One of the most popular genres of early modern print culture, combining useful information with sheer entertainment, was the almanac. Aimed at a wide range of consumers – ranging from the illiterate up to the learned – such annually published periodicals provided not only calendrical guidance, but also offered additional information on a variety of topics. Historical knowledge, for example, was communicated in the form of chronicles or short clippings that had been compiled by anonymous authors, and was a constant feature of many early modern almanacs. This changed in the Age of Enlightenment in so far as the increasing interest in historical knowledge, the emergence of professional academic historiography and the ‘commercialization of the book’ led to the production of the historical almanacs that proudly featured the name of a particular author. In my paper, which will be mainly focused on Late Enlightenment German historiography, I will argue that the production of historical almanacs functioned as a testing ground for the applicability of the most recent achievements in academic historiography. Moreover, it contributed to the social prestige of the almanac-writer, who by way of his participation in such a project announced himself as an historical expert to the “reading” public. At the same time, I will explore the reciprocal effects between the socio- cultural construction of historical expertise and the practice of historical almanac production by introducing several German historical almanacs, which have been widely ignored by modern scholars, including the Historisch-Genealogischer Kalender from 1784 wherein we find a history of the American Revolution by the German historian Matthias Christian Sprengel.
This is a lunchtime event where pizza and salad will be served. If you wish to have lunch, RSVP to emework@fas.harvard.edu by Sunday, October 18.
