Almanach

1752 · 4464 — Amsterdam: heirs of the widow of C. Stichter 1752. 8vo 158 x 95 mm. 48 pages. Printed in red and black throughout. Woodcut arms of Amsterdam on title. 12 half-page woodcuts in calendar. Interleaved and bound with 2 blank leaves at front and 72 at back. Annotated by a contemporary owner with a couple of stray notes on interleaves and a total of 70 pages of manuscript historical notes on the blank leaves at end one blank leaf almost detached. Contemporary plain green parchment over thin pasteboards flat spine large flap extending from lower cover the parchment of the upper cover not attached to upper fore-edge leaving a slot to insert the flap lower free endleaf backed in pasteboard and with folding leather-lined pieces at top and bottom attaching it to lower cover thus forming a wallet or envelope. <br /> <br /> Part almanac part blank book this useful volume is bound in a supremely practical wallet binding of a kind that was common once and is no doubt found in large numbers in historical collections but which surfaces rarely in the book trade. The slot in the front cover to insert the folding tab from the lower cover protected the volume from Dutch weather and the lower cover contains a pocket for loose papers or even money. <br /> <br /> The Amsterdam comptoir almanacs were issued yearly by successive members of the Stichter printing family from 1728 to the mid-19th century. Unlike their French counterparts these Dutch almanacs were generously proportioned being at least originally intended for the “counters†of merchants and businessmen rather than for gentlemen’s or ladies’ pockets. The calendars were always interleaved and the contents were standard: one page is devoted to each month containing a half-page woodcut above a blank space for notes on the recto and the monthly calendar on the verso. These woodcuts each with a tiny inset astrological sign show indoor and outdoor scenes: ice-sports in December and January a family huddled by the fire with boisterous children in the background in February tree-trimming and pruning in March gardening in April a pastoral scene with lovers in May sheep-shearing in June and so on. The blocks are here quite worn. <br /> <br /> Following the calendar are postal and transportation schedules by coach or ship 3 pages of astrological predictions and a short chronicle of the year 1734 someone forgot to update the sheets. <br /> <br /> The contemporary reader who used this almanac / notebook and whose hand seems feminine to me was a student of history. The first 16 and 1/2 pages at the beginning of the blank leaves contain a list of Roman emperors. Toward the end of the blank leaves are 32 pages on the succession of the Dukes of Flanders titled “Opvolgengen der Graven von Holland uit het Goudasche Kronyken.â€<br /> <br /> Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands 328765627. heirs of the widow of C. Stichter unknown