Researching Freemasonry
Where are we?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v1i2.225Keywords:
Historiography, Freemasonry, Authentic SchoolAbstract
This article deals with the development of historical enquiry into freemasonry since its origins to the current academic treatment. This development is divided into two general phases when freemasons researched their history themselves and when it during the Twentieth century became an academic subject. The major developmental lines in historiography are treated. It is argued that new archival findings will modify deeply rooted perceptions of historical events, exemplified by Anderson's account of the formation of the English grand lodge in 1717 and von Hunds initiation in Paris in 1742. Conclusively the article suggests a catalogue of research that still is to be done.
References
— The New Book of Constitutions of the Antient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons (London: 1738).
Bakounine, Tatiana, Le répertoire biographique des francs-maçons russes, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (Bruxelles: 1940).
Benimeli, José Antonio Ferrer, Masoneria, Iglesia e Illustracion. Un conflict ideologicopolitico-religioso. I: Les bases del conflicto 1700–1739 (Madrid: 1982).
Bernheim, Alain, ‘La Stricte Observance’, Acta Macionica 8 (1998): 67–97.
Draffen, George, Scottish Masonic Records 1736–1950, available on the website: http://freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk/?q=resources_draffen
Dyer, Colin, The History of the First 100 Years of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, QCCC (London: 1986).
Hamill, John, The Craft: A History of English Freemasonry (Wellingborough, Crucible, 1986).
Hanou, André, ‘De Loge Parterre’, in: Anton van de Sande and Joost Rosendaal (eds), ‘Een stille leerschool van deugd en goede zeden’: Vrijmetselarij in Nederland in de 18e en 19e eeuw (Verloren: Hilversum 1995), 41–61.
— ‘De Loge Parterre’, in: André Hanou, Nederlandse literatuur van de Verlichting (1670–1830)( Vantilt: Nijmegen 2002), 111–29.
Jardine, Lisa, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren (London: Harper Collins, 2002).
Kervella, André and Philippe Lestienne, ‘Un haut-grade templier dans des milieux jacobites en 1750: l’Ordre Sublime des Chevaliers Elus aux sources de la Stricte Observance’, Renaissance Traditionnelle 28/112 (1997): 229–66.
Kloss, Georg, Geschichte der Freimaurerei in Frankreich aus ächten Urkunden dargestellt (1725–1830) (Darmstadt: Erster Band, [s.l.], 1852).
Lane, John, Masonic Records, 1717–1894: being lists of all the lodges at home and abroad warranted by the four Grand Lodges and the ‘United Grand Lodge’ of England, with their dates of constitution, places of meeting … With an introduction by William James Hughan (London, give publisher, 2nd edn, 1895).
Le Bihan, Alain, Franc-maçons parisiens du Grand Orient de France (fin du XVIIIe siècle) (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1966).
— Loges et Chapitres de la Grande Loge et du Grand Orient de France, 2e moitié du xviiie siècle (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1967).
Lefebvre-Filleau, Jean-Paul, La franc-maçonnerie française: Une naissance tumultueuse 1720–1750 (Caen: Maître Jacques, 2000).
Lennhoff, Eugen and Oskar Posner, Internationales Freimaurerlexicon (Unveränderter Nachdruck der Ausgabe 1932) (Amalthea: Wien & München, 1975).
Önnerfors, Andreas (ed.), Mystiskt brödraskap – mäktigt nätverk. Studier i det svenska 1700–talsfrimureriet (Lund: Lunds Universitet, 2006).
Prescott, Andrew, ‘A History of British Freemasonry 1425–2000. Farewell lecture to the Centre for Research into Freemasonry, 20 February 2006’, http://freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk/pdf/history.pdf inspected 6/5/2007
Roberts, John M., ‘Freemasonry: Possibilities of a Neglected Topic’, The English Historical Review 84 (1969): 323–35. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXIV.CCCXXXI.323
Scanlan, M.D.J., ‘The Mystery of the Acception, 1630–1723: A Fatal Flaw’, Heredom 11 (2003): 55–112.
— ‘Operative versus Speculative’, Acta Macionica 14 (2004): 25–54.
Snoek, Joannes A.M., “The Earliest Development of Masonic Degrees and Rituals: Hamill versus Stevenson’, in: Matthew D.J. Scanlan (ed.), The Social Impact of Freemasonry on the Modern Western World, The Canonbury Papers 1 (London: CMRC, 2002), 1–19.
— ‘Drei Entwicklungsstufen des Meistergrads’, in: Quatuor Coronati Jahrbuch für Freimaurerforschung 41 (2004a): 21–46.
— ‘Trois phases de développement du grade de Maître’, in: Acta Macionica 14 (2004b): 9–24.
Songhurst, William John (ed.), The Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of England, 1723–1739, Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha X (London: The Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1913).
Stevenson, David, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century 1590–1710 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Stokes, John, ‘Masonic Teachers of the Eighteenth Century’, The Prestonian Lecture for 1928, in: H. Carr, The Collected ‘Prestonian Lectures’ 1925–1960 (London: The Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1967), 63–94.
Var, Jean-François (ed.), ‘Les actes du Convent de Wilhelmsbad: “Préavis” par Jean-Baptiste Willermoz’, Les Cahiers Verts 7 (1985): XXVII-LII.
Vatcher, Sydney, ‘A lodge of Irishmen in Lisbon in 1738. An Early record of Inquisition Proceedings’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 84 (1971): 75–109.
Yarker, John, The arcane schools: a review of their origin and antiquity; with a general history of freemasonry, and its relation to the theosophic, scientific, and philosophic mysteries (Belfast: 1909).