SECRET SAVANTS, SAVANT SECRETS: THE CONCEPT OF SCIENCE IN THE IMAGINATION OF EUROPEAN

Andreas Önnerfors

Everybody takes his seat in the inner room or cham- ber, the only embellishment of which is a painting representing Minerva or the image of the goddess of wisdom lowered in a light cloud or sky, with some free- masons visible around her to which she points at the resolution of natural Phenomena beneath the proverb ‘Under the guidance and in company of Wisdom, we are safe and protected on the most dangerous abysses and alleys’. —Relation Apologique et historique de la societé des Franc-Maçons, 17381

The Relationship between Savant Culture and Freemasonry in the Eighteenth Century

This article investigates the conceptual relationship between educated culture and freemasonry in the eighteenth century. After its official incep- tion in London in 1717, freemasonry spread within decades as one of the most popular if not paradigmatic forms of sociability, first within Britain, then to France and the rest of Europe and overseas colonies. Its transfor- mation from a professional guild of stonemasons into a secret society, a society in private space, has occupied many previous scholars. Hitherto no definite or convincing explanation has been put forward regarding the reasons why freemasonry underwent this significant change. Certainly the

1 J.G.D.M.F.M. [anonymous author], Relation Apologique et Historique de la Societe des Franc-Maçons (Dublin, false imprint, 1738), 54–55. This anonymous tract was put on the index and burnt at the stake by the Catholic inquisition in 1739 but already during the year of its appearance also translated at least to German and Swedish. Gründliche Nachrichten von den Frey-Maurern (Frankfurt/M. 1738), itself partly a translation from an English book, Freemasons’ Pocket Companion of 1735 served most likely as the blueprint for the Swedish translation inserted in July and August 1738 as a supplement to the Swedish newspaper Stockholms Post-Tidningar, “Anmärckningar Wid Swenska Post-Tidningarna”, no. 31–35 transcribed and commented by Kjell Lekeby, Fri-Murare 1738 (Uppsala 1997). Unfortu- nately I had only full access to the French original and its Swedish translation.

© ANDREAS ÖNNERFORS, 2013 | doi:10.1163/9789004243910_020 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 434 andreas önnerfors knowledge accumulated among craftsmen and architects was attractive for early Enlightenment savants to tap into. Far from being simple work- men, freemasons needed elaborate theoretical skills in order to construct edifices of ecclesiastical and profane architecture. This might explain why one of the earliest accounts of an initiation into freemasonry (1646) stems from Elias Ashmole (1617–1692)—a non-craftsman and founding member of the Royal Society.2 The close relationship between scientific culture and freemasonry increased greatly in the early eighteenth century. Based on Margaret C. Jacobs’s writings on the topic, Paul Elliot and Stephen Daniels have concluded that “Freemasonry was stimulated by Newtonian natural philosophy, and that in turn Freemasonry helped to shape Enlight- enment scientific culture by promoting secular and progressive forms of civic culture”.3 Initiated by Newton’s assistant, John Theophilus Desau- guliers (1683–1744), an experimental scientist, inventor and fellow of the Royal Society, the fraternity of freemasons in 1723 published its (previ- ously internally communicated) Constitutions and Charges, outlining the foundation myths and the organisational structure of freemasonry, which as such was a typical act of erudition of the period.4 Here, the terms “art” and “sciences”, often in the combinations “royal art” and “noble sciences”, have a significant position and will receive further elaboration later. The perception of a relationship between freemasonry and educated culture was strong and manifested in various ways. An initial thorough presenta- tion of a diorama displaying the workings of a will be pre- sented as one of the most peculiar representations of this perception, with an attempt to outline how “arts” and “sciences” are represented in this remarkable piece of visual art and printing culture. Subsequently, briefly treating the membership of savants in Masonic lodges, the last part of the paper attempts to map a discourse on the relationship between freema-

2 An overview of the relationship between craft freemasonry and the phenomenon of accepted freemasonry is given by Matthew Scanlan, ‘The Mystery of the Acception, 1630–1723: A Fatal Flaw’, Heredom 11 (2003), 55–112. 3 Paul Elliot and Stephen Daniels, ‘The “School of True, Useful and Universal Science” Freemasonry, Natural Philosophy and Scientific Culture in Eighteenth-Century England’, British Journal for the History of Science 39 (2006), 207–229: 209, and Jacobs’ works refer- enced herein. The authors capitalised the term “freemasonry”. Together with many other researchers in the area, I prefer to spell freemasonry with small letters, stressing that it is not one unified phenomenon or entity, but rather a dynamic concept of fraternal sociabil- ity with many variations. 4 For practical reasons, I have used the online edition of the first American reprint carried out by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1734 available on the URL: http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu/ (accessed 22.09.2009). All subsequent page numbers refer to Franklin’s reprint.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 435 sonry and science as it appeared in two masonic journals in Vienna and London in the 1780s and 1790s.

A View into the Scientific Workings of a Masonic Lodge? Engelbrecht’s Diorama

One of the major innovations of European print culture was the invention of printed miniature theatres, optical parlour toys, peep shows or diora- mas. When consecutively mounted and arranged front to back within a display box, cut-out plates printed on cardboard (in the following named “wings”) create a three-dimensional perspective scene. This concept, cop- ied from theatre stage scenery, is both simple and revolutionary: it allowed the viewer a look into something, creating dimension through enhanced perception. Early masters of this printing technique were the brothers Martin (1684–1756) and Christian Engelbrecht (1672–1735), print-sellers and engravers in Augsburg.5 Martin Engelbrecht had engraved a spectacu- lar series of illustrations, ranging from contemporary European potentates to images of Rugendas and other classical masters, and his work has been characterised as being “beyond comparison”.6 His other works included illustrations for Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The War of Spanish Succession, 92 views of Venice, and a series of prints of workers and their dresses. Engelbrecht’s earliest dioramas are dated around 1730. His engraved cards inserted in a display box showed religious scenes and pictures of everyday life in perspective view, among these the Expulsion from Paradise, the Final judgement, the Festival of Tabernacles, scenes from a rural “Okto- berfest”, a royal jousting, miners at work in an underground coalmine, and many others.7 Optical prints such as Engelbrecht’s dioramas were a form of elaborate and certainly expensive eighteenth-century entertainment, representative for early visual media and precursors of later forms of three-dimensional and cinematographic illusionism. In this context it is

