American Revolutionary War as seen from 1776 Venice. No U.S. copies.
[Venice almanac 1776] / [Revolutionary War] / [Electricity]. Nuovo Almanacco per l’anno bisestile 1776. Arricchito di notizie utili e dilettevoli. Venezia: Alla Libreria della Fortezza, s.a. [1775/76]. 24mo in 8s [9.9 x 6.2 cm], 220 pp., with woodcut device on title page. Bound in contemporary red cartone, gold-tooled spine and cover borders, block-printed endpapers, all edges gilt. Minor rubbing and edge wear to spine and covers. Internally bright and clean with only a few folded corners.
Very rare (1 copy worldwide: Augsburg) first and only edition of this 1776 Venetian almanac. The book is remarkable for its appended sections on current events, which discuss New England (“Nuova Inghilterra”) & the war with colonists (pp 210-20), recent electrical experiments (with mention of Benjamin Franklin), Circassian slavery (then being outlawed), and current trends in art (e.g., Wedgwood and the vogue for Etruscan designs).
The work includes the expected astronomical data (eclipses, etc.), tables of Venice sunsets & sunrises, a full calendar with both typical (day, date, feast days, moon phases) and local/unexpected information (which fish to eat, Jewish holy days [“Feste degli Ebrei”], Venice-specific festivals, and bank holidays).
Additional lists of bank holidays and feasts days are provided for individual towns in the Veneto, as are tables of when & where to find money changers in Venice, exchange rates, departures & arrivals of the post, in short, the information required to conduct the sort of business for which Venice was renowned.
Frankly still useful to the historian today are the almanac’s extensive tables and lists of eras, historical calendars and chronology, secular & sacred rulers beginning in the time of Christ, genealogies of European principates, lists of current church leaders & Venetian rulers, etc.
OCLC, KVK, and OPAC/SBN/ICCU locate only the example at the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg, against which our copy was collated.