Almanack

The striking thing about this small almanac, apart from the parchment binding originally from a mediaeval manuscript , is its handy formnar of eight by nine centimeters. This meant it fitted into a ‘thief’s pocket’ (i.e. thigh pocket or trouser pocket) and could easily taken on a journey.

The well-know doctor and herbalist Rembert Dodoens (Dodonaeus) (1517-1585) also went to an Antwerp printer for his almanac, even thougt he himself never lived in the city. From the early 1540s he was working as a doctor in Mechelen; fact in 1548 was even appointed as its municipal docter.