5 Janet S. Byrne, ‘Ephemera and the Print Room’, Metropolitan Museum Journal 24 (1989), 285–303: 295–296. 6 Stephen Gertz, ‘The Miniature Theaters of Martin Engelbrecht’, published on 23 July 2009 on URL: http://www.bookpatrol.net/2009/07/miniature-theaters-of-martin.html (accessed 21.09.2009). 7 A comprehensive overview of the works of Martin Engelbrecht is provided by Mar- tin Bircher, ‘“Horribilicribrifax” illustriert: Engelbrecht und Bodenehr als Illustratoren von Andreas Gryphius’ Lustspiel’, in Norbert Honsza and Hans-Gert Roloff (eds.), Daß eine Nation die ander verstehen möge: Festschrift für Marian Szyrocki zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (Amsterdam 1988), 97–122: 98–99.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 436 andreas önnerfors fascinating to find an Engelbrecht diorama, dated between 1730 and the middle of the century, displaying a scene from a lodge of freema- sons (titled “Franc-maçons Freymaurer/Loge”, engraved by Jeremias Wachsmuth, 1711–1777) and, more relevant for this volume, to find the activities of this masonic lodge intimately related to science.8 The view into secret space of a freemason’s lodge, where the members are by no means performing secret rituals but rather are occupied with scientific work, is extraordinary.9 What is the link between secrecy and science, and the self-perception of savants in the eighteenth century? How did freemasonry imagine the concept of science? And how was freemasonry perceived as scientific?

8 As per September 2009, I had located following copies: Library and Museum of Free- masonry (London); Centre de Documentation Maçonnique (Brussels); Österreichisches Freimaurermuseum (Rosenau); Deutsches Freimaurermuseum (Bayreuth); CMC (The Hague); Museum of the Grand Loge National de France (Paris); the East Lancashire Pro- vincial Museum in Manchester. I want to express my thanks to all the curators who pro- vided me with information and images related to these dioramas. Another copy is held in a private collection in Italy. In the exhibition catalogue The Freemason’s Raiment of Light (Tours 2002), 222 and 223, six cardboards of Engelbrecht’s diorama are presented (dated here to 1760). Rüdiger Wolf (ed.) writes in the exhibition catalogue Mozart: Experi- ment Aufklärung im Wien des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts (Wien 2006), 379, that the dio- rama “illustrates the role of sciences and arts in the lodges”. For an image of the diorama exposed in 2006, see the exhibition catalogue Österreichisches Freimaurer-Museum (Wien 1994), 123. Erich Lindner in Die königliche Kunst im Bild (Graz 1976) reproduces as no. 122 a diorama from the collections of the Bibliotheque National in Paris, restored in 1943. A version of the diorama is presented online on the URL: www.glnf-musee.fr (accessed on 28.09.2009). The leading Austrian rare book dealer Inlibris in 2009 offered four of Engel- brecht’s dioramas for sale, among them a copy of the masonic diorama, see URL: www .rarebooksandautographs.com/content/english/bestand/sachgebiet.php?sg=Arts%2C+ Technology%2C+Manufactures (accessed 28.09.2009). Inlibris dated the diorama to as early as 1730 and suggests that this set was formerly part of the repertoire of a travelling showman. I have written twice to Inlibris, but unfortunately to date (as per November 2009) not received a reply to my request concerning the dating. I do not want to elabo- rate much further on this interesting question, but given that the start of freemasonry in the Old German Empire traditionally is said to have taken place with the formation of a lodge in Hamburg in 1737, it is unlikely or rather it would be speculation to say whether a diorama already had been printed seven years earlier. Furthermore, it contains imagery from a work published in 1736. The first German exposure of freemasonry, a work writ- ten in its defence, was published in 1738. I will subsequently demonstrate that significant parts of the idea of activities in masonic lodges might have been derived from this source. Martin Engelbrecht died in 1756. The most likely time span during which the diorama was designed and executed is 1736–1756. 9 Within freemasonry in the US, there developed a strong tradition of thea- tre and stage plays and it could be argued that Engelbrecht’s diorama is the very fist proof of “staging ritual space”. See the exhibition catalogue C. Lance Brockman (ed.), Theatre of the Fraternity: Staging the Ritual Space of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry 1896–1929 (Minneapolis 1996) with attached convolute of prints.

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The foundation of masonic thought was laid down in the Constitutions and Charges of Freemasonry, edited by the Scottish priest James Ander- son (1679–1739) in 1723 and published in a number of editions during the eighteenth century. Whereas the Charges regulate the organisational prin- ciples of masonic lodges, the Constitutions treat the ideology and mythical with a clear component of Western hermetic tradi- tion, linking its origins with the Creation, the erection of the Temple of Solomon, and other spectacular edifices throughout human history. Based upon the mythology of mediaeval guilds, it is, however, significant to note that the concepts of “science” and “art” within the Constitutions, denot- ing two distinct types of knowledge, frequently recur. Masonic lodges in Europe adopted not only the organisational form and ideology outlined in these fundamental texts, but shared a ritual practice, serving the purpose of initiating new members into the Craft and conferring higher degrees on them. The classical organisational division of guilds in various classes— apprentice, fellow and master—was transformed into an elaborated ritual degree system by the early 1720s, loaded with references to the symbolism of various religious and philosophic traditions and to apocryphal lore. These rituals were performed in secret, private, non-public space. When a lodge met in a designated room for functions, often in a tavern, and the doors were closed, it met in a private, secret space—enhanced by ritual and interior design—differentiating it radically from public space. Ritu- als enacted for experience were intended to remain secret to the outside world as a form of performed knowledge shared by the brethren of a lodge and guarded by signs and tokens with which freemasons would identify each other as members or holders of a certain degree. Every candidate was obliged to individual secrecy by his oath not to tell anyone about what he had witnessed or experienced or anything about the rituals per- formed. This form of secret sociability of course created suspicion and curiosity among the public and the authorities alike. Wolfgang Hardtwig argues that it is possible to distinguish between “the secret” as the con- tent of knowledge [Wissensinhalt] and metaphor on the one hand and “secret society” as a certain type of societal organisation on the other hand.10 Freemasonry in all its varieties centred around these two concepts of secrecy with a symbolic and a concrete dimension of conspiracy, often

