Astrology, Almanacs, and the Early Modern English Calendar

Astrology, Almanacs, and the Early Modern English Calendar is a handbook designed to help modern readers unlock the vast cultural, religious, and scientific material contained in early modern calendars and almanacs. It outlines the basic cosmological, astrological, and medical theories that undergirded calendars, traces the medieval evolution of the calendar into its early modern format against the background of the English Reformation, and presents a history of the English almanac in the context of the rise of the printing industry in England. The book includes a primer on deciphering early modern printed almanacs, as well as an illustrated guide to the rich visual and verbal iconography of seasons, months, and days of the week, gathered from material culture, farming manuals, almanacs, and continental prints. As a practical guide to English calendars and the social, mathematical, and scientific practices that inform them, Astrology, Almanacs,and the Early Modern English Calendar is an indispensable tool for historians, cultural critics, and literary scholars working with the primary material of the period, especially those with interests in astrology, popular science, popular print, the book as material artifact, and the history of time-reckoning.

List of contents

List of figures, Foreward, Acknowledgements, Introduction, PART I: Backgrounds, PART II: How to read an early modern almanac, PART III: Early modern calendars, Bibliography, Index of Saints and Holy Days, Index

About the author

Phebe Jensen is Professor of English at Utah State University, USA. She is also the author of Religion and Revelry in Shakespeare's Festive World (2008).
Alison A. Chapman (Foreword) is Professor of English at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Product details

• Authors: Phebe Jensen, Jensen Phebe
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.06.2022
• EAN: 9780367609290
• ISBN: 978-0-367-60929-0
• No. of pages: 338
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; The arts: general issues, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Shakespeare, LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance, History of Science, Literary studies: general, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, History and Archaeology, Classic and pre-20th century plays, Shakespeare Plays, The arts: general topics