ALMANACK. each year and month, foretold the eclipses and other phases, calculated the motions of the planets, &c. His first almanack was published in 1474.
The essential part of an almanack is the calendar of months and days, with the risings and settings of the sun, age of the moon, &c. To these are added various parerga, astronomical, meteorological, chronological, political, rural, &c. as calculations and accounts of eclipses, solar ingresses, prognostics of the weather, tables of the tide, terms, &c. lists of posts, offices, dignities, public institutions, with many other articles political as well as local, and differing in different countries. A great variety are annually published in Britain; some for binding, which may be denominated book almanacks; others in loose papers, called sheet almanacks.
The modern almanack answers to the Fasti of the ancient Romans. See FASTI.