Spies

The Study of 18th-century European Freemasonry – New directions

Freemasonry was a major component of European political, cultural, social and intellectual life throughout the eighteenth century. The objective of this volume is to familiarize Hungarian readers with current trends, methods and problems concerning the study of eighteenth century European Freemasonry. There is clearly a need for such a volume since the history of Hungarian Freemasonry has not yet been integrated into European scholarship. Prior to the 1980s, the study of Freemasonry remained largely the province of conspiracy theorists, sensationalist authors and masonic amateurhistorians. Since then, many long-established masonic myths and speculations have been repeated and remain unquestioned even in academic scholarship.
The first historiographical paper in the volume highlights the current scholarly debates and problems related to research in eighteenth-century European Freemasonry and points out areas for further research. Márton Szentpéteri analyses the early modern roots of masonic temple symbolism. Jan A. M. Snoek introduces and illustrates the allusive method based on the poly-interpretability of texts,
which is used in almost all masonic rituals. Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire’s paper provides a novel impetus to research concerning the relationship between Freemasonry and Judaism during the Enlightenment. Róbert Péter explores the gender aspects of 18th-century English masonic writings and practice as well as examining the first adoption lodges and their rituals in England. Réka Lengyel gives an introduction to the status of the copies of the 19th-century Dég archives stored in the National Archives of Hungary, which contains invaluable and unexplored sources about the history of Freemasonry and other fraternal orders in Central and Eastern Europe. Olga Granasztói investigates the hitherto overlooked controversial activities of spies in Hungarian masonic lodges in the late 18th century. The editors of this issue are Róbert Péter and Márton Szentpéteri, the copy editor is Réka Lengyel. We are most grateful to Jan A. M. Snoek and Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire for granting us permission to publish the translations of their articles. We owe special thanks to the Grand Orient of Hungary for its contribution to the translation costs.

You can download the entire issue at the following link:
https://iti.btk.mta.hu/images/kiadvanyok/helikon/Helikon_2016_4.pdf

Las novelas de espionaje son un género acreditado que concitan la atención de numerosos lectores (entre los cuales se encuentra servidor, aunque solo por períodos). Las historias de espías son posiblemente más antiguas, pero no solían formar parte de la Gran Historia. Con las dos guerras mundiales la situación cambió radicalmente. Todavía recuerdo cómo, cuando me estrenaba de modesto aprendiz de historiador, tuve que lidiar con un tema que sigue dando vueltas, ahora más bien por los meandros de la subhistoria.

Reviews Mark A. Bradley's _A Very Principled Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee, Red Spy and Cold Warrior_ in the  _American Communist History_ (Volume 14, Issue 2), peer-reviewed journal of the academic association Historians of American Communism (HOAC)
ID: 1013716 DOI:10.1080/14743892.2015.1013716

ID: 1013716 DOI:10.1080/14743892.2015.1013716
Reviews Mark A. Bradley's _A Very Principled Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee, Red Spy and Cold Warrior_ in the  _American Communist History_ (Volume 14, Issue 2), peer-reviewed journal of the academic association Historians of American Communism (HOAC)