Genealogical Chart of the House of Saxon, 1812 Almanac de Gotha
Dublin Core
Title
Genealogical Chart of the House of Saxon, 1812 Almanac de Gotha
Subject
History of the Genre
Description
Though British almanacs represent much of the format of RudolphAckermann's and other publishers' initial forays into the literary annual, Ackermann and his editor Frederic Shoberl credit the French for the development of the annual. In the 1823 Forget Me Not Preface, “he professes his obligations to the Almanac de Gotha, a work of acknowledged accuracy and of high reputation on the Continent.. . [for] useful articles of reference (v, vii). Similar to Ackermann's Forget Me Not, this almanac is wrapped in gild edges and housed in a slipcase. At 48mo, the 1812 Almanac de Gotha contains tightly printed and difficult to read text, accompanied by a calendar, and interspersed with eleven portraits and landscape scenes throughout the calendar. A pull-out page provides a genealogical chart of the House of Saxon, which leads into paginated reference materials, including a table of contents at the conclusion. This French almanac adds the engraving as a point of visual entertainment to complement the useful information, but it lacks any literary materials. The recto-printed engravings are set off by their blank verso pages, indicating that the engravings could be excised from the volume and mounted by the owner. The Almanac de Gotha, though, is not a luxury item despite the slipcase signaling a sense of preservation; it is a step closer to the beauty of an annual, but the contents are still geared towards information rather than entertainment. (from Harris' Forget Me Not: The Rise of the British Literary Annual)
Publisher
C.G. Ettinger
Date
1812
Contributor
Katherine D. Harris Collection
Rights
Photo credit: Tom Davis
Format
2.5"x4"
Type
page
Collection
Citation
“Genealogical Chart of the House of Saxon, 1812 Almanac de Gotha,” Book Club of California, accessed May 12, 2024, https://bccbooks.omeka.net/items/show/18.