Almanacs and Prognostications

Abstract

Chapter 9 surveys the development of almanacs and prognostications in Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It demonstrates the huge numbers in which they were printed, the low price at which they sold, and the ways in which they were distributed nationwide by chapmen and hawkers. It examines their most prominent printers, explores the identity of their authors, and discusses the nature of their content. It highlights the status of Aberdeen as an early and renowned centre of almanac production and illustrates the ways in which these very cheap and ubiquitous publications changed over time.