Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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Some good research in French sources.

About "Etteilla & Freemasonry II" (https://traditionaltarot.wordpress.com/ ... eemasonry/) It is good to know that the pages of the L'Avant coureur for Aug. 13, 1770, p. 518, referred to in Wicked Pack are in Gallica. I will add that to the "Etteilla Timeline III" that I have as a blog (https://etteillatimelineiii.blogspot.com/): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k61159041/f6.item. Then also a second review in 1773, p. 323, for which see https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... r=Etteilla. Wicked Pack didn't mention that one. Another 1773 reference, which is in Wicked Pack, is in the farce Le Comete, and I had given the link to Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k81534j/f35.item. What the current writer adds (although without giving a source) is that the editor of the journal was the same as the author of the play, Nicolas Bricaire de La Dixmerie, who was initiated into the elite Neuf Soeurs lodge in 1776 and therefore already probably a figure in French Freemasonry, it shows that by 1770 Etteila was known in Masonic circles. I remember reading about Dixmerie and Neuf Soeurs (Wikipedia), but not that he was a founding member or the editor of L'Avant coureur. A source would be very useful.

To me what would also be interest is the period before 1770; that is to say, would the system of 1770 have been known in Masonic circles before 1770? Etteilla himself claimed to have developed it in 1753, in his "Abrege". And we have to wonder where Etteilla would have gotten the funds to publish in 1770 (in Amsterdam).

The third installment of "Etteilla & Freemasonry", which Ronan linked to, focuses on Etteilla's relationship to Cagliostro's rite. From what I have read about it, it was not very similar to that of the Crata Repoa. Cagliostro's, regardless of its title, was more alchemical, with a figure named Mercurius dying in the middle. But I am prepared to be corrected. I can't remember where I read about it; perhaps it will come to me later. This leads me to wonder if some of Cagliostro's celebrated cures were due to the use of mercury compounds, which worked well in the short run (and if not in the long run, well, the patient would have probably been dead by then).

The author of "Etteilla & Freemasonry" does not seem to have read McCalum's The Last Alchemist, where on p. 34 it is noted that in 1772 Giuseppi Balsamo (aka Cagliostro) arrived with his wife at Calais, from London, and in Paris, with funds rendered in exchange for his wife's favors, began experiments using Alesso Piemontese's 16th century "book of secrets". This Alesso (actually Alessio, according to bibliographic material on the web), whose name in the French translation of the work was rendered Alexis, of course has the same (French) name as that of the alleged (fictitious, in my view) old man whom Etteilla credits with teaching him the Egyptian tarot (Etteilla says the famous one was the later one's grandfather - a rather incredible claim of 2 generations in 200 years). This is only circumstantial evidence of a connection between Cagliostro and Etteilla, but it does suggest that future installments of "Etteilla & Freemasonry" may be worth reading.

Added a few hours later: re-reading the "Etteilla Timeline" of Jan. 20, 2020, I rewrote the first paragraph above, to clarify what was already known and what the blog added (who is the author?) that I could verify and what needs a source.
Last edited by mikeh on 11 Oct 2022, 14:34, edited 2 times in total.

Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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mikeh wrote: 10 Oct 2022, 07:47 Added a few hours later: re-reading the "Etteilla Timeline" of Jan. 20, 2020, I rewrote the first paragraph above, to clarify what was already known and what the blog added (who is the author?) that I could verify and what needs a source.
The "current writer" is yours truly. The Avant Coureur reviews are indeed on Gallica; I have translated them and they will be included in a series of posts on Etteilla seen by his contemporaries.

The paper on de La Dixmerie being editor of that journal I will track down and cite when time permits.

One of the issues with the Pedemontanus business is that French versions existed soon after the original, from the late 1500s, so attributing the origin of that particular moniker to Cagliostro's appearance in Paris is problematic. Of course, one Italian may hide another.

Anecdotally, the use of mercurial compounds is the subject of a number of learned papers, and not all compounds are toxic.

Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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mikeh wrote: 10 Oct 2022, 07:47 What the current writer adds (although without giving a source) is that the editor of the journal was the same as the author of the play, Nicolas Bricaire de La Dixmerie, who was initiated into the elite Neuf Soeurs lodge in 1776 and therefore already probably a figure in French Freemasonry, it shows that by 1770 Etteila was known in Masonic circles. I remember reading about Dixmerie and Neuf Soeurs (Wikipedia), but not that he was a founding member or the editor of L'Avant coureur. A source would be very useful.
One source:
https://dictionnaire-journaux.gazettes1 ... -coureur-3

Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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Thanks, Ronan. Since Dixmerie became editor in 1764 and is mentioned again in Oct. 1773 in relation to a new job, it would seem that he was editor all the time in between. My only question is what "La Dixmerie «a fait l'A.C. durant deux ans (1764-1765)» suggests. What did he do with the Avant-Coureur during the two years 1764 and 1765 and apparently not later? It doesn't imply that he was only editor for those two years, I hope. My ear for nuances in French is not the best.

Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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mikeh wrote: 11 Oct 2022, 14:30 Thanks, Ronan. Since Dixmerie became editor in 1764 and is mentioned again in Oct. 1773 in relation to a new job, it would seem that he was editor all the time in between. My only question is what "La Dixmerie «a fait l'A.C. durant deux ans (1764-1765)» suggests. What did he do with the Avant-Coureur during the two years 1764 and 1765 and apparently not later? It doesn't imply that he was only editor for those two years, I hope. My ear for nuances in French is not the best.
What this means is that de La Dixmerie edited the journal for those 2 years, without turning a profit. There was another paper I had read which mentioned his return to the journal some years later, and given the rather small world involved, he may still have been contributing articles after his editorship ended. I must return to this sometime.

Re: Etteilla & Freemasonry

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Thanks for the clarification. Is it possible that the 1773 mention of him, while mainly about his new job, also implies that he is relinquishing editorship of the Avant-Coureur so as to take it. The journal seems to have ended publication in Dec. 1773. Here is the sentence:
4 octobre 1773: Panckoucke rachète l'A.C. à Lacombe. Ce dernier publie dans le n° 52 du 27 décembre de la revue un prospectus annonçant et décrivant Espagne littéraire (le privilège date du 4 août 1773; f. fr. 21966, p. 122) dont La Dixmerie tiendra «la plume en chef» Mémoires secrets 13 mai 1775, Add. 223) . . .
Here is something else, https://dictionnaire-journalistes.gazet ... a-dixmerie:
Le 28 janvier 1762, les M.S. (t. I, p. 28) annoncent que La Dixmerie, «coopérateur de l'abbé de La Porte» à l'Observateur littéraire, journal qui vient de succomber (ibid., p. 13), «passe» au Mercure «pour la partie des contes dont il a le privilège exclusif, ou du moins en chef». Le 6 juin 1764, la même source (t. XVI, Additions, p. 195) nous apprend que La Dixmerie est «depuis quelque temps à la tête de l'Avant-Coureur» auquel président également d'Aquin et de Villemer (D.P.1 129). C'est lui qui, «quoiqu'il ne sache pas un mot espagnol» (ibid., 13 mai 1774, t. XXVII, Additions, p. 223), «tient la plume en chef» de l'Espagne littéraire, périodique pour lequel le Comte de Moncade a obtenu un privilège le 4 août 1773 (f.fr. 21966, p. 122 ; DP1 385). La Dixmerie a par ailleurs travaillé à la Bibliothèque Universelle des Romans.

(On January 28, 1762, the M.S. (t. I, p. 28) announced that La Dixmerie, "collaborator of the Abbé de La Porte" at the Observer littéraire, a newspaper which had just succumbed (ibid., p. 13), "passes" to the Mercury "for the part of the narratives of which he has the exclusive, or at least chief, privilege". On June 6, 1764, the same source (t. XVI, Additions, p. 195) tells us that La Dixmerie had been "for some time at the head of the Avant-Coureur" over which also preside d'Aquin and Villemer (D.P. 1129). It is he who, "although he does not know a word of Spanish" (ibid., May 13, 1774, t. XXVII, Additions, p. 223), "holds the chief pen" of Literary Spain, periodical for which the Comte de Moncade obtained a privilege on August 4, 1773 (f.fr. 21966, p. 122; DP1 385). La Dixmerie also worked at the Universal Library of Novels.)
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