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List of the Grand Officers, Members, Honorary Members, & c of the Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General of the 33d degree, and of the Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry.
New York, Printed by J. Seymour, 1819. 8vo. Without wrappers (as issued?). Repair to title-page. Occassional brownspotting. Two quires split. Last leaf signed by Charles Guerin, Jonathan Schieffelin, James B. Durand, Aaron H. Palmer, Joseph Gouin and Francis Dubuar. 23, (1) pp.
Exceedingly rare register of the early American Scottish Rite - signed by prominent early Scottish Rite figures - listing the “Grand Officers, Members, Honorary Members” of the Supreme Council of Grand Inspectors General of the 33rd Degree and the Sovereign Grand Consistory of Supreme Chiefs of Exalted Masonry, issued in New York in 1819. The work documents the organization of the so-called Cerneau Scottish Rite during one of the most turbulent and formative periods in the history of American high-degree Masonry. The imprint is of considerable historical importance for the study of early nineteenth-century American Freemasonry, preserving the names and structure of the bodies operating under the “Ancient Constitutional Scottish Rite of Heredom, for the United States of America, their Territories and Dependencies.” Such lists were intended for internal circulation and were seldom preserved, making surviving examples of great rarity. The present edition appears to be exceptionally rare. As noted in the accompanying bibliographical reference, it is “Not in Shaw & Shoemaker Not in NUC,” and was possibly known only from a nineteenth-century sale reference. The bibliography further suggests that this may be the original source for the tableau reproduced by Folger as Appendix Document No. 20, although Folger misread the publication date as 1818 rather than 1819. The same source notes several textual differences between the present printing and Folger’s reproduction, including variations in the membership lists and signatories. An important and highly elusive document of early American Scottish Rite Freemasonry and the Cerneau system in New York.OCLC only list one copy (Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library). Not in Shaw & Shoemaker.Sabin 45507 (1816)