10 Wolfgang Hardtwig, ‘Eliteanspruch und Geheimnis in den Geheimgesellschaften des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Helmut Reinalter (ed.), Aufklärung und Geheimgesellschaften (München 1989), 63–86: 63.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 438 andreas önnerfors overlapping in the eighteenth-century context. Speaking of the Order of Illuminati—and in the present author’s view this applies to much of eighteenth-century freemasonry—Hardtwig writes: The secret as cipher for the potentiality of autonomy and self-education of the personality is present in the programmatic texts of the Order of Illu- minati as much as the imagination of methodical, concealed, that is secret action with a political aim. Conversely, the Secret as cipher of the chal- lenging Unknown in researching nature supposes the concrete separation of intellectual seekers from officially sanctioned institutions and forms of knowledge-acquisition.11 For the savant member of a masonic lodge, the concept of secrecy with other words underpinned a programmatic belief in the refining function of education as much as it offered an intellectually free space liberated from ideological control. Furthermore, secrecy could serve as a motivation for concealed action in public space. However, the concept of secrecy did not lose its attraction by public exposure. One of the first examples of a disclosure was published in the Post-Boy in the very year of the publication of the Constitutions.12 And there were more to come. In 1730 Samuel Pritchard’s Masonry Dissected disclosed the secrets of masonic ritual in print. Perhaps L’Ordre des Franc- maçons trahi et les Secrets des Mopses revelée, which was originally pub- lished in Amsterdam in 1745 and quickly spread both in translations and reprints all over the continent, became the most influential. Engraved plates provided the reader with images of the rituals performed and symbols used inside the lodge. A series of seven elaborated etchings was printed in the same year in Leipzig, based upon a slightly earlier French exposure: Le Coutumes des Francs-Maçons dans leurs assemblees.13 There was in other words no lack of vivid descriptions and visual evidence of the activities of masonic lodges. Therefore, it is even more striking that

11 Ibid., 64–65. All translations by the author of this article. It is beyond the scope of this article to treat the historical Order of Illuminati (1776–1785). However, the membership of prominent eighteenth-century savants and a savant concept of its activities, ideologies and rituals are obvious. The Illuminati chose the owl of Minerva as their symbol. For a recent reference, see Reinhart Markner, ‘“Ihr Nahme war auch darauf”: Friedrich Nicolai, Johann Joachim Christoph Bode und die Illuminaten’, in Hans Erich Bödeker et al. (eds.), Friedrich Nicolai und die Berliner Aufklärung (Berlin 2008), 199–225. Markner has recently worked on a scientific edition of the correspondence of the Illuminati. 12 Brent Morris, ‘The Post Boy Sham Exposure of 1723’, Heredom 7 (1998), 9–38. 13 [Johann Martin Bernigeroth (ed.)], Le Coutumes des Francs-Maçons dans leurs assem- blees principalement pour la reception des apperentifs et des maitres, tout nouvellement et sincerement decouvertes [title also in German] (Leipzig 1745). The etchings are designed by a “Marquise de ***” and engraved by a “Mademoiselle ****”.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 439 the view Engelbrecht created with his diorama elaborates upon a com- pletely different perception of freemasonry. The quotation at the begin- ning of this paper is taken from a French apology of freemasonry, Relation apologique et historique de la Societé des Franc-maçons (1738) translated to German as Gründliche Nachricht von den Frey-Maurern nebst beygefügter historischen Schutzschrift, printed in 1738 and reprinted in a second edi- tion two years later. It is likely that the image of freemasonry as com- municated in this book inspired Engelbrecht, describing “a society where the core and essence of noble sciences and useful inventions is quested, handled and cultivated” and that freemasons “didn’t practice anything else than noble exercises and free sciences, aiming at the usage of Reason and Intellect . . . the sound application of Reason and the progress of the Intellect in experiments and action.” The senses, the anonymous author goes on, “were indulged by fair thoughts and considerations and discover- ies in the realm of nature, as well as by findings and clear demonstrations of manifold phenomena.”14 And he continues: The aim of freemasons is such that their guild and society rightly can be named a true brotherhood and delightful Society or a Noble Academy, the members of which do not seek anything else than the edification of Reason . . . engaged in calm and ordered conversations, for the knowledge and instruction on the right and just usage and exploitation of Creation.15 The brethren depicted in the miniature theatre are not performing ritu- als such as were already exposed in other printed products, but are all engaged somehow in scientific activity. To the contrary of what almost all of the other exposures previously had related or depicted, Engelbrecht engraved freemasons measuring, reading, reflecting, discussing, explain- ing, looking for answers in books, on astrolabes and globes, and using mathematical instruments.

Layers of Perception: From Measurement to Transmutation

Research in the provenience and spread of these dioramas has so far shown that they were produced in at least two separate varieties; around ten are to be found in various collections across Europe.16 These dioramas have different elements and are colourised in different manners, allowing

14 Relation Apologique 1738 (note 1), 24; Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 32, 36 and 38. 15 Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 41. 16 For reasons of consistency I will predominantly treat the Brussels version of the dio- rama and refer to other varieties if necessary. Images of the diorama and its separate parts

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 440 andreas önnerfors the conclusion that colouration was carried out locally.17 To return to the motive: the description presented here takes the perspective of the observer, who looks into the diorama. What we see is not a secret society carrying out secret rituals, but rather a group of educated men, discuss- ing scientific questions and tools, measuring the world and the universe guarded by female deities and male deities: Minerva (Pallas Athene) and Mercury (Hermes). Minerva is predominantly the goddess of wisdom, education and learning, arts and crafts, astrology and magic, and Mercury the messenger of the gods, the god of merchants and trade but also the father of the “hermetic”—the very term is derived from Hermes himself. At the centre of the diorama, wing 5 depicts nine freemasons grouped around a U-shaped table chaired by a worshipful master carrying a sun amulet, seated on a throne embellished with masonic iconography (fig. 1). On the table we find masonic and mathematical instruments such as trowels, compasses, and rulers. In front of the master is a lectern with skull and bones, flanked by two candles. Behind the table is a chest, pre- sumably to keep books, tools and documents. To the left is a tenth upright figure engaged in conversation with one of the seated lodge members. It appears as if he is delivering a message to the figures seated around the table, suggesting that these are nine masters who constitute a lodge. Somebody is reading what appears to be a letter or a leaflet and another is reading a book. Notes are taken, perhaps by a secretary. To the right of the master are two freemasons engaged in conversation and another has a convolute of documents or a book in front of him. At the top of the scenery we find a typical emblematic representation of tools used in vari- ous sciences such as could be found in any frontispiece of an encyclo- paedia: square, compasses, rulers, levels, a document, a globe, an axe, a trowel. And to the left and right, in front of a column and each on a ped- estal, we find Minerva and Mercury. This description is almost a visual representation of passages in the previously mentioned Gründliche Nachricht (1738). The appearance of Minerva has already been referred to in the introductory quotation. It is

have been made available by courtesy of CEDOM, Le Centre de Documentation Maçon- nique in Brussels, Belgium. 17 Since I became interested in this most remarkable piece of visual art, I am grateful for discussions with and remarks by many people in the research community who cannot be credited individually here. However, I would like to thank especially Andrea Kroon, who generously has placed parts of her yet unpublished PhD dissertation Het schootsvel van de vrijmetselaar. Een kennismaking met een ritueel kledingstuk, University of Leiden, 1996 and an unpublished paper with a description of the diorama at my disposal.

