This workshop delves into the intersections of time and writing in early modern almanacs and calendars. It aims to analyze not only how these popular and ephemeral texts and chronographic media propagated particular temporal orders but also how they were used. Almanacs and calendars were not merely tools for projecting or tracking (feast) days and celestial events; they were dynamic media in which 'scientific' knowledge, practical advice, and cultural (self-)narratives converged. The event brings together interdisciplinary scholars to explore how visualizing and writing practices in these sources framed notions of temporality, and how they meditated personal and collective experiences of time. 

Argument

This workshop delves into the intersections of time and writing in early modern almanacs and calendars. It aims to analyze not only how these popular and ephemeral texts and chronographic media propagated particular temporal orders but also how they were used. Almanacs and calendars were not merely tools for projecting or tracking (feast) days and celestial events; they were dynamic media in which ‘scientific’ knowledge, practical advice, and cultural (self-)narratives converged. The event brings together interdisciplinary scholars to explore how visualizing and writing practices in these sources framed notions of temporality, and how they mediated personal and collective experiences of time. 

Moreover, a central question will be how early modern people adapted and appropriated almanacs, calendars, and similar chronographic media for personal use. In the case of annotated almanacs and (writing-)calendars (Schreibkalender), special attention will be paid to the intertextuality between the printed temporal design and the handwritten notes. Examining this use together with the materiality, circulation, and (inter-)textuality or pictography of almanacs and calendars helps to assess their impact on writing routines and human engagements with time.

By situating these sources within broader early modern practices of timekeeping, record-keeping, and everyday writing, the workshop aims to foster new understandings of the variety of applications of almanacs and calendars as well as their interplay with personal notions of time and (life-)writing.

Program

Thursday, 15 May 2025

9:00–9:30 Vitus Huber (University of Fribourg): On Intersections of Early Modern Temporalities and Writing Systems: An Introduction

Session 1: Mediality of Time

Chair: Michelle Aroney (University of Oxford)

• 9:30–10:15 Helga Meise (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne): The Landgrafen of Hessen-Darmstadt: Calendars and Clocks in the 17th century
• 10:15–11:00 Jakub Ochocinski (EUI Florence): “In all matters, time has its zenith:” On the Variety of Time Marking Practices in Calendar Annotations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795)

Coffee Break

• 11:15–12:00 Kelly M. Smith (University of Alabama in Huntsville): Calculation and Instruction: Astronomical and Astrological Time in Seventeenth-Century Schreibkalender

Lunch

Session 2: Time and Narratives

Chair: Claire Gantet (University of Fribourg)

• 13:45–14:30 Sylvia Brockstieger (Heidelberg University): Temporality and Storytelling in Writing Calendars
• 14:30–15:15 Katherine Walker (University of Nevada, Las Vegas): “Here lies the east:” Fragmentary Time in Early Modern Almanacs

Coffee Break

Session 3: Almanacs in the Americas

Chair: Thomas Hunkeler (University of Fribourg)

• 15:45–16:30 Alejandro J. Garay Herrera (University of Bonn): Notions of Time and Divination in the Colonial Calendrical Almanacs of the Maya of Guatemala
• 16:30–17:15 Sergio Orozco-Echeverri (University of Antioquia): Almanacs for a New World: Iberian-American repertorios de los tiempos

Break

Keynote

Chair: Thomas Lau (University of Fribourg)

• 18:00–19:30 Bernard Capp (University of Warwick): Time Recorded and Time Constructed: The Personal and the National in English Almanacs

Dinner

Friday, 16 May 2025

Session 4: Plurality of Annotations

Chair: Claude Bourqui (University of Fribourg)

• 9:00–9:45 Vitus Huber (University of Fribourg): Annotating Almanacs: Time, Subjectivities, and Writing Routines in Seventeenth-Century England
• 9:45–10:30 Ada Arendt (University of Oslo): Annotations of Care: Two Early Modern Almanac-Keepers Seen Through Their Marginalia 1668–1701

Coffee break

Session 5: Transformations

Chair: Kilian Schindler (University of Fribourg)

• 10:50–11:35 Holly Day (University of York): The 'New Style' of Calendar: From Almanac to Pocket Diary in Eighteenth-Century Britain
• 11:35–12:20 Rudolf Dekker (University of Amsterdam): The Changing Use and Changing Forms of the Almanac in the 16th–19th Centuries in the Netherlands

12:20–13:00 Final Discussion

Lunch