ABSTRACT
When new forms of print and natural knowledge mutually constituted each other’s prominence, almanacs approached these transformations of audience, disciplines and technologies as established resources for natural knowledge. Underlining opportunities for debate about natural knowledge was the tension surrounding prophecy and astrology. Almanacs offered a focus for tensions about social and intellectual authority that was characteristic of the early Victorian period and was characteristically embedded in discussions of natural knowledge. This chapter explores instances of the negotiation of knowledge reflected in almanacs. Patrick Murphy’s coup revealed what was at stake in the almanac trade: a disciplined communication of natural knowledge. The respectable elements of that audience, ready to be schooled in a proper appreciation of natural knowledge, became the target of another remarkable almanac during the middle decades of the century. As established sources of information about the natural world, and as the reading matter of the millions, almanacs represented the profitable path to popular knowledge.