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Fig. 1. Diorama displaying scientific workings of a Masonic lodge (c. 1750), Engelbrecht (Augsburg). With courtesy CEDOM, Brussels. also vividly described how lodge members deliberate various topics. The possibility is almost ruled out that the lodge cannot reach a joint posi- tion “as it is manned with so savant and skilled men, being versatile in Sciences, that it is difficult to propose a topic they would be incapable to resolve.” The Secretary and his duties, the President and the chest we can see in the Diorama are also mentioned. Annual transactions of the lodge, containing “resolved problems, intelligent questions and theses with their Pros and Cons in a variety of Sciences, Arts and noble Crafts” are to be kept locked up in the chest. This chest almost represents a bank of knowledge, as savants, artists and authors can request information from the lodge: “And hence the Archives of freemasons could be called wells unable to run dry, out of which can be extracted what brings Sciences and Free Arts to perfection and what otherwise is looked for in vain in other parts of the world.”18

18 Relation Apologique 1738 (note 1), 56, 59 and 61; Gründliche Nachrichten 1738 (note 1), 117–118; Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 46, 48 and 50.

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Fig. 1a. Detail.

In front of the table (wing 4) are two groups of freemasons dressed in masonic aprons, placed around two tables to the left- and right-hand side of the space. The group to the left is apparently discussing masonic tools that are placed on the table, one of them reading from a booklet. At the right-hand side three masons are engaged in conversation, whereas a fourth seated figure poses in deep thought, measuring a double circle with a ruler. Wing 3 shows three different groups of masons. Four of them are seated on chairs placed to the left and to the right, shown from the back and ornamented with masonic symbols. To the right, two upright figures are engaged in conversation. In the middle of the scenery we see two freema- sons measuring a terrestrial globe, continents, countries and seas, with compasses and square. One of the seated figures to the left is pointing

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 443 with a trowel in the direction of the globe and one of the upright figures to the right points with his square in the same direction. The two measuring masons appear to receive instructions from these figures. The second wing displays two groups of freemasons, five altogether, placed to the left and right of an astrolabe. Two masons to the right hold masonic tools, a square and a trowel, and are engaged in conversation with each other. To the left a seated figure is reading a book, whereas an upright figure holds a levelling rule and a third figure is pointing towards the astrolabe. At the top of the wing we find an arch with a medallion displaying the title of the diorama: “Franc-Maçons/Freymaurer Loge”. These three wings represent educational imagery. Freemasons do not conceal anything from to each other, writes the author of Gründliche Nachricht, “even the youngest freemason gets access to all knowledge that is cared for by them, as much as the Quinta Essentia of Sciences and any other Noble Experience”.19 The first wing serves as a frame for the entire scenery with two ionic columns holding a classical arch with no further motifs. One of the more significant differences between the various dioramas concerns this very first frame. Some of the versions show two crests to the left and the right of the arch and to the middle a medallion with a portrait of a man dressed in red. The left crest shows a yellow cross on a bluish (?) background; at the centre of the cross is a bird on top of a bell. However it is the background of the diorama that diverges signifi- cantly between different versions of the diorama. In the Brussels version predominantly treated here, we find eleven freemasons displayed on wing 6. Two groups of freemasons are placed to the left and the right of a pyramid built up of seven steps and are obviously being informed and instructed or having a lively discussion. An individual freemason to the right of the pyramid is placed on a natural and rough rock and is mea- suring it with a plumb line. A two-storied classical arch, forming a sort of apse or gallery, with eighteen pyramid-shaped pinnacles, frames the scenery to the rear. On the third step of the pyramid, or in fact on top of an archway that forms the entrance to the pyramid or a vault, we find a statue of a smiling bear-bosomed strong, wild (and old?) man, leaning on a club in his left hand. The statue is colourised in earthy colours, ochre yellow or gold in one version, brownish in another. On the seventh step on the top of the pyramid there is a smiling female figure, colourised in

19 Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 42.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 444 andreas önnerfors sky blue/azure. She carries a sceptre with the moon (or a snake?) in her right hand, a burning radiating heart in her left hand, an amulet in the shape of a perfect double circle (with some resemblance to the one dis- played on wing 4) as well as a sort of radiant diadem. In some versions of the diorama the last wing displays a burning furnace in an arch right behind the chair of the worshipful master. This arch is part of an apse behind which we find two staircases to the left and right, leading further upwards, to an invisible higher level of the building as well as two dark vaults, leading into the unknown. For proper interpretation, the scenery can be divided into three differ- ent spaces: the foreground, the central part, and the events taking place in the background. In total, the diorama treated here pictures 41 freemasons distributed across five different levels. The twenty freemasons towards the front of the diorama (wings 2, 3 and 4) are studying masonic tools and are instructed in the basic artistic skills of measurement. The educational character of the scenery is stressed by wing 3, where officers of the lodge, seated in designated chairs, are instructing their brethren measuring the globe. The next level (wing 4) suggests that a capacity has been acquired for independent resolutions of (mathematical) problems. The centrepiece of the diorama (wing 5) is where noble science is studied at the level of initiated and competent mastery, nine masters constituting the basis for a lodge. The gentlemen placed around the central table manage the full range of scientific knowledge needed, between Minerva (theory) and Mer- cury (application). The very last wing, with its intricate scenery, suggests that there is more to the royal art. We are entering a completely differ- ent scene. Although some form of instruction and education also takes place, the pyramid transports the strongest message. The male, earthbound figure on the pyramid is most probably to be identified with Hercules, or strength; on the highest step a female figure may represent a goddess, muse or priestess (Vesta?), probably wisdom, Sapientia, in conjunction with religious exaltation. Hence it is not difficult to relate the scenery to the masonic triad of concepts, “wisdom-strength-beauty”. The sky-blue female figure clearly is spiritual, placed above nature and natural force. The steps leading from the one figure to the other suggest that what the ten freemasons are instructed in is a transformation process in a polar- ity from the lower to the higher powers in man, and it is not difficult to read into this that the pyramid could refer to minor and major alchemical working. If we add that in some of the versions of the diorama a burning furnace (as in use in alchemical working) is displayed, it is no exaggera- tion to suggest the interpretation that deeper involvement in masonic sci- ence embraces the art of transmutation from disorder to perfection.

