[ANDERSON (James)]. - History, Obligations and Statutes of t - Lot 36

[ANDERSON (James)]. - History, Obligations and Statutes of the Most Worshipful Confraternity of Freemasons. Frankfurt am Main, François Varrentrapp, 1742. Small in-8, speckled brown basane, cloisonné spine decorated with a gilded three-crowned palm motif with white vellum title page, red edges (contemporary German binding). 20-(10)-296 in chaotic pagination, i.e.: 192 pp. numbered 1 to 192, 4 pp. numbered 191 to 194, 2 unnumbered pp. of which the second is blank, 38 pp. numbered 196 to 232, one unnumbered p., 3 pp. numbered 233, 234, 234, 2 unnumbered pp. of which the second is blank, 2 pp. numbered 235 and 234, 49 pp. numbered 235 to 283, 3 unnumbered pp. of which the first is blank. This pagination is partly the result of changes made during printing: a first run was made in 8 quires (signed A to N, including quire N for the songs, as indicated by the advertisement on the last leaf of quire M), then quire N was removed, and 3 new quires were printed in its place (signed N to Q, including Q for the songs with a publisher's catalog on its last leaf). Finally, 3 final quires (signed R to T) were printed to be added after the songs, and the Q8 publisher's catalog sheet was then moved after f. T4 to retain its annexed position at the end of the volume. SECOND FRENCH "TRANSLATION" OF JAMES ANDERSON'S CONSTITUTIONS, PROVIDED BY MARQUIS LOUIS-FRANÇOIS DE LA TIERCE, who was initiated in Holland in 1731 by Jean-Théophile Desaguliers. It was printed by the Protestant printer Franz Varrentrap, who signed this copy. It is an adaptation of James Anderson's text from the English edition of 1723 and probably from the preparatory manuscripts of the English edition of 1738. La Tierce also made additions and deletions, rearranged the order of the text, and added personal developments, notably preliminary speeches. He also inserted a speech delivered in 1740 by the Duc d'Antin, then Grand Master of French Freemasonry, which in fact repeated a speech by Chevalier Ramsay, delivered to the Earl of Derwentwater in 1736 and repeated in 1737. ILLUSTRATION ENGRAVED ON COPPER OUTSIDE TEXT: copper-engraved frontispiece by Andreas Reinhardt fils, based on James Thornhill's composition for the 1738 English edition of the Constitutions, depicting the architect Hiram unveiling the plan of the temple to Solomon. - 5 plates of notated music.