View Item

The English shoemaker John Whalley (1653–1724) came to Dublin in 1682 and reinvented himself as an author, journalist, astrologer, and quack medic. From 1697 onwards, he published an almanac with predictions for the coming year entitled Advice from the Stars. His newspaper Whalley’s News-Letter (1714–23) was strongly anti-Catholic and revelled in sensationalism.

This sheet was produced to cash-in on public interest in advance of the lunar eclipse of 29 August 1718. Whalley begins by explaining the cause, nature and frequency of lunar and solar eclipses, before describing what contemporaries would see during the eclipse. Whalley’s predictions about the timing of this event were very accurate, according to data about historical eclipses supplied by the United States’ space agency, NASA.

Citation:
An Account Of the Great Eclipse of the Moon, which will be Total and Vissible at Dublin... Fryday the 29th of August 1718 ([Dublin], 1718).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/483