Details

Subjects:

Freemasonry -- France -- Early works to 1800.
Freemasonry -- Rituals -- Early works to 1800.
Freemasonry -- Law and legislation -- France.
Freemasonry -- Law and legislation.
Freemasonry -- Rituals.
Freemasonry.
France.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Catechisms.
Bylaws (administrative records)
Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

French, with a few citations in Latin.

Summary:

Forty freemasonic ordinances composed by the Chevaliers de l'Aigle (Knights of the Eagle), one of the highest degrees among freemasons in 18th-century France. The statutes include the following topics: the proper procedure for admitting new members and visitors, the process for proposing and adopting new statutes, the proper relationship between the statutes passed at various local lodges and the statutes accepted by the Great Lodge, the assignment of passwords for admission to various lodges, the distribution of marks of recognition to members of the order, the establishment of hierarchies within each lodge, the proper way of granting patents to new lodges, the method of coding messages in hieroglyphics. Following the 40 statutes are 2 catechisms addressed to the Chevaliers de l'Orient et d'Occident (Knights of the East and the West) and the Chevaliers d'Aigle.

Contents:

1. f.1r-17v: Les quarante nouveaux statuts de la Maçonnerie qui fondent les pouvoirs des Chevaliers de l'Aigle
2. f.17v-18v: Instruction pour les Chevaliers de l'Orient et d'Occident.
3. f.19r-31v: Instruction pour les Chevaliers de l'Aigle.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title for manuscript from title for predominant work (f. 2r).
Incipit: Commes nous nous sommes apperçus qu'il se glissoit differents abus au fait de l'exercise de la très sublime Maçonnerie, et voulant y pouvoir par les voies les plus efficaces...(f. 2r); Explicit: ...le 24 Juin 1754 de l'[É]gire vulgaire, etoient signés Serenissime Protecteur, le Vénérable et Sougrand Sécrétaire avec les deux grands Surveillants (f. 16r-17v).
Foliation: Paper, 34 leaves, [i, 1-31, ii]; modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Layout: Written in 21-22 long lines.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Watermarks: Coat of arms with a horn; name of papermaker under the coat of arms is Vander Ley.
Binding: Modern cloth.
Origin: Written in France after June 24, 1752 (f. 2r).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Henry Charles Lea (bookplate, inside upper cover; inscription dated 1876 f. i recto).

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 176 (Ms. Lea 136).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1194

Contributor:

Lea, Henry Charles, 1825-1909, former owner.

Contains:

Instruction pour les Chevaliers de l'Orient et d'Occident.
Instruction pour les Chevaliers de l'Aigle.

OCLC:

231621055