Le Seul Almanach des Dieux, Pour L’Année M.DCC.XXII. Rempli de choses trés-curieuses & trés-utiles pour la Santé.

(ALMANAC)

Pierre Calamy

Bordeaux

(1722)

Fold-out plate printed in red with advertisement on verso (small tear skillfuly mended). Woodcut title border, additional three-quarter page woodcut facing title

Not in Desgraves

A charming regional almanac containing weather predictions, remedies for the plague, astrological prognostications for the months, gardening ideas, births and deaths of French monarchs and nobility, a calendar of parliament meetings and country fairs, a table of currency conversions and interest calculatons, a list of the tides, and a calender of mail deliveries. The first two leaves present an account of the coronation at Ferrara on 2 August 1721 of Felix Coën as “King of the Jewish Nation” by the rabbi. This event is depicted in the fold-out plate with costume and scenery in a suitably ancient style. Interestingly, 1721 also happens to be the year in which a charge of “blood libel” was leveled against the Jewish community in Ferrara