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It is surprising to find references to alchemy and the art of transmuta- tion in the diorama, as they usually did not enter the imaginative world of freemasonry before 1750. However, Gründliche Nachrichten tells us that “both Chemists and Alchemists receive diligent elucidation and informa- tion concerning requests about problems they have encountered in what- ever operation and laboratory work they are engaged in”. Some of the alchemists, it is claimed, were untroubled by huge expenditures thanks only to the prudent advice they had received from freemasons concerning the art of making gold and the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone.20 So what about the number 41? There is a very odd figure displayed on the very last wing—an individual freemason on a brute rock, measuring with a plumb line. The symbolism of working on a brute stone in order to smooth a perfect ashlar is a prevalent if not constitutive figure of thought in freemasonry. Within the perspective of the diorama, this single indi- vidual stands out, not only above all others—almost on the same level as the goddess—but also for its engagement in intercourse with nature itself. Maybe freemason 41 represents the ultimate goal of the savant learning process. He has been refined through education in the sciences, he has been taught the royal art of transformation and he—as an individual—is now enabled to master nature and his own desires autonomously in order to create perfection. Gründliche Nachrichten summarises the essence of masonic science as it is represented in the diorama, investigating the three realms of nature and the universe: In such a state [the freemasons] seem to be able to send their thoughts and attention into the universe and diligently observe all its blazing bodies and wonders in every sphere, course and movement. On the other hand, their contemplations stretch down to the harbour and interior of the Earth or almost to its centre, to investigate the product of the underworld and the reproduction of liquid and transparent as well as solid and dark growing structures, mineral bodies and precious gems, their real constitution. From there, or from such sheers they again lift their thoughts up to the Earth, in order to investigate the shape and inherent utility of trees, crops and all sorts of herbs as much as living bodies, composition, strength etc. These diligent freemasons also meditate carefully and investigate the changing motion of weather and the movements of Oceans and the wild sea within its limitations.21

20 Relation Apologique 1738 (note 1), 63; Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 52. 21 Relation Apologique 1738 (note 1), 47–49; Gründliche Nachrichten 1738 (note 1), 111–112; Lekeby 1997 (note 1), 42–43.

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Does the imagery of the diorama and what we learn from Gründliche Nachrichten refer to what Elizabeth L. Eisenstein has branded “a special ‘Minerval’ branch of masonry”? She claims: “The figure of Minerva, often in conjunction with Mercury and other special symbols [such as displayed on wing 5 of the diorama], occurs frequently in frontispieces of works favoured by freethinkers of a certain kind.”22 In outlining features of print culture, she analysed the links between secret space and the activities of early eighteenth-century publishers and engravers like Bernard Picart, a member of the fraternal order Knights of Jubilation.23 Moreover, Picart in his work Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde (vol. 4, Amsterdam 1736) included an engraved list of lodges in front of which we find a table in the form of a square, surrounded by freemasons. His image was modelled on a famous engraving done by Pine in 1735.24 In fact, Picart’s engraving has some striking similarities to Engelbrecht’s diorama. Not only are the eleven freemasons in Picart’s version dressed in the same fashion; they are also carrying masonic tools such as compasses, trowel and square and, moreover, they are engaged in reading and con- versation. Wing 2 of Engelbrecht’s diorama displays (although reversed) a seated and upright freemason, almost identical to one in Picart’s engrav- ing, who is pointing at the astrolabe in the same fashion as the central fig- ure in Picart. The chair of the Worshipful master is decorated identically in the two images with moon, terrestrial globe, sun and masonic symbols, a similarity that also applies to the officers’ chairs on wing 3. The chest dis- played behind the table and the pair of candleholders on the table (wing 5) are also to be found in Picart. A closer look at wing 1 of some of the versions described above reveals, not unsurprisingly, the imagery that is also to be found in Picart’s engraving. The gentleman dressed in red on the central medallion has a look and a pose identical to the portrait of Sir

22 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge 1979), 143. 23 Margaret C. Jacob has devoted significant parts of her research on freemasonry to this subject, interpreting the early Dutch printing trade and its links to fraternal orders like the Knights of Jubilation as precursors of Newtonian freemasonry in Britain. See also the digital resource on Picart at UCLA, URL: http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/projects_ collaborations/Picart.shtml# (accessed 15.11.2009). 24 I have consulted the reprint reproduced in Acta Quatuor Coronatorum 23 (1910), inserted as fig. C. between 126 and 127. This is a reversed print that apparently also served as the model for Engelbrecht, when the position of the figures is considered. See also Acta Quatuor Coronatorum 5 (1892), 57f. and B. Croiset van Uchelen, ‘Les Free-Massons’, Thoth 12 (1961), 85–94. The UCLA digital version is available on a test site under URL: http://zoe .ats.ucla.edu/Picart/ (accessed 14.11.2009).

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Richard Steele (1672–1729), an Irish writer and politician, founder of the periodical Tatler, and co-founder of The Spectator, followed by the Guard- ian. Steele was also involved in London’s theatre life.25 The crest to the left is more difficult to explain, however lodge number 88 represented on the engraved list of lodges displays a bird on a bell, a lodge (established in 1732 and disbanded in 1754) that met at the Bell and Raven Inn in Wolver- hampton. Furthermore, the crest to the right closely resembles the coat of arms of Oxford University, listed as University Lodge number 74, together with the coat of arms of Cambridge University. Unfortunately, it cannot be established whether the crest of one of Europe’s oldest universities and a Staffordshire signboard were chosen by random or on purpose.26 The obvious similarities between the two images do, however, suggest that Wachsmuth/Engelbrecht were familiar with Picart’s imagery and used it as one their sources of inspiration.27

A Truthful Representation of Masonic Science?

Does Engelbrecht’s diorama represent a correct image of the kind of activ- ities performed in a masonic lodge? What spectators of this scenery are told is that freemasons read, discuss, measure, experiment, reflect, that they communicate their knowledge, that there is a tangible relationship between freemasonry and scientific culture, that freemasons are savants and hence what happens in presumed secrecy is in reality a secret for the savant. This science is carried out with tools to be found in a masonic lodge, in between Minerva and Mercury, science of the past, and applied sciences situated in a temple surrounded by nature. Some versions of the diorama suggest furthermore that freemasonry not only leads from specu- lation to application but also from ruin to perfection. Everybody versed in eighteenth-century masonic ritual immediately recognises that the scenery the diorama displays has little to do with the majority of activi- ties in a masonic lodge. It is, however, of minor interest whether what is

25 See Rae Blanchard’s article, ‘Was Sir Richard Steele a Freemason?’, Publications of the Modern Language Association 63 (1948), 903–917 that also elaborates in considerable detail on Picart’s print. 26 I am indebted to Martin Cherry at the Library and in Lon- don for his invaluable help in decoding the imagery of the crests. 27 It is worth exploring further whether Engelbrecht used Picart as a source of inspira- tion for his other dioramas with religious imagery. For example, Jonathan Schorsch in his Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (Cambridge 2004), 170 and 258 includes images of Picart and Wachsmuth/Engelbrecht.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 448 andreas önnerfors represented in this diorama is a true or false representation; of real inter- est is the image of freemasonry the publishers of the diorama intended to spread. Freemasonry was perceived as a secret society; it rituals had been exposed several times and the papal condemnations of 1738 and 1751 were known to the European elites. The purpose of the diorama was not to divulge secret rituals, but rather to communicate a self-image, a rep- resentation of the “noble science of freemasonry” and freemasonry as a scientific approach towards the creation of new knowledge.

