Stichtse almanach op 't jaar onzes Heeren Jesu Christi 1786, voorzien met de jaar- paarde- beeste- on Leer-markten, vacantien, vertrekken en aankomen der posten en bodens; het varen der trekschuiten en veerschepen; het afryden der postwagens, zo in 't sticht Utrecht als Holland; luiden per poort-klok, specie-tafels, water-getyden, &c.

Utrecht: Willem Jan Reers and G. van den Brink, [1785?]

[48]; [24]; 96; 24 p. + [1] folding plate + folded apothecary handbill | 12mo | [A]^12 B^12; A^12; A^8 B^4 C-E^12; A^12 | Almanac: 120 x 75 mm Handbill: 178 x 127 mm

A Dutch merchants' almanac for 1786, with an interleaved calendar providing dates, days, moon phases, and times of the moon's rising or setting. Important feast days do appear in red, though the recording of daily feasts, so common in early almanacs, is here mostly eschewed to share markets in other towns—underscoring the almanac's merchant audience, and symptomatic of the specialization that proliferated among 18th-century almanacs. Following the calendar are details on currency conversion, transport costs, holidays, opening and closing times of the city gates, comprehensive market schedules, postal schedules, and more. Further sections with separate title pages provide exhaustive lists of city officeholders, nobility, and church officials. ¶ The almanac's rather overwhelming directories heavily focus on government and church officials, though traditional professions find a little inclusion. There's a list of physicians on p. 54, for example, and one of lawyers on p. 63-65. With the exception of guild masters on p. 14-17 at end, however, tradespeople are generally excluded. And so our copy stands out for having folded and tipped to its title an unrecorded handbill directory of apothecaries active in Utrecht that year, 28 individuals apparently arranged by seniority (Naamen van de apothekers der stad Utrecht, 1786). This customization rendered a specialized almanac more specialized still, boosting its utility for an even narrower demographic, and PLACING IT SECURELY AT THE INTERSECTION OF MEDICINE AND TRADE. STCN lists half a dozen of these printed lists, none earlier than 1794, all of them bound into a Stichtse almanach in similar fashion; we find an additional example from 1810. ¶ We can only speculate as to the handbill's origins. It's easy to imagine the Utrecht apothecaries' guild publishing these lists, perhaps distributing them to the apothecaries themselves and to those who had regular business with them (physicians, for example). But there's insufficient evidence to suggest their addition to almanacs was any kind of regular practice. As each example we find exists in only a single copy, their collective range spanning just 24 years, it's entirely possible all of them are relics of one particular owner. ¶ These little Stichtse almanacs are easy to come by, but we find the apothecary lists only at the National Library of the Netherlands, EACH A UNIQUE SURVIVOR, AND NONE THIS EARLY.

CONDITION: In a plain limp parchment wallet binding, with a fore-edge flap tucked into a slit in the front cover, the same binding found on so many others. The flap would have allowed the book’s owner to securely stash additional scraps of paper between the covers, much as one might use a wallet. Like so many of its fellow copies, this one is sewn longstitch and preserves a secondary weaving, wherein a thread is wrapped around the visible sewing threads. This provides an obvious decorative element to the structure, but it was just as well functional, strengthening the book by reducing slack in the sewing. As a broad category, longstitch sewing allowed a text block to be sewn directly to the covering material, rather than sewn to separate sewing supports which are themselves attached to the cover. The structure has roots in medieval stationery bindings, though it proved widely popular in the age of print, too, on account of its simplicity and affordability. ¶ The last gathering faintly dampstained, mostly confined to the lower margin. Parchment moderately soiled. A nice little book, still solidly held together.

REFERENCES: STCN 229999980; Forum Antiquarian Booksellers, Children’s World of Learning (1994), pt. 5, p. 658, #2652 (“Official Utrecht almanac offering all possible information on public life to its citizens, both in the town and in the province. Apart from the extensive annual information…a number of extra pieces could be ordered and added, offering lists of names and addresses of governmental personnel…These pieces were also sold separately.”) ¶ Geneviève Bollème, Les almanachs populaires aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Mouton, 1969), p. 34 ("at the beginning of the 18th century, the success of the almanac grew; the number of its themes increased"); Whitney Trettien, "What Is a Fragment?" Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 117.4 (Dec 2023), p. 547-548 ("Cutting, pasting, and assemblage are not fringe methods for organizing information but, as Adam Smyth and Ann Blair have consistently shown us in their work, at the center of early modern print culture and—I would add, expanding their claims—all pre-digital textual media, from the ancient past to the near present") ¶ On the binding: J.A. Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (Ashgate, 1999), p. 301-304 (Szirmai refers to this wrapping with additional thread as interwoven long stitches, with an example photographed on p. 302); Language of Bindings (ligatus.org.uk), http://w3id.org/lob/concept/5433 (secondary longstitch weaving), http://w3id.org/lob/concept/1425 (longstitch); Pamela J. Spitzmueller, “A Visual Dictionary of Traditional Long- and Linkstitch Bookbinding Terminology,” Suave Mechanicals 2 (Legacy Press, 2015), p. 405 (the secondary weaving “is often cinched tightly so an hourglass shape results”; includes an excellent illustration); Nicholas Pickwoad, “The Interpretation of Bookbinding Structure,” Eloquent Witnesses: Bookbindings and Their History (Bibliographical Society, 2004), p. 163n3 (the longstitch binding “was a rapid and economical way to hold books together, and was often used for temporary, retail bindings and cheaper blank books from the late fifteenth-century onwards”)

Item #571