Le Rameau d’or d’Eleusis

Paris: the Author, 1861. Sepia lithographed frontispiece and 6 full-page sepia lithographed plates. Contemporary gilt black sheep-backed marbled boards. Minor foxing, otherwise a very good copy in original condition. First edition of this privately published manual of freemasonry by the founder of the Rite of Memphis, a Templar-based branch of the practice. Intended for use by novices, the text covers the history of the Order from the initiation of King Solomon, lists the Grand Lodges with their masters, number of members, and dates of foundation, explains the symbols, numbers, and letters used in masonry iconography, and details the 95 rites that members must exercise. The author describes the chants and responses said during rituals, clothing to be worn for various levels of membership, calendar of events, insular legal system, process for promotions, religious concordances, financial structure, and differences in orders depending on their rites and locations. One of the final chapters outlines the five stages of initiation for women to become members. The ornate bistre plates illustrate legends and allegories of freemason foundational lore.
Jacques-Etienne Marconis (1795-1868) was a French author and freemason. His father, served in the Napoleonic army, where he became obsessed with Egyptian religion and myth. Upon his return to France in 1815, he founded a freemasonry lodge called the Pilgrims of Memphis, but the chapter was disbanded only one year later. He entrusted the archives to his son, who reformed and revived the charter in 1839, but his small group of pilgrims failed to receive dispensation from the freemasonry governing body, the Grand Orient of France. In 1859 Marconis applied again to the Grand Orient for masonic chapterhood, and it was finally granted. This book represents the final iteration of the foundation of the Rite of Memphis, a project that took over 40 years to come to fruition.
OCLC locates no copies in U.S. libraries.
Caillet 7116; Dorbon 689.