This is to announce the publication of a 5-volume primary source collection on British Freemasonry:

Róbert Péter (general editor), Cécile Révauger (volume editor). Jan A.M. Snoek (volume editor), British Freemasonry, 1717-1813, 5 vols. (New York: Routledge, 2016), 2606 pages, 5967 editorial notes, 71-page index (in double columns)

• volume 1: Institutions (C. Révauger)
  
• volume 2: Rituals I - English, Irish and Scottish Craft Rituals (J. A. M. Snoek)
  
• volume 3: Rituals II - Harodim Material and Higher Degrees (J. A. M. Snoek)
  
• volume 4: Debates (R. Péter)
  
• volume 5: Representations (R. Péter)
  

Contributors: Ric Berman, Martin Cherry, Robert Collis, Andrew Pink, Harriet Sandvall, Susan Snell, David Stevenson, Susan Mitchell Sommers, John Wade and Mark Wallace.

The purpose of this 5-volume edition is to collate diverse rare print and manuscript materials that provide a broad spectrum of insights into the history and culture of Freemasonry in the British Isles between 1717 and 1813. This collection is the result of extensive archival research and transcription and highlights the most significant themes associated with British and Irish Freemasonry during the period in question. The volumes draw on a wide range of documents, including an engraved list of lodges, rituals (some originally written in cipher), rules and regulations, by-laws, funeral services, lectures, charges, sermons, orations, certificates, theatrical prologues and epilogues, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles and letters. A special emphasis is placed on documents that enhance our present understanding of the role that British and Irish Freemasons played in the formation of eighteenth-century society and associational culture. Analysis of these documents will hopefully foster scholarly debate and offer new perspectives on wider historical, cultural, social and religious themes.

Many of the texts included in these volumes remain very difficult to consult outside masonic archives. Such institutions store many rare eighteenth-century items, which are not recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue and are thus excluded from digital collections. For example, the Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London has not previously given permission to fully reproduce rituals of the so-called higher degrees. Hence, the rituals included in this edition are published here for the first time in their entirety and with annotations. Furthermore, this edition reproduces texts that were overlooked by masonic historians in their publications.

You can find more information about the edition at the Routledge website:

https://www.routledge.com/British-Freemasonry-1717-1813/Peter-Revauger-Snoek/p/book/9781848933774

The edition will be soon available in e-book formats.

Routledge granted permission to share the general and volume introductions as well as the volume bibliographies (altogether 151 pages), which you can download from the following website

http://bit.ly/2eLme60

The shared folder also includes a flyer which contains a 20% discount offer (valid until the end of this year).