Tulley, John | One of the first American Almanacs to include meteorological predictions

Tulley, John

An Almanack for the Year of our Lord MDCXC. Boston: Samuel Green, 1690 [i.e. 1689]

12mo (145 x 95 mm). 16 pages, self wrappers; title margins renewed, costing several words on first leaf, edges chipped, lightly dampstained. 

John Tulley was a teacher of astronomy and navigation from Saybrook, Connecticut, who issued Almanacs in Boston each year between 1687 and 1702 (his death). His publications lacked the overtly religious tone that marked the other almanacs of the period. Instead, he was among the first to include astrological and meteorological predictions. According to Charles Nichols in Notes on the Almanacs of Massachusetts, he became "almost notorious for his skill in weather prediction." His contributions to the format also included restoring January to the first place in the calendar, and his almanac for 1699 was the first to contain the list of roads and distances from Boston to other towns.  

The last leaf contains sections on rainbows, and thunder and lightning: "...the Rainbow is made by the Sun Beams striking upon a hollow cloud when their edge is repelled and beaten back against the Sun, and thus ariseth variety of colours by the mixture of air and fire together." It concludes with a paragraph advertising an antidote called "Aqua-antitorminalis," which works against "Griping of the Guys, and the Wind-Chollick" sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee House in Boston. 

Scarce. We can trace just four other examples of any of Tulley's Almanacs at auction in the last forty years. 

REFERENCE:

Drake 2882; ESTC W35414; Evans 548; Wing A2585

PROVENANCE:

Jay T. Snider, his sale, Christie's New York, June 21, 2005, lot 91