March 2009
Dear colleagues and friends,
we hope that you appreciate the following reports on upcoming and past events.
All the best,
Andreas Önnerfors
1) Last Reminder: Workshop on the Temple Legend Sunday 29 March
An imaginative exploration of the symbolic images in the story which suggest the soul's yearning for the union of mind, heart and will. The workshop will explore the symbolism contained in the story of the building of Solomon’s Temple, of key importance for any proper understanding of the imaginative world of freemasonry. With contributions by Dr. Peter Grünewald, Dr. Andreas Önnerfors and a dramatic recitation of the legend by Robert Chamberlain (former director of the Merlin Theatre) with an original soundscape created by Andrew Thompson (music tutor at Freeman College).
The deadline for registration has officially passed, but we welcome everybody who wants to attend. Please drop an Email to a.onnerfors@sheffield.ac.uk
TIME: 1015 am – 4 pm
PLACE: Humanities Research Institute, 34 Gell Street, S3 7QY Sheffield
FEE: £ 15 including a light lunch buffet
2) Last Reminder: Early Bird Registration ICHF Friday 27 March
Likewise, we would like to remind everybody intending to participate in the Second ICHF in Edinburgh in May 2009 of the early registration deadline on Friday March 27.
Please access www.ichfonline.org/ or www.northernnetworking.co.uk/ for more information.
3) Book Launch: Freemasonry and Fraternalism in the Middle East ORDER NOW!
The volume Freemasonry and Fraternalism in the Middle East comes out of a series of lectures held at the Centre in the autumn of 2008. The Centre succeeded in attracting leading international specialists to deliver lectures on this hitherto largely neglected field of research. The scope of the papers ranged from the early eighteenth-century up to the beginning of the twentieth-century and included topics related to the Ottoman Empire, Iran and India. Authors are: Thierry Zarcone, Dorothe Sommer, Isaac Lubelsky, Mangol Bayat and Paul Dumont with an introduction and postlude by Andreas Önnerfors.
This is Volume 1 of the new publication series Sheffield Lectures on the History of Freemasonry and Fraternalism. To view the Table of Contents, please access our website under “Publications”. For information about the speakers and abstracts of the papers, please access “News and Events”.
We are selling this publication (a limited edition) for a non-profit price of £ 20 covering our expenses for print and distribution.
If you want to order this title, please use following methods of payment:
a) within the UK
Either you send a cheque issued to University of Sheffield, ”CRFF Volume” to our postal address CRFF, 34 Gell Street, S3 7QY Sheffield with a clear indication of your address or you use the Credit Card payment form downloadable from our website under “Publications”. Payments can also be processed online. Under "12. remarks" please write "Volume 1 CRFF publication".
b) outside the UK
No cheques are accepted from outside the UK. You will have to pay by credit card using downloadable from our website under “Publications”.. Payments can also be processed online. Under "12. remarks" please write "Volume 1 CRFF publication".
NB! The Credit Card form will have to be filled in correctly and the payment must have been authorised from your account so that we are able to send you the book.
4) Masonic periodicals online
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London has been working with the Computing Unit at Kings College London on a project to digitise English Masonic periodicals. Funding has been provided by the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons.
A pilot project covering 5,450 pages based on the following titles and periods has now been launched
• Freemasons’ Monthly Magazine (1855-1856)
• Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror (1856-1858)
which you can access on the following site: http://mpol.cch.kcl.ac.uk/.
