NavList:

Huub R, you wrote:
"I was intrigued by your message about the "Connaissance des Temps" ..."

I wasn't quite sure what you were saying here, so I apologize if you already know this. The oddly-named Connaissance des Temps is the ancestor of many modern nautical almanacs. The CdT originated in 1679. There's a good introduction to the CdT on the French Wikipedia.

The page layout, topics covered, even some of the typography were directly copied by the British Nautical Almanac & Astronomical Ephemeris almost a century later in 1767. Of course it's not as if there were no nautical almanac resources available outside France during those decades before the official British almanac began. There wasn't much need in earlier decades (before lunars!), and private publications with broader contnt, in other words, navigation manuals, carried such data as navigators required.

By the way, like the British Nautical Almanac, the C. des Temps became a legacy document, meant for the observatory. In both cultures smaller practical volumes were spun off for practical nautical navigation. Don't trust a book by its cover title. :)

Frank Reed