(Freemasonry) — Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jurisdiction | A rare nineteenth-century Masonic ritual book

(Freemasonry) — Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jurisdiction

Constitution and Inauguration of a Council of Princes of Jerusalem. Ἱεροδομ [Charleston or Washington, D.C.]: A... M... 5630. [1869 or 1870]

8vo (228 x 146 mm). Three masonic illustrations on the first two leaves; a few small spots. Original green cloth, gilt-lettered front board with gilt-stamped border, all edges gilt; very minor rubbing and wear at extremities, altogether a well-preserved copy.

A rare and confidential masonic ritual book published by and for The Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA. 

Founded in 1801 in Charleston, South Carolina, the Southern Jurisdiction moved their headquarters to Washington D.C. in 1870, the year of this book’s publication. It is a ceremonial guide “to be used when a Council is to be constituted and inaugurated, and its officers installed, by the Grand Commander-in-Chief of a Grand Consistory, assisted by members of the same.” The second part of the text deals with the ceremony for the installation of the officers of a Council, which “will be used by itself, where the Council has been previously constituted” (p. 9). 

The text was likely authored by, or at least under the auspices of, Albert Pike, the poet, jurist, Confederate general, and Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Jurisdiction. Pike is noted for developing many of the order’s rituals. He also wrote an important book on esoteric philosophy, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), which offered Masons a context for better understanding the complex rituals that are described in this Constitution and Inauguration...

Rare—we locate just three institutional holdings (Yale, British Library, The House of the Temple Library).

PROVENANCE

“Property of the The Supreme Council 33° A…A…S…R… South’n. Jurisdic’n. U.S.” (ink stamps) — Adolphus L. Fitzgerald (Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada from 1901 to 1907; Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Nevada; dean and almoner of the Supreme Council of the 33° for the Scottish Rite Masons for the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S.; ink signatures)