The Order and the Archive: Freemasonic Archival Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe

This study explores how eighteenth-century European Masons created archives, and how these archives in turn created Masons. It is an exploration of how a masonic archival culture was formed, and how different ideas, hopes, and anxieties were co-produced along with the records and manuscripts kept by masonic associations. At stake in these archival practices was the goal of establishing “order”. Tim Berndtsson draws theoretical inspiration from works by e.g. Markus Friedr