This pilot will be available until the end of April and we are keen to encourage all list users to use it and let us have your comments on all the elements of the site including the database of the periodical. Please send your comments to libmus@ugle.org.uk. We will be collating and assessing responses before we proceed to add more material to the site. A user guide is provided which you may want to test. You are welcome to comment on all aspects but you might want to consider the following issues:
• General accessibility/readability, • Navigation round the site, • Ability to obtain accurate search results, • Ability to search key words or phrases, • Ability to “read” /browse the publications on line, • Ability to see context of articles ie where they appear on page, • Ability to print out individual articles, • Search results presented with context so that irrelevant search results can be discarded, • Other contextual material provided on the site
www.freemasonry.london.museum
5) Launch of new academic journal devoted to research into freemasonry in Latin America and the Caribbean
Following the two conferences organised in La Habana, Cuba on the history of freemasonry in Latin America and the Caribbean, we are happy to inform that from the initiative of young scholars in the area a new academic electronic open-access journal will be edited, the Revista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña (REHMLAC). Languages of publication will be Spanish, French, English and Portuguese. In the first instance, contributions to the two conferences organized in Cuba are prioritized, but the editors look forward to submissions until April 20 to the following address: cehmlac@gmail.com
We aim at to translate the following call for papers to English as soon as possible and hope you don’t mind to receive this first-hand information in its original language:
"San José, 11 de marzo del 2009
Estimados colegas,
Durante el desarrollo de los dos Symposios organizados en La Habana en el 2007 y 2008 sobre la Historia de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña, se propuso la creación de un Centro de Estudios Históricos sobre la temática, siendo creado el Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña (CEHMLAC), adscrito a la Cátedra Transdisciplinaria de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Cubana Vicente Antonio de Castro, de la Universidad de La Habana. Dicho Centro está integrado por miembros de distintas instituciones académicas latinoamericanas, caribeñas y europeas, e incorporará a los centros de estudios locales de la región, conforme se vayan constituyendo. Dentro de los objetivos propuestos para esta Institución, se acordó fundar una Revista electrónica que ponga a disposición de los investigadores los resultados de los estudios que se están llevando a cabo a lo largo y ancho de nuestras latitudes.
Nuestro próposito es el de echar a andar la Revista en este año 2009. Esta Revista, Revista de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña (REHMLAC), obtendrá en los próximos días su registro ISSN (estamos terminando algunos detalles del sitio web que son requisito para dicho registro) y cumplirá con los requisitos internacionales de indexación. Su publicación será semestral y abracará los periodos mayo-octubre y noviembre-abril.
REHMLAC será de acceso abierto o libre (hoy día muchas de las mejores revistas académicas poseen esta condición) y sus artículos serán presentados en formatos que no permitan el plagio o la manipulación del documento. Durante el mes de febrero del presente año, participamos en la Universidad de Costa Rica, de una capacitación sobre derechos de autor con énfasis en revistas electrónicas de acceso abierto. Las revistas de acceso abierto poseen diferentes legislaciones que les protegen, siendo internacionalmente el acuerdo más importante, la Declaración de Berlín del año 2001, la cual en su sitio web (http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess- berlin/berlindeclaration.html) puede consultarse. Por otra parte, agregamos que estamos en proceso de obtener una licencia de protección de derechos de autor por medio de Creative Commos (sus sitios web: http://creativecommons.org/ y en español http://es.creativecommons.org/), lo cual será una condición extra, ya que desde la publicación del artículo en la revista, éste se encontrará en un marco de derechos de autor reservados. Además, consideramos importante señalar que para la construcción del sitio web de la revista, hemos recibido la gustosa colaboración del Ingeniero Luis Martín Valverde del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica.
