Title: CURIOUS OLD ILLUMINATED MS ROLL: WOODHEAD SCROLL / THE MAGIC SCROLL
Author: W.J. Hughan
Publisher: ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM
City: LondonYear: Circa 1903 (First Edition; ND provided)Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: Approx 30Illustrated: Yes
Book Details + Condition: Exceptionally scarce first and very limited edition. Specially published for what appears to be the London Lodge, circa 1903, with the acquisition of said Magic Scroll. The work is from the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, which was founded in 1886. ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM (AQC; the annual transactions of the Lodge) heads a few pages. The Magic Scroll was previously discussed in a brief summary of the 1903 AQC, and it is reproduced here in the first 3 pages, but no images were provided of the seals, or of further analysis of the scroll. Both sections written by Bro. W.J. Hughan. Approximately 30 pages (with blank in the middle), in original pebbled red cloth boards. No title or information is provided on boards. Text pages are interspersed with full-page talismans, seals and sigils, seemingly protective in nature. Book measures 11.25" x 7.5". In very good condition: tight binding; bumped and rubbed corners; repaired tear to decorative front endpaper; pages are clean and free of interior markings. The only details found on this rare magic scroll could be found from scanned Lodge documents in 1903; please see below.
From ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM (Lodge No. 2076, London, England - Vol. XVI, 1903): In the following I have given the whole of the text of the Scroll, so far as it can be recovered, with a literal translation of the portions in German. Also a facsimile of the side bearing the “seals” or signs, the same size as the are in the original. Two photographic plates are added to show the form and character of the writing. I do not feel quite certain about the date, but the Ms. is distinctly Catholic, and possibly owes its origin to the Thirty Years’ War; or later troubles. [W.J. Hughan]
The thanks of the Meeting were voted to Bro. Hughan for having brought this interesting Scroll under the notice of the Lodge. Remarks were added by Canon Horsley, Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, and the Secretary, and it was decided that the whole text of the MS. should be published with a series of facsimiles; as Bro. Woodhead had very kindly placed it at the disposal of the Lodge. [NA]
