★ Rangel, Francisco Dimas [XVIII-XIX secolo]. Calendario por dentro y fuera México, dispuesto por D. Francisco Dimas Rangel, Filomátematico Maestro Maquinista de la Real Fábrica de Armas de Chispa, y Profesor en la Noble y Real Arte de Reloxerìa, en esta Corte. Para el Año del Señor de 1819. Los seis meses primeros [-segundos]. [Al colophon: Con las licensias necesarias. [Ciudad de Mexico] En la Oficina de Alexandro Valdés.] [1818].
Broadside stampato al recto (43,7x32 cm).
Devo questa scheda al caro amico antiquario Bill Cotter di Austin, Texas, la cui impeccabile scheda riproduco di seguito:
“The only known copy of a colonial Mexican sheet almanac by Guadalajara watchmaker, astronomer, and philomathematician Francisco Dimas Rangel, published by Mexico City viceregal printer Alejandro Valdés in late 1818. The almanac records eclipses and other celestial phenomena, lunar phases, meteorological predictions, astrological data, feast days, and the essential moments in the Catholic calendar. Printed in seven columns within a typographic border on each side, the calendar bears a small woodcut christogram of the Society of Jesus on recto, another of the Virgin on verso, and 49 tiny anthropomorphic moons in various phases. Much like European and English almanacs, Mexican almanacs were likely printed in the months preceding the salient year. Valdés probably printed his 1819 calendar in November or December of 1818. Most almanacs appeared as a series, year after year, but we have found no evidence of any Rangel almanacs, excepting a tantalizing announcement in an October issue of the Mexico City periodical El Noticioso General, which advises of the upcoming appearance of a Rangel calendario with a very similar title. Rangel is thought to have died in poverty, but when is unknown. Given the verb tenses in the title, Rangel seems to have been alive at the moment of publication, so we can safely assign the scientist a terminus post quem of late 1818”.