Savants in the Lodges

The evident links between organised freemasonry in Europe and the republic of letters could be studied systematically once membership records became available for research on a larger scale. There are, for instance, significant overlaps between members of the Royal Society and the founding generation of English freemasonry, but this fact also applies for the rest of Europe.28 Freemasonry in England not only promoted New- tonian science, but also Enlightenment antiquarianism. And the value of science was more important than its content, a recent study argues.29 In 1741 a lodge called Minerva zu den drei Palmen was founded in Leipzig, gathering important academics and savants. One of them was the Hugue- not Jacques de Pérard (1712–1758/1766) who moved to Stettin, a provincial town at the Baltic coast of Prussia. De Pérard was a member of a number of educated societies such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Uppsala, the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the Royal French Academy of Sciences, the Royal German Societies of Greifswald, Göttingen, Königsberg and Jena. He edited the journal Nouvelle Biblio- thèque Germanique. Within freemasonry, he acted as Worshipful master of the lodge Zu den Drei Zirkeln [Three Compasses].30 The lodge emblem displays three circles in an equilateral triangle, placed on a shield (fig. 2). Towards the top are symbols referring to the fine arts—a palette and paint brushes. Towards the bottom we find musical and mathematical instruments, a torso, a laureate, a book and a

28 Joseph R. Clarke, ‘The Royal Society and Early Freemasonry’, Acta Quat- uor Coronatorum 80 (1967), 110–119 with a list of freemasons that also were fellows of the Royal Society (in total one in four of the F.R.S. during the first half of the century). 29 Elliot and Daniels 2006 (note 3), 219. 30 Andreas Önnerfors, Svenska Pommern: kulturmöten och identifikation 1720–1815 (Lund 2003), 131–133 and 189.

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Fig. 2. Emblem of the lodge Zu den drei Zirkeln (Three Compasses) in Stettin (1762 f.), author’s copy.

­broken column. Masonic, scientific and artistic symbols are joined here in a fashion representative of hundreds of similar emblematic represen- tations across Europe at the time. Brethren of the lodge in Stettin raised funds for a library and a collection of natural objects. Most important was the overlap between freemasonry and the local branch of the Bund der Aletophilen [Truth-lovers], a society established in 1736 under the motto of “Sapere Aude” with the aim of spreading the philosophy of Leibniz and Wolff. In 1766 the Aletophiles in Stettin donated their instruments and books to the masonic lodge. A year later freemasons received lectures in natural philosophy and were encouraged to present weekly lectures to which friends were invited.31 If such a crossover between science and freemasonry can be observed at the outskirts of enlightenment Europe at the time, it is not surprising to find even stronger links in its hotbeds.

31 Adolf Georg Carl Lincke, Geschichte der St. Johannis-Loge zu den drei Zirkeln früher la parfaite (Stettin 1862), 8–9.

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Scientific lectures were delivered in London lodges already during the 1720s and 1730s on topics such as geometry, anatomy or chemistry.32 Mem- bers of the lodge Neuf Soers in Paris were French Enlightenment figures such as the encyclopaedist D’Alambert, Lalande, and later also Benjamin Franklin.33 Every new member had to deliver an oration and the regula- tions of the lodge stated that its purpose was to encourage the cultiva- tion of sciences and arts. Voltaire’s initiation in 1778 became a European media topic. Journal für Freymaurer, a publication that will be referred to below, quoted the French philosopher: “He thought that the desire of one of the most famous men in France could not be anything else than flattering for a society that, according to its inner state, combines science with freemasonry”.34 Readers were also informed that Voltaire received the “apron of glorious brother Helvétius, which the widow of this famous philosopher together with other masonic jewels had handed over to lodge of the nine sisters”. Several hundred members of the European intelligentsia belonged to the Inner Order of the masonic system Strict Observance (1754–1782).35 Just extracting the names of those who have their profession listed as professor provides us with around thirty names. Some of these are clearly academic professionals: Eck in Leipzig, Dähnert in Greifswald or Schwarz in Moscow represent a type of savant who not only is rooted firmly in academic hierarchies but who, through the editing of critical jour- nals or membership in academies and educated societies, also represent new forms of knowledge production and dissemination. When applying a broad definition of the figure of “the Savant” in the eighteenth century we ought to count lawyers, physicians, booksellers, publishers and clergymen as an elite that perceived itself as “scientific”. A systematic prosopographic exploitation of membership records of local lodges as well as educated clus- ters, such as has been carried out for the area of “Central Germany”, must be carried out for other cultural hotbeds in Europe.36 In addition to a

32 Elliot and Daniels 2006 (note 3), 215–216. 33 C.N. Batham, ‘A famous French lodge’, Acta Quatuor Coronatorum 86 (1973), 312–317. From this article we learn that Lalande had established a Lodge of the Sciences, confined to masons concerned with scientific research. 34 Journal für Freymaurer 2 (1784), 231–242: “Voltaire’s Aufnahme in den Freymaurer­ orden”. 35 Verzeichnis sämmtlicher innern Ordensbrüder der Strikten Observanz (Oldenburg 1846). 36 Holger Zaunstöck, Sozietätslandschaft und Mitgliederstrukturen. Die mitteldeutschen Aufklärungsgesellschaften im 18. Jahrhundert (Tübingen 1999). The geographical term “mit- teldeutsch” applied in this study is not uncontroversial as it implies a concept of Germany that stretches east of its borders with Poland, determined contractually by international

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 451 quantitative approach, we are in need of qualitative descriptions of the life histories of members. A clear analysis of the overlap between intel- lectual and masonic culture in Europe can only be achieved by a system- atic approach using collective biography, including comparison between membership in secret societies and subscriptions to educated periodicals and editions or other projects of educated enlightenment.

