Rider's British Merlin 1774 + The Court and City Register
London: R. and M. Brown / Company of Stationers & J. Jolliffe, G. Woodfall, and J. Walter, et al. 1774. 12mo; 5 1/4 x 2 7/8 in. (134 x 77 mm); almanac and calendar bound into one volume. 1. Rider's Merlin, 60 pp. + 13 blank sheets for notes and a woodcut "Anatomical Man," printed in black and red ink; 2. Court and City Register, vi + 282 pp. printed in black ink. Title pages of both are mounted in succession at the beginning of the book. Contemporary red morocco with flap, elaborate gilt decoration, four raised bands, black morocco title label to spine, white metal clasp; Dutch gilt endpapers, a.e.g.; green silk pocket to contain cards etc. on the back of the book is torn and partially missing. Binding worn and soiled, as is typical of an object of daily use, but binding is tight and square, and pages clean and bright, a few tightly cropped.
Calendar 1: Rider’s British merlin: For the year of Our Lord God 1774. Being the second after bissextile or leap-year. Adorned with many delightful and useful verities fitting all capacities in the islands of Great Britain’s Monarchy. With notes of husbandry, fairs, marts, high roads, and tables for many necessary uses. Compiled for his country’s benefit, by Cardanus Rider.
[Anatomy of Man's body (where body parts correspond to zodiac signs), Chronology of Creation and History; Table of Kings, Principal Roads; etc. Sign A in red and black ink; Price in square brackets: (Price stitched Nine-pence.)]
Calendar 2: The court and city register, or, gentleman’s complete annual kalendar, for the year 1774: Containing, I. New and Correct Lists of both Houses of Parliament, II. The Court Register. III. Lists of the Army, Navy, Universities, Public Offices, Hospitals, &c. With many Improvements, and the Addition of some new Lists
[House of Peers, Commons, Royal Household; Postal routes, fees, and delivery times; military branches and officers; Hospitals; Universities and top posts.... etc.; Price from imprint: Price 2s. bound; or with an Almanack 2s. 9d. bound]
[ESTC T45014, N4862].
A beautifully-bound and much used almanac and calendar for the year 1774, full of useful and curious information ranging from planting and farming suggestions for each month of the year in the Merlin, to a plethora of information about the running of the British state, society and commerce.
RIDER'S BRITISH MERLIN was a pioneering and popular almanac, printed between 1656 and 1830. The name of its author, Cardanus Rider, is a pseudonym for Richard Saunders (1613 –1687?), a physician and astrologer who began publishing his astronomical data and miscellaneous information on health and farming for a wide public. The Merlins inspired Benjamin Franklin's most successful commercial endeavor: POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC. Franklin published them under the pseudonym Richard Saunders(!) and included not only serious and practical information but also jokes and hoaxes. It was a bestseller in the American colonies and printed up to 10,000 copies per year, bringing wealth to Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack was so popular that Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and later it was also translated into French.
"The name Cardanus is a reference to the mathematician and astrologer Gerolamo Cardano. He is well known for his scientific career and the first use of negative numbers. Along with his accomplishments in the mathematics, he spent much of his life as a physician and working on the sciences. It would make sense for an almanac, that has information about science and medicine, to have a reference to a prominent polymath." (Michigan State University, Rare Books and Special Collections, XX AY751 .R54 1726)
As in this case, the Merlin was sometimes bound with another yearly publication that detailed government, military, academic and commercial information.
Condition: Very Good.
Item number: 426
Price: $1,100.00
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