Nuestro deseo es el de publicar los trabajos que se han presentado en los dos symposios de La Habana. Así pues, queremos informar que, los estudios presentados en esos dos eventos académicos, tendrán prioridad de publicación para la primera edición de mayo. Por ello, se ruega que tras las oportunas modificaciones, se envíe la comunicación antes del 20 de abril de 2009 a la siguiente dirección electrónica: cehmlac@gmail.com Los idiomas admitidos son: español, francés, inglés y portugués. Las normas de edición de la revista se adjuntaron en archivo anexo. Los editores y el comité científico quedaron compuestos de la forma siguiente:
Los editores de REHMLAC son:
Ricardo Martínez Esquivel
Egresado de la Maestría Centroamericana en Historia, profesor en la Universidad de Costa Rica
Yván Pozuelo Andrés
Doctor en Historia, profesor en el IES Universidad Laboral de Gijón (España)
El Comité Científico está formado por:
Doctor José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, profesor de la Universidad de Zaragoza, Director del
Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Masonería Española
Doctor Eduardo Torres Cuevas, profesor de la Universidad de La Habana, Director de la
Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba y de La Casa de Altos Estudios Fernando Ortiz
Doctor Miguel Guzmán Stein, profesor de la Universidad de Costa Rica
Doctor Andreas Önnerfors, Director de The Center for Research into Freemasonry and
Fraternalism de University of Sheffield
Doctor Roberto Valdés Valle, profesor de la Universidad Centroamericana de El Salvador
Doctora María Eugenia Vázquez Semadani, profesora del Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, miembro de la Academia Mexicana de Masonología
Los editores esperan que esta aventura editorial pise en firme con el fin de construir un puesto de observación académico sobre la Historia de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña. En este sentido, se pide su estimable colaboración. Un saludo afectuoso,
Ricardo Martínez Esquivel Yván Pozuelo Andrés
6) Continuation of our Lecture Series, April 30
Our Lecture Series will continue after the Easter break on Thursday April 30 with a lecture by Robert Cooper, Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, titled
“Scottish Freemasons in St. Petersburg 1784-1794”
Time and venue: 5.15 pm
Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, 34 Gell Street, S37QY Sheffield
7) Centenary of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research Wednesday 27 May
The Manchester Association for Masonic Research celebrates its centenary on Wednesday 27 May 2009 with an ambitious lecture program and other events open to the public. Speakers will include Dr. John Wade, Dr. Susan Sommers and Dr. Bob James.
For more information about the program, see: www.mamr.co.uk/page1.html
8) Report from the Study day on Masonic Muses organised in Paris, by Dr. Andrew Pink
Les Muses Maçonnes, Paris, 18 March 2009; a study day jointly organized by the Centre d'Étude de la Langue et de la Littérature Françaises des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (CELLF 17-18), Centre national de la recherché scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris-Sorbonne Paris IV, and the Centre Interdisciplinaire Bordelais d'Etudes des Lumières (CIBEL) Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III.
This now annual study day provides the opportunity for scholars and members of the general public to engage with the team behind the ongoing, French-led project to produce a biographical dictionary of eighteenth-century freemasons (Le Monde maçonnique des Lumières (Europe-Amériques) Dictionnaire prosopographique). The project is directed by Cecile Revauger (CIBEL) and Charles Porset (CELLF).
An international group of speakers were assembled (myself included) as a representative cross-section of the 100-plus scholars from around the world who are contributing to the dictionary. We were: Roger Dachez (Institut maçonnique de France,), who spoke on 'Madame Provensal, soeur et épouse mystique de J.-B. Willermoz : une Supérieure Méconnue', a paper that drew attention to a significant feminine presence in Masonic cultural history; Gerrado Toccini, (University of Venice), who spoke on 'De Bélisaire aux Incas: Des réseaux maçonniques au roman maçonnique. Itinéraire de Jean-François Marmontel', a case study of the genre of the masonic novel; Simona Varriara (Univerity of Turin), who spoke on 'Le modèle fénelonien dans la tradition culturelle italienne d'inspiration maçonnique (seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle)', a paper that investigated masonic influences across Italian cultural life, and Andrew Pink (London), 'Traductions et transpositions : les origines anglaises de la musique maçonnique dans l'Europe francophone du début du dix-huitième siècle', a paper that showed how continental freemasons, while keen to adhere to English masonic practices, found troublesome the music that accompanied them.
The study day took place not at the Sorbonne as planned, due to industrial action in the French university sector. but in the elegant, mid-nineteenth-century Grand Temple of the Grand Orient of France. A sizeable audience of academics, students, and the general public attended throughout the day, and it is clear from the many discussions that were generated by the papers that the dictionary is eagerly awaited, and set to become a defining reference work in the library of every serious scholar not only of freemasonry but also of the eighteenth century more generally.
