635J Crdanus Ryder

Riders (1684.) British Merlin: bedeckt with many delightful varieties and useful verities, fitting the longitude and latitude of all capacities within the islands of Great Britains monarchy. And chronological observations of principal notes to this year 1684. Being the bissextile, or leap-year. With notes of husbandry, physick, fairs, & marts. Directions and tables to all necessary uses. Made and compiled for the benefit of his country, by Cardanus Riders

London : printed by Tho. Newcomb, for the Company of Stationers, 1684.                         Price $1,700

Duodecimo 12 x 7 1/2 cm signatures A6 B12 C6  (sporatically Interleaved). Contemporary blind stamped  with Ryder 1684  full calf recently rebacked and restored, very nice.. VERY RARE Wing A2257 Estc R33087

Two copies Oxford and Huntington ..

Riders British Merlin which first appeared in 1656 and continued to be published well into the nineteenth century. Riders was published under the control of the Stationers’ Company which maintained a virtual monopoly over the lucrative almanac trade until the eighteenth century. The Company aimed to procure the maximum profit possible from these publications by keeping their printing processes efficient and at minimal costs: the fact that the almanacs were produced and therefore sold cheaply ensured that they were affordable to the masses. That is not to say that they were designed exclusively for the poor; users of almanacs in fact belonged to every social group, and the great majority of purchasers would have been yeomen, husbandmen and artisans.

VERY RARE Wing A2257 Estc R33087

Two copies Oxford and Huntington. ONLY