Collection Complete. Des hauts Grades, Ou quatre ordres Superieure. Professes par Le fr. O...: de France. Enrichie et Augmentee.

France n.p.. c1812.

An extensive manuscript on French Freemasonry

An extensive and detailed French masonic manuscript. 340x215mm. pp. 220. Red-orange morocco, backed in deep red morocco. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Corners and edges worn. Internally very good, written in a clear and legible hand. 
A brief introduction explains that the Grand Orient of France was founded in 1772 out an older Grand Chapter which traced its origins to 1721. This makes the Grand Orient the oldest Freemasonry order in Continental Europe. It describes itself today as "the first Masonic obedience in France, a direct descendant of the Age of Enlightenment. It works for the material and moral improvement, the intellectual and social perfection of Humanity".
The manuscript is divided into four sections. outlines the rituals of diverse masonic orders/ temples/ lodges.. The first section deals with the Haut Grades de Rit Francois d'Elu, the oldest of the Continental Masonic Rites with its roots in the ideals of fraternity, equality and moral progress. This is followed by the Grade D'Ecossais ou deuxième Ordre, Scottish masters first appearing in French Freemasonry in 1743. The third Order is Grade de Chev. D'Orient, and the fourth (the longest and most detailed) Grade De Rose-Croix. Each section provides details of the practice of each order including how the Lodges are to be decorated and laid out, the regalia to be worn and used and the rituals to be adopted. The fourth part also contains a detailed description of "Des Privilèges des Rose-Croix et des autres Grades dits Superieurs". These "Grades" include Grades des Dames, Grades Cabalistiques et Ethnetiques, Grades de L'Apocalispe, Maconnerie Jesuitique, Grades Weishautienne, Grades de L' Illuminisme, Maconnerie Africains, Ecossisme de Baron Tschoudi, and Grande Elu Kadosh (Aigle Noir / Aigle Blanc).
At the end of the manuscript are four illustrated pages of "Hierogliphe Des Haut-Grades". These include Alphabets of letters and numbers of the Rose-Croix and other orders as well as eight triangles described as a Key to the "Caracteres des Illuminés".
We have dated this extensive manuscript to 1812 on the basis that this is the last date mentioned in the book. Three pages have the light small stamp of "Philippe - Capitaine au 8 Cuirassiers." The 8th Cuirassiers were a cavalry regiment created during the Revolution. We can find no trace of this manuscript having been published. It seems likely that it is based on the 1801 Regulateur des Chevaliers Macons which has the same four divisions but is much shorter. French Freemasonry is rooted firmly in the principles of the Enlightenment and the Revolution and even today wears its secular, eighteenth-century heart on its stylish, well-upholstered sleeve.

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