As far as we know, at the time Ramsay delivered his speech, with the exception of England, Scotland and France no national grand masters were appointed in the countries listed above. The stated project for the collection of knowledge organised by the order of freemasons therefore seems a mere construction. In reality, it was by this time only Johann Heinrich Zedler( 1706-1751) who in 1732 had launched his large encyclopaedia project Grosses vollständiges Universallexikon aller Wissenschaften und Künste( 64 + 4 volumes) in Leipzig. This project outsized by far Ephraim Chambers’ s Cyclopedia, edited in London in 1728( two volumes with approximately 2500 pages). Chambers is nonetheless of interest for further examination. He included a short entry on“ Free, or Accepted Masons” in volume II, p. 506: Freemasonry is“ found in every Country in Europe”( mind-provoking to imagine from where this information came in 1728). Its claimed ancestry back to biblical times is mentioned, as well as the statement that its secret is about promoting“ Friendship, Society, mutual Assistance, and Good Fellowship”. These secrets have been kept by the“ brothers of this family” and have been“ religiously observed from Age to Age”. 14 A second edition of the Cyclopedia was printed in 1738 and one year later it is said that Chambers was asked to produce a French translation that was finally published between 1743 and 1745. A couple of years later it was translated into Italian. It seems perhaps a bit far-fetched to interpret Ramsay’ s oration as a plea to support these translations. However, the character of the Cyclopedia definitely fits into his vision. The word“ encyclopaedia” has its origin in Classical Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, literally, a "[ well- ] rounded education ", meaning“ general knowledge” Ramsay delivers an imaginative forecast of the encyclopaedic ambitions of his time, creating this general knowledge:“ the lights of all nations will be united in a single work” and this single work will substantially contribute to the augmentation of enlightenment throughout Europe.
In the XIX th volume of Universallexicon, published in 1739, we find an article on freemasonry according to which the fraternity was originally based in England and by then had spread to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy. The article also states( clearly referring to Anderson), that“ persons belonging to all religions and congregations, if they only accept the rules of morality, may be accepted as members of this society.” Furthermore the Zedler article on masons,“ Maurer” in the same volume, contains a draft version of Anderson’ s mythological history of freemasonry. The occurrence of these two entries begs the question of what sources the editors used, as
14
Chambers Cyclopaedia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences […], London 1728, vol. II, p. 506.
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