[ FREEMASONRY ] Institution of Rites and Ceremonies of the Order of the de' Francs-Macons or Free Masons; with description and copper drawing of the Lodge - In Venice 1785 at Leonardo Bassaglia

in-8° (190x125 mm.) contemporary full leather binding with gold-stamped decorations and titles on the spine

and plates, gilded edges. Eyelet, chalcographic frontispiece, pp. 94 + 6 plates at the end of the text depicting various Masonic symbols and the alphabet of the Frankish Masons. Ancient ownership note in ink on the flyleaf dated 1807. Trimmed frontispiece, beautiful complete copy.

In 1785 a large English Lodge, the Union, founded on November 27, 1772, was demolished by the Venetian Senate, and many of its members were condemned to exile. Even the tolerance and ancient freedom of the Serenissima had to yield to the pressure of the Roman Church. It was one of the members of this Lodge, in an act of testimony and love, who published a Masonic legend that traced the foundation of the Order back to Cromwell, together with the Lodge rituals and the account of its vicissitudes. Beyond the historiographical importance that can be attributed to the text, the literary part is of notable beauty, and highlights the arcane symbolism, only partially explained, of this ritual very close to the origins of the Masonic revitalization of the early 18th century and the insertion into it of esotericisms that testify to its perennial traditionality.