ABSTRACT
Inspired by J.P.S. Uberoi's study of Goethe as part of the ‘other mind of Europe’ and Carlo Ginzburg's investigations of ‘conjectural’ knowledge, this chapter discusses the visual language of the ‘ominous hieroglyphics of 19th-century English almanacs, specifically a publication known as Raphael's Prophetic Messenger. Examples of this almanac and their ‘talking pictures’ published between 1828 and 1842 are discussed in some detail. Exploring Diana Donald's suggestion that there was a subaltern ‘argot plastique’ of crowd rituals, street signs, and cheap print, Ernst Bloch's articulation of colportage is invoked as a way of framing the alternative forms and circuits of circulation of this ‘other’ writing. Finally, the Anthropological Epilogue considers E.B. Tylor's and Claude Levi-Strauss’ engagement with forms of ‘picture writing’.
