanacs 3 Contemporary almanacs 4 List of almanacs by country of publication 5 See also 6 Almanac calculators 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

Etymology

The etymology of "almanac" is hazy. Some sources say it was borrowed into English from the Arabic word al-manakh^[1], citing the "Kitab al-Manakh," a 13th century publication by eminent Moroccan scholar, mathematician and astronomer, Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi.^[2] However, the ultimate origin of the word is unknown^[3]. Both Arabic manah^[4], "to reckon", and Egyptian almenichiata^[5], "the supernatural rulers of the celestial bodies", have been suggested. Most sources do not trace much beyond the Greek and Latinate etymologies, thus ignoring significant evidence of the word's usage in Egyptian or Arabic languages.

Early almanacs

A page from the Almanac for the Hindu year 1871-72.

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 Laertius, 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.^[6]

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 Azarqueil) 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.^[7]

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.

Contemporary almanacs

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 statististical 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, etc..

List of almanacs by country of publication

Canada

• Harrowsmith's Truly Canadian Almanac (1st Edition, September 2007)

Belgium

• De Druivelaar

France

• Quid

Germany

• Fischer Weltalmanach

Netherlands

• Enkhuizer Almanak
• Deventer Almanak
• Nieropper Almanak

United Kingdom

• Whitaker's Almanack
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac^{[citation needed]}

United States of America

• New York Times Almanac
• Old Farmer's Almanac
• TIME Almanac with Information Please
• World Almanac and Book of Facts
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated Wrestling Almanac^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Yearbook
• List of almanacs
• Gazetteer
• Tonalamatl, the Aztec divinatory almanac
• Panchangam
• Panjika, Hindu astrological almanac in Assamese, Bengali and Oriya
• Encyclopedia

Almanac calculators

• Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop
• Pieter Rembrantsz van Nierop
• Jan Albertsz van Dam
• Dirck Jansz van Dam
• Meindert van Dam
• Jacob de Gelder
• Mattheus van Nispen
• Isaac Haringhuysen
• Lucas Jansz Sinck
• Andreas van Luchtenburg

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} (Glick, Livesey & Wallis 2005, p. 29)
2. ^ Sarton, George (1931). Introduction To The History Of Science Volume II From Rabbi Ben Ezra To Roger Bacon. pp. 999. http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontoth013784mbp. 
3. ^ Chabás, José; Bernard R. Goldstein (2000). Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula. http://books.google.ca/books?id=4wUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA16&dq=almanac+etymology&sig=x7NkfiOA3Ej9wHFZBGyrSLnLpwE#PPA16,M1. 
4. ^ Dionysius Lardner (1855). The Museum of Science and Art. Walton and Maberly. p. 2. http://books.google.ca/books?id=HH4AAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2&dq=ten+month+calendar+arabic&lr=&as_brr=3#PPA2,M1. 
5. ^ George W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961) : 78
6. ^ "Ptolemy's Astronomical Works (other than the Almagest)". http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajones/ptolgeog/astroworks.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-16. 
7. ^ (Glick, Livesey & Wallis 2005, p. 30)

References

• Glick, Thomas F.; Steven John Livesey & Faith Wallis (2005), Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, ISBN 0415969301

External links

• American Almanac Collection - Ball State University Archives and Special Collections Research Center
• Time, Tide and Tonics: The Patent Medicine Almanac in America. National Library of Medicine.
• [www.kb.nl.webexpo/tijdgebonden.html]

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - almanak

Nederlands (Dutch)
almanak

Français (French)
n. - almanach, annuaire

Deutsch (German)
n. - Almanach

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αλμανάκ, ετήσια έκδοση γενικών πληροφοριών, καζαμίας, πανδέκτης

Italiano (Italian)
almanacco, lunario

Português (Portuguese)
n. - almanaque (m), calendário (m)

Русский (Russian)
календарь, альманах

Español (Spanish)
n. - almanaque, calendario

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - almanacka, kalender

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
历书, 年鉴

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 曆書, 年鑒

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 달력, 연감

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 暦, 年鑑

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تقويم, روزنامه, كتاب سنوي يشتمل على احصائيات ومعلومات عن مواضيع مختلفه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שנתון, לוח שנה, אלמנך‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.