| Abstract: | ABSTRACT The history of the almanac in Croatia is reconstructed through primary research in bibliographic and archival sources. The almanac is a vehicle for knowledge communication in informal contexts, engaging both oral tradition and literary forms traceable to medieval literacy and ways of structuring knowledge. The history of the almanac in Croatia reflects the changing context of the book trade, literacy, and the evolution of language. Four main stages are identified: (1) the beginning of the annual almanac in the seventeenth century; astrological almanacs reflecting the sensibility of the Baroque period; (2) the Enlightenment's stimulation of almanac publishing in the spirit of contemporary secular reforms in agriculture and education; (3) nineteenth-and twentieth-century almanac trade, showing complex and overlapping networks for the production, distribution and appropriation of printed almanacs;(4) roughly the end of World War II, when the almanac slowly moved out of the role of a popular mass medium and into specialized niches represented by regional, diaspora, and religious almanacs. |
