Skip to content
Libra Esoterica

Alexander B. Davis Masonic lecture

by Alexander B. Davis

  • First published:
  • 19th century
  • Languages: English, Hebrew
  • Content type: ManuscriptPrimary source
Read free

Description

Description from Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries (opens in a new tab)

An untitled and unsigned lecture on the third degree of Freemasonry (Master Mason), and the ceremony associated with raising a candidate to that degree. A reference to "the lectures upon the two previous degrees" (p. 4) suggests that this is one in a series. The lecture includes biblical citations and words written in Hebrew (for example, p. 3, 6-10). The lecture is written in a blank notebook with a detached front cover with the printed title At the Rev'd. A. B. Davis's Academy, Synagogue House, Kingston, Jamaica enclosed in a foliate oval topped by a rondel with an image of a globe, a compass, and pens in an inkwell, with books on either side. The back cover is missing. The notebook has 20 leaves and is paginated in ink by the author, 1-25, 28-40 (the missing numbers are a pagination error), beginning on the verso of the first leaf.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Initiatory orders and secret societies.

  • Initiatory orders and secret societies

    Controlled discovery queries from colenda matched “Freemasonry”. Retained metadata contains “Freemasonry” in the description and “Freemasonry” in the subject metadata.

    • “Freemasonry”· via Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries
    • “Freemasonry”· in description
    • “Freemasonry”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Free, public copies reported by our sources. Links open the source directly.

Not yet in passage search

Pro research answers quote indexed passages. Ask the library to index this book’s public text.

marks a direct file download. Rights vary by country; each source states its own terms.

Buy or borrow

No ISBN on record, so the Amazon link searches by title and author. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

One edition cataloged here.

University of Pennsylvania digitized manuscript

1 volume (21 leaves) ; 23 x 19 cm; Alexander Barnard Davis, born in London in 1828, was the leader of the Kingston (Jamaica) Jewish community from 1854 to 1861 and the Sydney (Australia) Jewish community from 1862 to 1903; although never ordained, he was frequently referred to as a rabbi; he was initiated into Masonry and raised to Master Mason, the third degree, in 1850 in London and continued to be an active Mason in Jamaica, but does not seem to have continued in Australia (Lanchidi).; An image of an identical Davis Academy notebook cover, described as a "front free endleaf," appears in Peter Lanchidi, “A Kabbalistic lithograph in Australia,” Australian Journal of Jewish Studies 34 (2021), 188-233, fig. 8.; In English, with some words in Hebrew.

1853—English, Hebrew—Public download

Subjects

2 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

Colenda
  • ark:/81431/p3154fc39

Cataloged from

Cataloging notes

  • Colenda collection: Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Penn Libraries catalog identifier: 9979352111303681
  • Physical location: Library at the Katz Center, Archives Room, MS 56, Codex 048.1
  • Provenance: Kaplan, Arnold Harvey, 1939- donor.; Kaplan, Deanne, donor.; Purchased for the Penn Libraries in 2024 by Arnold and Deanne Kaplan (Kestenbaum & Co.) (Collectify no. 2024.01.26.00005; 13.2029).; Sold by Kestenbaum & Company (New York, N.Y.), 11 January 2024, lot 162
  • Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0
Catalog id
colenda:81431-p3154fc39
Edition coverage
Colenda source record
Retrieved