SLOVAK ALMANACK FOR A GENOESE DIPLOMAT
[ALMANACK.]
Calendarium Tyrnaviense ad annum Jesu Chris[ti] M. DCC. XXXI[.] …
[Tyrnau (Trnava), 1731.]
4to, pp. [66]; part-title to ‘Prognosis conjecturalis astrologica’, title-and part-title printed within typographic borders, title and calendar printed in red and black, calendar interleaved; lower half of title-page torn away, slight spotting throughout; bound in contemporary printed vellum over boards, each side copper-engraved, completed in manuscript (‘Illustrissimo et Excellmo Domino, Domino Clementi Comiti ab Auria, Abelegato extraordinario Serenissimæ Reipublicæ Genuensi ad Aulam Cæsaream Anno 1731.’, see below), edges silver-gilt (now tarnished), sewn on 3 vellum thongs, spine lined with printed waste; a little rubbed, corners slightly bumped, front hinge split; contemporary ink calculations to front endpapers.
A remarkable almanack binding of part-printed, part-manuscript vellum, prepared for presentation at the Habsburg court in Vienna to the Genoese diplomat Clemente Doria.
The almanack was printed at the Jesuit University of Tyrnau (now Trnava, Slovakia), a centre of Slovak learning in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, whose arms and motto appear on the front board and his motto ‘constatia et fortidudine [sic]’ on the rear.
The unusual binding was evidently designed to facilitate the almanack’s traditional role in courtly gift-giving, with a large panel on the front board left blank to allow a presentation inscription to be added in manuscript, in this case to Clemente Doria (1666–post 1731), a Genoese diplomat posted first to London from 1695 and later, on several missions from 1716 onwards, to Vienna. The almanack dates to the end of his time at the Imperial court, which he left on 3 March 1731.
