Földvári Books

With Benjamin Franklin’s Songs

N., Mr. (Natter, Johann Lorenz)

Apologie pour l'Ordre des Francs-Maçons Par Mr. N*** Membre de l’Ordre. Avec deux Chansons [composées par Le Frére Américain]. Nouvelle edition augmentée par l’Auteur.

La Haye, et a Dresde: Chez Pierre Gosse, Chez Georg Conrad Walther, MDCCXLV [1745]. Third (first in 1742), revised and enlarged edition. . In its first, blue hard paper binding. [1] leaf frontispiece, [14 (last blank)] 126 [2 (with engraved musical notation and text on the first page] pages, and [2] leaves (with 2 pages of engraved sheet music).

Important masonic text with Benjamin Franklin’s musical compositions.

A curious, anonymously published apology on behalf of the Masonic Order, one of the key texts on the exclusiveness of Christians in the lodges in the 18th century, supplemented with two early American Masonic songs by Benjamin Franklin. Both the text and the songs are erroneously attributed to different authors by many bibliographies, the text to François Felix Nogaret (1740–1831) probably because he also wrote masonic hymns, the songs to Jacques-Christophe Naudot, an unrelated French Masonic composer. In fact, the book was written by Johann Lorenz Natter (1705–1763) the German goldsmith and gem-cutter, a member of the Florence Masonic Lodge and an ardent promoter of the Masonic ideas, and — as it is indicated in the title of the first edition — the songs by the American brother (“composées par Le Frére Américain”), who was no one else than Benjamin Franklin. (Basso 1994, p. 154.)

All editions are rare on the market. The second was published in a different format only by Gosse and lacks the engraved music and the frontispiece. Wolfstieg 23736 (first edition); not in Sabin. Literature: Basso, Alberto. L' invenzione della gioia: musica e massoneria nell'età dei lumi. Milano: Garzanti, 1994.

Price: €3,500.00