A very beautiful 'miniature yearbook' with palm-sized calendars of one year was a symbol of wealth

Nowadays, with the development of technology, you can instantly get various information from a single smartphone to the date and time, weather after one week, and how to make delicious curry. However, instead of a calendar, people with no smartphones carried a yearbook with a calendar. Among such yearbooks, there are small hand-sized miniature yearbooks, especially those made by Wang Wei nobles, and they are highly regarded as antiques in the modern world, according to Atlas Obscura .

For Centuries, Know-It-Alls Carried Beautiful Miniature Almanacs Wherer They They Went-Atlas Obscura
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/miniature-almanacs

In ancient Babylonia thousands of years ago, it seems that there is a trace that the yearbook was carved on a clay plate . Although the accuracy of the calendar engraved on the clay plate is low and it is not practical, humanity from now on 'to write the calendar on something and to use it on a daily basis,' said Cambridge University history research Says house Loren Kassel.

As farming technology has evolved, people who want to know when to harvest grain and when to sow are increasing, especially in Europe. So, in Europe from ancient times to the Middle Ages, calendars and yearbooks based on Christian rituals were created. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, the yearbook appears to have printed about 400,000 copies a year, and it is probably the Bible that will exceed this number, historian Bernard Capt has speculated. You

Of course, the yearbook has a one-year calendar, and it has an expiration date of 365 days, and it will be discarded in December. Nevertheless, a large number of very expensive and beautiful yearbooks have been created in medieval and modern Europe, and it has become commonplace to have palm-sized miniature yearbooks among the upper class.

For example, the image below is the yearbook made in 1785. The case housing the small yearbook body is made of ivory and precious metals.

The following calendar is a scroll-shaped miniature yearbook, produced in London in 1792. The case containing the scrolls printed with calendars is also made of ivory. It is said that such a yearbook has a weather forecast, a timetable, a tide table, and a unit conversion table of money, weight and distance.

Patricia Pistner is one of the collectors of these miniature yearbooks, and has dozens of miniature yearbooks. Originally, when Mr. Pistner was searching for a miniature for a dollhouse, he met an 18th-century French miniature yearbook, and has been collecting it for 34 years since then, but 95 Pistner says that only types can be found.

The following miniature yearbook is made of silk and gold embroidery with a portrait of a child in the center. The collection collected over 30 years by Pistner is extremely elaborate and expensive materials are abundantly used, and the miniature yearbook has the owner's purpose other than the purpose of 'knowing the calendar'. It is believed that there was also a purpose to show off wealthy people.

'The miniature yearbook doesn't last forever, but the nobles carried the items they wanted for at least a year. The miniature yearbook can be carried like a smartphone, but it's more than twice as beautiful as a smartphone 'Said Atlas Obscura.