When Is a Miscellany Not Miscellaneous? Making Sense of the 'Kalender of Shepherds'

Abstract

ABSTRACT An almanac is many things, by its very definition a compilation of calendrical material and useful information. In the past, it might have been variously used as a handbook, a reference work, a prognosticator's guide, and even possibly as a book of instruction for children. This essay examines The Kalender of Shepherds, a work popular from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, looking briefly at its publication history and contents, as well as considering some of the sources for its illustration and briefly discussing their subsequent influence, in order to recover the original purpose of the book, which is apparently still influential on the format of the almanac even now. When is a miscellany not miscellaneous? (1) One answer to this riddle might be: when it is an almanac, currently defined as 'a book of tables, containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclesiastical and other anniversaries, besides other useful information, and, in former days, astrological and astrometeorological forecasts' (OED). An almanac is many things, by its very definition a compilation of calendrical material and 'useful information'. In the past, it might have been variously used as a handbook, a reference work, a would-be prognosticator's guide, and even possibly as a book of instruction for children. (2) This is still true. One may today consult The Old Farmer's 2001 Almanac, subtitled 'North America's Oldest Continuously Published Periodical', which contains weather forecasts for sixteen regions of the United States (predicted up to one year in advance), planting tables and zodiac secrets, and also features 'astronomical tables, tides, holidays, eclipses, etc.'. (3) There are calendar pages, charts of moon phases, and general predictions of the future ('What Soothsayers are Soothsaying About the Next Century and Beyond'), as well as brief essays on curing insomnia, on 'How to Prevent Wrinkles', and on myths and common superstitions, along with recipes for pie, rules for pruning, 'Secrets of the Zodiac', and pages devoted to religious observance and belief (pp. 14, 98-105, 107, 116-30, 304). The Kalender of Shepherds, its late medieval counterpart, might initially look like a similarly random hodgepodge of texts, but it is what people have come to expect from an almanac. The folk wisdom of the farmer as set forth in the modern American almanac seems part of the continuum of the wisdom of shepherds that delighted and informed readers from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. My purpose here is to look briefly at the publication history and at the contents of the Kalender, to consider some of the sources for its illustration and briefly discuss their subsequent influence, and finally, to recover the original purpose of the book, which is apparently still influential on the format of the almanac even now. Contents The Kalender of Shepherds was printed and reprinted in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Judging from its reprint history, the Kalender was extremely popular, with eight printings in Paris and Geneva between 1493 and 1500. The first English edition (actually a poor translation of the French text into Scots dialect) appeared in 1503 (STC 22407). (4) According to the Revised Short-Title Catalogue, following this edition, the Kalender of Shepherds remained in print in England in a variety of versions until 1631, going through some nineteen editions. (5) A miscellany of shepherd's lore, tables for finding the dates of moveable feasts, descriptions of the torments of purgatory, and explications of the Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and Apostles' Creed, along with medical and other practical information, the Shepherd's Kalender was heavily illustrated, the pictures in the English editions deriving from woodcut models in the French editions, printed first by Guy Marchant and published by Antoine Verard. Copies were owned in France and England by aristocratic and middle-class readers. …