{"id":1402,"date":"2025-01-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=1402"},"modified":"2025-01-19T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T12:00:09","slug":"january-19th-kalendar-of-shepherds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/january-19th-kalendar-of-shepherds\/","title":{"rendered":"January & Rabbiting January 19th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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January from Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks 1626 from the Kalendar of Shepherds (digitised by Internet Archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Kalendar of Shepherds was printed in 1493 in Paris and provided ‘Devices for the 12 Months.’ I use a modern (1908) reconstruction of it using wood cuts from the original French and adding various text from English 16th and 17th Century sources. The text of the month (as shown above) is provided from a 17th Century source. It gives an interesting view of the countryside in January. To see the full Kalendar, look here:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicholas Breton, the writer of the text above, concludes that January:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘is a time of little comfort, the rich man’s charge, and the poore man’s misery.’ <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rich man is burdened by having to help out all the poor people who depending upon him to get through the shortages of winter. The image for January shows that January is best spent indoors by a roaring fire, eating pies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"January<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Kalendar introduces a ‘conceit’ which is that the year mirrors our lives, and we can forecast what will happen in our lives by looking at the months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kalendar of Shepherds, January text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So our lives, which are of 72 years, can be divided into 12 ages of man, each of 6 years. So, January represents the first 6 years of a person’s life. And as you can see, that during these first 6 years, the child is ‘without witte, strength, or cunning, and may do nothing that profiteth<\/em>‘. As the year changes every month, so, ‘a man change himself twelve times in his life’. At three times 6 (18 or March) a child becomes a man, and 6 times 6 (36 or June) man is at his best and highest. And at 12 times 6 (72 or December) man is at the end of his allotted span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare numbered the Ages of Man as seven, in the great speech of Jacques in ‘As You Like it’ I dealt with this and other Ages of the World in my post<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Greater Cycles & the Ages of Man December 19th<\/a><\/blockquote>