“Scientific Freemasonry”: The Relationship between Masonry and Science

Ignaz von Born (1742–1791), as master of the lodge of intellectuals Zur Wahren Eintracht [True Concord], in Vienna and editor of its Journal für Freymaurer (12 volumes, 1784–1786) can be regarded as the prototype of an educated Enlightenment figure and at the same time a devoted freemason.37 Von Born united a career as a mineralogist, scientific author, and a member in academies (such as the Royal Society) and educated societies. The Jour- nal für Freymaurer represents a new type of specialised masonic journal. It reinforces the medial image of freemasonry as scientific. Von Born strived to promote intellectual reflection and scientific method in outlining the nature of freemasonry. He also encouraged his fellow brethren to pres- ent the fruits of their intellectual reflections in the form of orations and lectures in specially designed “Lodges of Exercise” [Übungslogen]. Each of these volumes was introduced by an essay treating religious traditions and fraternities, ranging from the Magi to early Christianity, and hence puts the journal in the tradition of early comparative religious studies, such as already represented by Picart five decades earlier. Masonic orations on topics like “On the effects of masonry on the bravery and activities of the philanthropist” touched almost upon political ethics in a time when social reforms were still a distant utopia.38 Some of the masonic news inserted clearly represents an overlap between scientific and savant space. Every year the journal reviewed masonic publications, an ambition that links it to the tradition of critical journalism of the time. One article reported the

law. It is, however, frequently used as synonymous with the hotbed of enlightenment within the area of Jena, Halle, Weimar and Leipzig. 37 Helmut Reinalter (ed.), Die Aufklärung in Österreich. Ignaz von Born und seine Zeit (Frankfurt/M. 1991) serves as an excellent introduction to the personality of Born and his interest in secret and savant spaces. 38 Journal für Freymaurer 4 (1785), 59–76: “Von den Wirkungen der Maurerey auf den Muth und die Thätigkeit des Menschenfreundes”.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 452 andreas önnerfors inauguration of a lodge in Edinburgh, working in Latin, “for the benefit of the students of Edinburgh University”.39 Two Vienna lodges in 1786 adver- tised the establishment of a “Scientific Institution” for the benefit of fellow freemasons. They had made it their principle rule, the article stated, to be of use for erudition in order to promote each individual freemason’s capacity. Subsequently, a design for a scientific museum was presented, ranging from physical instruments and objects of natural history to arte- facts from industry and trade. Furthermore, it was envisaged to acquire “the best classical authors from all nations” as well as political newspapers and journals for an attached library. The museum, with ambitious opening hours from 8 am to 9 pm, was intended for use for lectures of public util- ity. The most select instruments for natural sciences, relating to electricity and air, were already available. A subsequent demand to promote scien- tific experiments for the benefit of society was introduced with the state- ment: “Each freemason, who has moved closer to the sanctuary across the staircase of the temple, knows how much the doctrine of the Order makes preoccupation with sciences and arts a duty.”40 Already seven volumes earlier the programmatic forty-page oration “On the Links between Arts and Sciences with Freemasonry” was inserted.41 The author of the article, a brother M**r (most likely Professor Joseph Märter, 1753–1827, who was a medic, botanist and geologist who had recently returned from a scien- tific voyage to America), initially quoted Plato, in a passage referring to the question of the purity of artwork in relation to the degree of science contained in it: Numbers, dimensions and weights are constitutive for any art: without them, very little would remain; and one of the most elaborate arts is architecture. The article argues further that the second degree of freemasonry tells the apprentice “that only a man educated by arts and sciences is able to claim the title of a fellow brother”. He then in several pages goes on to describe the usefulness of studies within freemasonry and what the training of Pythagoreans might have looked like. However, opposed to the secret teachings of antiquity, the author stresses that sci- ences are to be used for the best of society:

39 Journal für Freymaurer 6 (1785), 248–249. 40 Journal für Freymaurer 9 (1786), 203–215: “Wissenschaftliche Institute der beyden sehr ehrw. Logen zur neugekrönten Hoffnung und zur Wahrheit” [Scientific Institutions of the two very respectable lodges “To the new-crowned Hope” and “Truth”]. 41 Journal für Freymaurer 2 (1784), 65–104: “Ueber die Verbindung der Künste und Wis- senschaften mit der Freymaurerey”.

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Freemasonry has put the name of that science into the burning star that was the favourite object of study of the Pythagoreans, that Plato made a precon- dition for the acceptance into his school, and with which he believed even the supreme architect was constantly occupied, upon which the Enlighten- ers of human reason always and predominantly have based their reforma- tion—and exactly that science is the first relevant precondition in order to obtain the higher degrees of freemasonry. What has the dark mind to do in the East? For what is the rule always to act according to designs, always to have in mind self-improvement and to work on the great temple of morality . . .? Politics and morality, history, astronomy, observation of nature and natu- ral sciences “that to the largest extent have contributed to the extinction of prejudices and to drive away superstition, that makes man the master of elements” and finally also poetry and beautiful arts that protect the educated from misogyny and hence inspire to the perception of the true, beauty and good: according to Märter all these sciences and arts are con- nected to freemasonry in the most intimate way. Volume VII contains a lengthy article on “Scientific freemasonry”.42 The author argued that free- masonry was imbued by scientific method, linking it to savant practices of the most distant ages. He claimed that knowledge had survived, protected by secrecy and communicated through the symbols of freemasonry. The author almost depicted an evolutionary prospect of the creation and destruction of knowledge by nature, time, warfare and migration: “A single disastrous day, such as the fire at the Ptolemaic library in Alexan- dria, dispossessed us of what had been gathered throughout centuries.” Subsequently, he surveyed the history of erudition since antiquity and established that freemasonry aimed to transform secretly communicated knowledge to “higher moral education”. Freedom, Equality and Charity, spread of Enlightenment, upheaval of differences in religion, nation and class were the goal of this refined education. Two volumes later, a short oration for the second, related degree on the preoccupation with sciences within masonry was inserted. It repeated in principle Märter’s positions. Philosophy among people who refuse reason, natural science among those who “want to have it all supernatural”, poetry in caves where emo- tions are banned, rhetoric where “silence” is written on the walls, medi- cine where the body is destroyed makes no sense. Freemasonry, however, is a natural harbour of science. Wisdom without scientific knowledge has