The papers from this study day will appear in due course in a book, to be published by the Bordeaux University Press. The dictionary itself, is set to be published by Editions Champion, Paris, in 2010.
9) Comments from the screening of “The Man who would be King”, Sheffield 9 March
Comments from the panelists:
Sheldon Hall: A very enjoyable evening, with many healthy differences of opinion as well as different perspectives. I learned a good deal (especially about Kipling's original story) and felt by the end of the panel that there was plenty more still to be said - which is better than feeling that we had to pad the thing out to fill in the time!
Barbara Bush: I really enjoyed the panel session and the informal meal and drinks beforehand. Thanks for inviting me and also for the photos. I found the whole event most interesting. The panel was well chosen and the discussion was lively and stimulating. I enjoyed discussing the film with colleagues from different disciplines and our differences in opinion added zest to the event and stimulated a good audience reaction. Overall, I thought the whole event was well organised and I liked the format of watching a film followed by a panel discussion by 'experts'.
Danny Karlin: To sum up: my experience of the film was very much conditioned by my knowledge of the original Kipling story. I think of it as a very free translation -- so free that it is best perhaps not to think of the original at all! The narrative pattern belongs more to John Huston's preoccupations than to Kipling's -- that's confirmed by the silly moment at the end where Peachey leaves Dravot's severed head with its gold crown in Kipling's office, violating the narrative decorum which is essential to Kipling's design. Our discussion focused on representations of Empire and Freemasonry: I think the film is divided between a first part in which these themes are treated with (relative) seriousness and a second part in which confusion reigns over the imagery and characterization alike. Certainly the significance of Freemasonry as a bond of fellowship is lost sight of: it becomes a locus of occult or savage ritual (arguably this flaw is in the original story, too). Context is everything: the film appeared quite differently to our film historian, or historian of Empire, and our literary critic. So the discussion did give us access to each other's point of view, even if it didn't change many minds!
Comments from the Audience
Siva Y.: Thanks for your note, and for asking for comments. It was a pleasant surprise actually. Little did I realise that the movie was part of an event. I liked the prospect of attending a panel meeting after the screening. I learnt about it from the Showroom booklet. I didn't know anything about this movie in the first place. Nor did I know that it stars Sean Connery. Well, it was only yesterday that I heard of freemasonry for the very first time.
Actually, two things persuaded me to go in for the movie. 1) Information about the post-screening panel discussion; 2) the fact that it is related to India, my motherland. So I thought, 'Ok, let's go and check it out'. It was a good experience because of the sheer spectacle on the screen, and the subsequent interesting interaction with the panel and the audience. I learnt a few things about freemasonry. Wish the discussion was longer because some of my one-to-one conversations had to be abruptly cut short once the panel took over. The panel discussion was informative and riveting, and I wished the lady professor (Bush) and the Kipling expert (Karlin) spoke more. The other two speakers and the moderator also did a splendid job. So was the audience with their informative questions. The lively debate certainly generated some heat and offered useful insights.
Richard Jaffa: I enjoyed the evening and I was especially interested to hear what Prof Karlin had to say as I have read some of his published work on Kipling. I felt on Monday that as the film was held under the auspices of a department interested in freemasonry there should have been more discussion of that. What followed was more of a debate on post-colonialism! The most telling comments were Prof Karlin's on the difference between the book and the film.
Peter Fagerlind: The film was a very entertaining adventure story by the great director John Houston and starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery. The panel discussion afterwards was extremely interesting with comments and questions about the masonic influences in the film, the colonial aspects of the film and the fact that the film was a very loose adaption of the original Rudyard Kipling novel. A great evening's entertainment!
Dr. Andreas Önnerfors
Director / Senior Lecturer in History
Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism
34, Gell Street
Sheffield S3 7QY
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 9893
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 98 94
Email: a.onnerfors@sheffield.
Website: www.freemasonry.dept.
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