Richard Spencer
Straipsnis iš 1926 metų apie Richard Spencer, kuris buvo Mūrininkijos knygų rinkėjas:
(apie Roberts Constitution 1722)
The Builder Magazine
May 1926 - Volume XII - Number 5
No serious attention was paid, so far as I can discover, to the Roberts pamphlet until 1871, when the work of William James Hughan on the Old Charges revived an interest in the early documents of the Craft. The researches instituted at the time warranted a reproduction of some of the early issued of the Book of Constitutions. Richard Spencer, a noted Mason of his day and a publisher of Masonic books, brought out a volume entitled The Constitutions of the Freemasons, 1722 3 6 30, London, 1871, in which the Roberts item of 1722 has leading place.
Bro. Spencer states in the preface to his book that the 1722 Constitutions came into his possession "about a quarter of a century ago" (about 1845), bound up in the end of a 1723 Constitutions. "The Freemasons' Magazine and Masonic Mirror," September, 1857, page 721, contains this statement:
Brother Spencer has called at our office and shown us a specimen of Brother Harris's skill in a facsimile executed for him a few years back, in restoring a portion of the O.B. printed in black letter to copy of the Book of Constitutions printed in 1722, now in his possession, and supposed to be unique; and which Brother Spencer will be most happy to show to any member of the Craft.
Lionel Vibert, mentioned above, is also the editor of "Miscellanea Latomorum," a valuable periodical of Notes and Queries on matters relating to the Craft. In the October, 1923, issue, he comments upon the discovery of the second copy of the Roberts pamphlet, now in the collection of Bro. W. J. Williams, of England, and, and says:
A comparison of the new copy of the Roberts print with the Iowa copy shows that the alignment of the Obligation in black letter is quite different on p. 23 (really 25) and that in the Iowa copy the word here occurs in the first line, and is not in the original. Furthermore the signature letter D occurs in the new copy (as it should for this is really page 25, and C occurs on p. 17), but it is absent from the Iowa copy. The word here appears in the Obligation on p. 18, which is from this point word for word identical with that on pp. 23 and 24. The Obligation is half at the bottom of p. 23, and the rest on the upper portion of p. 24. On p. 24 the finial is an ornament of a basket with fruit and flowers carried by a cherub. The identical ornament occurs again on p. 19. In the new copy the ornament is there in full; in the Iowa copy there is only the basket and its contents; the supporter and all ornaments below the actual basket are absent. A careful examination of the photograph reveals on both sides of the leaf indications of a junction in the paper which would mean that if at any time the portion below the line were missing the whole of the Obligation text on the first page, 23, will have been absent, and all the ornament except just the top on p. 24....
There is no other Book of Constitutions printed in 1722, so there can be no doubt, I fear, that the Iowa pamphlet is the work, the last page of which was restored by Harris. Accordingly the position now is that the only perfect copy of the Roberts print is in this country, for I understand that the copy recently discovered is complete. It may be observed that the error in the pagination, by which the two last pages are numbered 23 and 24 instead of 25 and 26, is a feature of the original; as already stated, the only details in which the Iowa copy does not exactly reproduce the original are that it adds the word here in the first line of the Obligation and omits part of the finial ornament, that the signature letter is omitted, and that the obligation is not printed line for line as the original on p. 23. Naturally at the time of the sale of the library the fact that this restoration had been carried out was lost sight of; it had been done for Brother Spencer more than twenty years previously.
One of the outstanding book sales in the Craft was that of Richard Spencer's private library in London, July, 1875. It came to the attention of Bro. Robert Farmer Bower, of Keokuk, Iowa, a merchant whose success in business enabled him to indulge his hobby of Masonic book collecting rather freely. He promptly cabled Richard Spencer an offer to buy the entire collection; but this was declined. Bro. Bower then communicated with Bro. Hughan, who consented to act for him at the sale, and among the treasures secured for America was the Roberts Constitutions, which was sold for eight pounds ten shillings, or about forty dollars. Much to Bro. Spencer's disappointment, the entire sale yielded considerably less than what Bro. Bower had offered for the collection intact.