42 Journal für Freymaurer 7 (1785), 49–78: “Ueber die wissenschaftliche Maurerey”.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 454 andreas önnerfors to be rejected. Again, the important position of geometry is stressed, “a science that strictly speaking is the only one”. “Enlightenment, instruc- tion of reason through sciences, ennoblement of the heart and morality through fine arts” are the preconditions of real charity and the augmenta- tion of human felicity. A part of the talk formulates well the ambitions of Born’s lodge and its journal: “Let us therefore collect our knowledge, explorations that we have made both within sciences and arts through reading and experience, like bees together in a joint place, to refine it into something suitable for all, and hence to add the general potential of human knowledge”. A decade later the Freemasons’ Magazine was established in London, appearing as a monthly journal between 1793 and 1798. In an address to readers, the publishers stated that the Order of freemasons “justly boasts the possession of the most learned Men of all Countries”.43 An article outlining the goal of freemasonry stressed that freemasonry promoted and facilitated the acquisition of science and philosophy.44 In an ode to freemasonry, the goddess Urania descends from the skies, “And Science attunes her sweet notes as she sings”.45 The jewels of the London lodge of Nine Sisters, as with its Parisian counterpart gathering predominantly educated men, were reproduced in elaborate engravings. Another article states: “A gentleman without some knowledge of arts and sciences is like a fine shell of a house without suitable finishing or furniture”.46 A lon- ger article such as “On the study of natural philosophy” discusses Locke, Descartes and Newton and their concepts of knowledge and perception.47 The notion that freemasonry is intimately linked to art and science and that these contribute to the refinement and civilisation of man is so wide- spread in the eleven volumes of the journal that it is impossible to list all references. It is hence also not surprising that the journal in 1797 changed its title to Scientific Magazine and Freemasons’ Repository. The change was moti- vated by the need to attract a wider audience and the proprietor promised in his address “to give Essays and Engravings illustrative of ‘the Sciences’”.48 In the next volume it was added that there were plans to present a “com-

43 Freemasons’ Magazine 1 (1793), [III]. 44 Ibid., 138. 45 Ibid., 167. 46 Freemasons’ Magazine 2 (1794), 413. 47 Ibid., 369–374. 48 Scientific Magazine 8 (1797), [III].

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 455 plete Repertory of Arts, Sciences and Manufactures”, reporting on scien- tific inventions and discoveries as well as yearly or half-yearly overviews of the history of sciences “illustrated with plans and suitable engravings”.49 Under the heading “History of the Sciences for 1797” we find an account of an observation of a comet, among others by Caroline Herschell.50 But an article on “The Existence of Mermaids” was also inserted. The pro- grammatic statement that the current times were “consecrated to the Sciences” introduced “Anecdotes respecting the life and discoveries of Pythagoras”.51 The following quote from a masonic oration inserted in the London magazine is representative of the self-image of British freemasonry and its relationship to arts and sciences: Though [freemasonry] derives its name from scientific, and its badges from operative architecture, it comprehends, the whole circle of arts and sci- ences; has been the depot of learning in all former ages, and a focus com- bining every ray of genius in all climes of the earth. A Lodge is in foreign countries eminently st[y]led [as] an Academy, and MASONRY considered as synonymous to GEOMETRY, the science relating to the measurement of the earth, and emphatically referring to its creation; a liberal or [freed?]; MASON signifying a friend and admirer, or a professor of liberal science, in contradistinction to an operative Mason.52

Science and Secrets as Parts of Savant Self-Design

A close look at the workings of masonic lodges of the eighteenth century allows the conclusion that identification with science and savant culture was of primary significance for the self-image of European freemasonry. Its iconography has many resemblances to visual commonplaces repre- senting science on frontispieces, vignettes, epitaphs, or in artwork. Nor- mative texts of freemasonry frequently mention “royal art” or “the noble science” of masonry, and their constitutive significance for moral self- improvement, civilisation and refinement of manners. It is also a matter of fact that eighteenth-century savants contributed to the compilation of these fundamental texts or provided historical legwork for them as well as

49 Scientific Magazine 9 (1797), [IV]. 50 Ibid., 150–154 and 305–306. 51 Scientific Magazine 8 (1797), 103–106, as a response to an article with the same title in the Freemasons’ Magazine 1 (1793), 388 and 381–385 (on Pythagoras). 52 Freemasons’ Magazine 6 (1796), 79–80.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access 456 andreas önnerfors elaborate commentaries on the ideology and symbolism of freemasonry. The overlap between the republic of letters and freemasonry becomes apparent through analysis of masonic membership in university towns or in other intellectual hotbeds. Some networks within the educated world received a further dimension through (underground) contacts in the realm of secrecy. Secret space provided the possibility of encounters and contacts and a free exchange of ideas. The emergence of a masonic peri- odical press at the end of the century illustrates the intimate link between savant and secret self-perception. Journals treating internal masonic top- ics were the utmost consequence of secrecy now entering the public dis- course, characterised by critical analysis and open deliberation. Elliot and Daniels conclude: “The popularity of Freemasonry throughout Enlighten- ment Europe and in the colonies, especially in America, enabled it to play a significant role in the savant community, forming a distinct republic of letters, with brothers sharing rhetoric, organization and imagery.”53 How is it possible to explain this tight aggregation? Why was member- ship in a secret society attractive for an eighteenth-century savant? First of all, freemasonry filled an important function of eighteenth- century educated sociability in general. A lodge, “eminently styled as an Academy” (as quoted above), shared many organisational features of edu- cated societies with those of freemasonry such as elected officers, sum- mons to meetings or the function of a secretary in correspondence with regional and supra-regional actors. Lodges could also serve, as examples from Paris, Stettin or Vienna demonstrate, as forums where oratory skills were exercised. Secondly, the lodge created an intellectual free space that perfectly fit the savant of the eighteenth century. A communicative space was provided, liberated from governmental and ideological control. Behind closed doors it was possible to engage in a symbolic spiritual, per- formative happening. The complex composition and expression of ritual created a need for interpretation, requiring elaborate philosophical, reli- gious or historical skills. Both as curious spectator and participant, the savant was challenged and stimulated to enlarge his knowledge within the field of ritual secret, symbolism, the history of the fraternity, or its moral and ideological implications for personal or public ethics (in exten- sion this means politics). Furthermore, science in the eighteenth century was still on the verge of utopia. The secret created an important margin for the savant to engage with complex speculation without restrictions

53 Elliot and Daniels 2006 (note 3), 227.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access secret savants, savant secrets 457 by the demands of the Enlightenment for rational empiricism and util- ity. The values reinforced within masonic ritual constantly stressed the need for extroverted charity with the abstract goal of augmentation of general human and social felicity and happiness. Eighteenth century man perceived that science was the vehicle for attaining the improvement of mankind. Freemasonry reassured and legitimised the ethical purpose of science and thus encouraged the secret savant to public action.

Andreas Önnerfors - 9789004243910 Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 04:24:04AM via free access