Premudrost’ Astrei: Pamiatnik masonstva XVIII – pervoi treti XIX veka v sobranii Ermitazha (The Wisdom of Astraea: Freemasonry in the 18th and First Third of the 19th c.: Objects in the Hermitage Collection)
St. Petersburg: Herm, 2017 (1st ed. 2013). sewn cl. The visual material comprises works of many kinds connected with the philosophical, religious, and social movement of Freemasonry: those used in masonic rituals, incorporating masonic symbols, or portraying principal figures involved in Freemasonry. Sculpture, paintings, and drawings; applied and decorative arts including jewelry, metalwork, glass, arms, and textiles, Thematic chapters deal with specific questions relating to Russian history such as whether Peter the Great was interested or involved in the movement, and such general ones as how did a pan-European movement, its borderless quality as a universal brotherhood, affect traditional loyalties, in particular, devotion to ones fatherland; this aspect of Freemasonry frightened Catherine the Great and may in part explain her alienation from her son Paul. Art historical sections study the masonic imagery, pointing out the ambiguity of symbols and the difficulty of ascertaining whether likenesses are specific symbols or belong more broadly to the representational language of art. 480 pp., 8 ½ x 10 1/2 ins., approx 100 b-&-w illus., 404 color, Rus. with title page and summary in ENGLISH. Item #390
ISBN: 9785935726782
1st ed. ISBN: 978-5-93572-449-8. Chapter titles: Peter I and Western European; Masonic rituals in Western Europe and Russia; Western European and Russian signs of rank: drawing of masonic symbols, ritual marks and objects; Western European and Russian lodges: England, France, Prussia, Poland, Russia; Freemasonry in Russia: reigns of Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine the Great, reign of Paul I, reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I; Mason-Decembrists; Masons and music; Masonic literature on mysticism; Addresses of masonic lodges in St. Petersburg; Collectors and researchers of Freemasonry.
Price: $108.00