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Astronomical Images : Calendrical conventions and symbols

Andreas Nolthius

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Annual almanacs were a form of calendar that came into their own after the advent of printing. This example records that printing was first invented in Strasbourg in August 1440. Indeed, one of the earliest things that Gutenberg printed - apart from the Bible - was a Latin calendar for 1457. The new technology enabled a rich variety of formats, sizes and forms of almanac to develop. The present almanac, in the booklet form, was compiled by Andreas Nolthius <i>mathematicus</i>, who also issued a prognostication (prediction or forecast) for the same year. This page, for the second half of August 1575, begins with a list of dominical letters (the capital letter B, in red, signifies Sundays) alongside the saints' names that were traditionally attributed to specific dates according to regional custom. Thus Nolthius's almanac retains some visual continuity with earlier perpetual calendars found in medieval manuscripts of the Book of Hours, whilst displaying significant differences. In accordance with Lutheran practice, this example indicates passages for Sunday readings. The red circle and crescent indicate the Full Moon and the Last-Quarter Moon respectively. The Moon's position in the zodiac is also indicated by the appropriate symbol. These zodiac marks had been in use since the Middle Ages, but were also listed at the beginning of the booklet for reference. Planetary aspects (relevant for medical purposes) were further indicated; for example, on 20 August Mars was shown in opposition to the Moon. The double red cross indicates auspicious days for blood-letting, and the single red cross, medium days. Next to a single red cross on 24 August is a red cup, signifying a good day for cupping (another form of blood-letting), and the red clover sign indicates a good day for sowing and planting. 30 August indicates with an asterisk a good day for taking medicines, and the adjacent black mark indicates a good day for weaning children. Nolthius also offered weather forecasts for the region where the booklet was published, such as <i>Schoen</i> ('fine', 24 August) and <i>Feucht</i> ('damp', 26 August). Nolthius calculated the lunar and planetary positions, indicated by the symbols, for the meridian of Einbeck, Lower Saxony (where he probably lived), using Erasmus Reinhold's <i>Prussian Tables of Celestial Motion</i> (1551), a compilation of the astronomical tables scattered through Copernicus's works. The <i>Prussian Tables </i>were intended to replace the <i>Alphonsine Tables</i> for calculating the daily positions of the planets. Lutherans like Nolthius particularly valued Copernican parameters for the improvement of astronomical predictions, whilst not necessarily accepting Copernican cosmology (it is worth noting that it was through calendars such as this that Copernicus's reputation spread, as a skilled mathematician or an authority on a par with Ptolemy, rather than as a revolutionary advocating a heliocentric universe). In addition to his favouring of the <i>Prussian Tables</i>, further evidence of Nolthius's Lutheranism is evident in his inclusion in the historical references which accompany each month of events noteworthy for the evangelical cause, such as Luther's attendance at the Diet of Worms; the death of 100,000 men in the Peasants' War; and the publication of the Augsburg Confession. The inclusion of saints' days as markers of time is not, in this context, as surprising as it may appear at first glance. Lutherans were not so thorough-going in their elimination of Catholic practices, though the users of this calendar were expected to meditate on historical events significant to the evangelical cause, and not on the saints themselves. The historical events listed here for the month of August were: Printing was invented in Strasbourg in 1440 and improved thereafter in Mainz. In the year 1527, 2 August, Maximilian, the present Emperor, was born in Vienna in Austria. In the year 1543, Gran in Hungary was captured on 11 August by the Turk Suleiman. In the year 1528, on 20 August, Georg von Fronsberg died.</p>


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