1721: Eternal love

New features

It was not until the end of the eighteenth century, when the ideas of the Enlightenment had become widely accepted, that almanac astrological predictions were forced to step aside and make way for other features. In 1787 the Amsterdam publisher Theodorus Crajenschot began to cut out weather predictions and 'similar absurdities' in his Nuttige en aangename staatsalmanach [Useful and Pleasant State Almanac], and to replace them with 'something substantial' - 'a brief Sketch about The Power of Love'.

Love

Love was a rich source of inspiration for almanac makers. All manner of courtship was upheld and praised, first in brief verses accompanying the calendars and later in lengthy poems. The almanacs of the nineteenth century contained a veritable flood of romantic poems and stories, decorated with idyllic illustrations. But there is one almanac that stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Eeuwigduurende liefdes almanak [Perpetual Love Almanac] of 1721.

Amorous context

It is one of the oldest almanacs with obviously playful intentions. Elements from traditional calendars are incorporated in an amorous context, such as 'the twelve months of the year of love', which includes Visit (first month), Hope (fifth month), Engagement (eighth month), Regret (eleventh month) and Indifference (twelfth month). In other cycles of the year love is described in the same style.

Key almanac

The author and publisher of this richly illustrated little book hid behind the pseudonyms Philomúsus Philokalus ('Lover of the muses and the beautiful') and Philander Mirtillo of Cyprus, the place where Venus, the goddess of love, came to shore after having been born on the high seas. This veil of secrecy had already been lifted by the author's contemporaries. The almanac gave rise to various pamphlets that revealed the work's true intention: the author was the student Albert van Twist, who wanted to immortalize his love for the (for him) unattainable Johanna Susanna Alensoon. Van Twist, born in Hulst in 1699, had enrolled himself as a law student at the University of Leiden in 1718, where he, if we may believe the pamphlets, expressed more interest in lessons of love than in his lectures. These pamphlets apparently were written by fellow students or others who had witnessed Van Twist's attempts at courtship. So the Eeuwigduurende liefdes almanak is a key almanac; behind the fictitious names in the poems real persons are lurking, giving the work a unique position among the other Dutch almanacs.

And Albertus van Twist?

Things turned out all right for Van Twist. He graduated in 1721 (the year in which the almanac was published) and returned to Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, where he married in 1725, was the father of many children, and finally became a bailiff and dike warden.