A collection of songs written in prose and poetry for the use of the Freemason Society from Lorient

Abstract

The collection of Masonic literature currently held at Collegium Martineum at AMU never fails to surprise with its uniqueness. During the cataloguing process and physical processing of the books from the collection, the author came across an extraordinary eighteenth century manuscript. The manuscript included the literary output of Freemasonic songs from the period of the reign of Louis XV, hand-written by an anonymous author. As a result of the analysis of the manuscript, the period of its origination was successfully established as well as the original song books from which the bulk of the included texts had been taken, the place of its origination and the author of 27 valuable engravings included in the manuscript (the artist was the founder of a famous network of engravers in Paris in the seventeenth century). Further scrutiny of the manuscript has also revealed the admirable way the book was composed. The song book provides an intriguing opportunity for historians of Freemasonic music to explore further the musical collection of Poznań University Library.