Il Vero Sesto Cajo Baccelli… best buy ever!

Consulting the phases of the moon for farming and bottling wines is a biodynamic practise that, independently of Rudolph Steiner, has been integral to farming since time began. Nowadays the lunar calendar is even used for planning wine tastings and opening bottles. Tesco and Marks & Spencer, UK retailers that sell about a third of all wine drunk in Britain, invite critics to taste their ranges only at times when the biodynamic calendar suggests they will show at their best… In Italy there are people who still consult the moon before cutting fingernails or hair. Just like pruning trees, whether the moon is waxing or waning will change the speed of re-growth.

An essential instrument for all this comes out once a year. Il Vero Sesto Cajo Baccelli; a pastel blue booklet that, as specified on the back page, contains 100 pages including the cover. This almanac has been published for the last 133 years in Florence and is sold all over Italy.

Sesto Caio (or Cajo) Baccelli, known as “lo Strolago di Brozzi,” was a cabalist and astrologer in the 17th century. He was from Florence and was related to the famous astrologer Rutilio Benincasa (1555-1626). Sesto means sixth and the frontispiece specifies that he was Settimo’s (Seventh’s) elder brother... Sesto was famous for publishing a lunar almanac for farmers, which was resuscitated in 1878 and has been coming out every year in October since then.

It starts with a doggerel poem about the events of the previous year, centred around Florence though touching on Italian and world events. These “sestine” were read at Sunday lunch tables and can be bought in collector’s sets of 50 years at a time. This year’s verse mentions the Abruzzo earthquake, the train accident in Viareggio, Japanese tourists, the new tram system in Florence and the economic crisis amongst other things. There is then a list of religious festivals and the four 2010 eclipses (two solar, two lunar, none visible in Italy). Month by month there is a lunar calendar peppered with mottoes and detailed farming instructions. The instructions are in sections; fruit trees, olive groves, vineyards, cantina, livestock, vegetable garden, (“orto”). Last of all is “giardino”, since flowers are a farmer’s last priority.

All saint’s days are shown, along with sunset and sunrise times, weather predictions for the whole year, historical titbits and saints’ days and lucky numbers per month. I now know that there will be light rain on 26 June which happens to be the feast day of butlers and chambermaids or that lawyers should be celebrated on the 30th May. Best of all, I can put in my diary that Spring starts on 20 March at 18.33. I will be checking this out (mo me lo segno).

There is a horoscope for the year, articles and poems, two pages of jokes, mathematical problems with a 60 Euro prize, a huge list of all sagre, festivals and markets in all Tuscany, province by province. . And last but not least, all the postal rates for 2010.

Not bad for 2 Euro…. Marco is getting one in his stocking this Christmas.

Ps. You can’t get it on Amazon. I checked.

PPS. Sesto Cajo Baccelli has a Facebook fanpage.