Description

A great many Masonic lectures are written and delivered every year but only one receives the official sanction and authority of the United Grand Lodge of England. Every year Grand Lodge appoints a Prestonian Lecturer who submits a paper on a subject of his own choosing. The authors are among the most respected names in Masonic research and, wherever Prestonian Lectures are delivered, they attract large audiences. The Lectures are named after William Preston (1742-1818) who made a bequest to Grand Lodge which was to fund an annual lecture. With occasional exceptions, a Prestonian Lecture was given annually from 1820 until 1862, when the lectureship was allowed to lapse. It was revived in 1924 and, except for a break during the War years (1940-1946), a Lecture has been given annually ever since. The previous four volumes of Collected Prestonian Lectures have been ‘Masonic best-sellers’. This fifth volume contains eleven of the twelve papers presented between 1997 and 2008 and is the first time they have appeared in collected form. Only one has been omitted because of its esoteric content. They cover a wide variety of subjects of broad interest and are aimed at general Masonic audiences and readers, rather than dedicated Masonic scholars. www.lewismasonic.com