Title and Year
Almanac titles were entirely descriptive. They varied within limited parameters that in most cases are insignificant, and not usually recorded in Pollard and Redgrave’s Short Title Catalog.19 As with other aspects of these publications, titles became standardized during the Watkins and Roberts monopoly and even more consistent after 1603. Standard formulations before 1590 were along the lines of Evans Lloyd’s An Almanacke and Prognostication for the Yeere of Our Lord M.D. LXXXII [1582] and Buckminster’s A New Almanacke and Prognostication, for the Yeere of Christes Incarnation. 1589. Some almanac titles led with the date, as did Alexander Mounslowe’s 1581. An Almanacke and Prognostication, made for the Yeere of Our Lord God M.D.LXXXI. In 1590, Watkins and Roberts appear to have decided to standardize the titles by beginning with the last name of the compiler and the date: that year Buckminster’s almanac became Buckmynster. 1590. A New Almanacke and Prognostication, and Frende’s almanac became Prende 1590. An Almanacke and Prognostication. From that point on, this is the most common form of the titles. As this shift emphasizes the compilers, it is perhaps a subtle sign of their importance to consumer choice. There were always slight variations, however, especially in atypical almanacs such as J. D.’s A triple almanacke, printed in quarto for 1591.
Like many almanacs, Gabriel Frende’s title page for 1598 (Plate 4.2) gives the date in two separate forms: as the anno domino 1598, and the years since creation, 5565. Together, these numbers express a central understanding of time in the early modern period: that it was finite, its parameters defined by the period between Creation and the Day of Judgment. The two forms of dating position any given year in that cosmic Christian span: both dates are anniversaries, one since creation, the other since the birth of Jesus. The number of years since creation might, alternatively, be found inside the almanacs in the declaration or chronology.
Compilers
Almanac title pages almost always list the compiler’s name, and often a brief credential. In the sixteenth century, most almanac compilers were physicians (as discussed in more detail in Chapter 1.3). Non-physician compilers were becoming more frequent the end of the Elizabethan period; for example, William Woodhouse was a customs clerk, and Thomas Johnson a member of the Company of Salters and possibly a surveyor.20 In the seventeenth century, the number of compilers who were teachers, surveyors, instrument makers, and eventually astrologers “expanded at the expense of the physicians,” who were still represented, but no longer dominant.21
Compilers used various rhetorical flourishes to identify themselves with the mathematical arts on almanac title pages. Arthur Sofford styled himself a “Philomathist” (1633); and so did Thomas Rudston, G Gilden, and Richard Allestree, translating the term into Greek to reinforce the evidence of their learning. Being a “well wilier to the Mathematickes” (Browne 1620) was a popular qualification; the phrase appears on almanacs by Daniel Browne, Samuel Perkins, and John White. Some teachers advertised their pedagogical services in their almanacs, or at least noted them on the title page: Bretnor, for example, described himself as a “teacher of Arithmetik and Geometric in the famous City of London” (1607), and later, as a “Physitian, and teacher of the Mathematicks” (1619). Joseph Chamberlaine and Richard Lighter-foote both identified themselves as “Student in the Mathematicks Gent” (Chamberlaine 1631). Compilers often touted their expertise in astronomy and astrology, with Allestree calling himself rather grandly a “Practitioner in Sidera Scientia” (1620).22 Many later compilers are known almost entirely from their self-description, such as it is, on the almanac title pages.
