Somewhere in the summer (2017) I noticed that the website for the Belgian Masonic studylodge Ars Macionica was back online. Even though the link said ‘Acta Macionica volume 1 to 25’, the table of contents also had one of volume 26. I sent an email, but got no reply. Masonic lodges are usually closed during summer. With the start of the new working year, I was able to lay my hands on a copy of the latest Acta. Apparently not much advertisement has been made for it, since I have not seen any announcements for it.
#26 Has the impressive size of its predecessors, more than 350 pages in a well-printed and well-bound softcover. As we got used to, there are essays in different languages. One is on English, the rest is mostly alternately in Dutch and French. Also as we are used to, there is a big variety in subjects.
The opening text is about Jan Amos Comenius. There are purely historical essays about subjects such as German field-lodges in Belgium or the confiscation of Masonic property during the second World War. Reprint of historical texts can be found next to a wonderful text (and main reason to get this volume) of Koenraad Logghe about the Masonic parallels in the Arthurian novel Torec by Jacob van Maerlant.
I do not find all texts as interesting as the next and I especially did not really read the texts in French. I can read French with a lot of effort, but I usually skipped through the texts to try to see if they were interesting enough to make that effort.
What I like mostly about the <emActas is that, even though it is a publication of the relatively small and only “regular” Grand Lodge of Belgium (the Regular Grand Lodge Of Belgium), there are also references to other Masonic orders and to subjects that caused schismas within Belgian Freemasonry.
So, the latest Acta Macionica again makes a good read with a few very interesting and with (to me) less interesting subjects. It helps if you master your languages, but since the book is not very expensive, it is still a good buy when you can only read half the book.
Only available from the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium. Click on the cover to go the the Ars Macionica website where you can find the tables of content of all 26 volume. I believe they are all available.
2016 RGLB
