Firenze Massonica

Newly published documents The Concordia Lodge was founded in Florence in 1861, a few months after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. For over sixty years, until the advent of fascism, the Lodge was the city s main Masonic organization. The author, one of the leading scholars of the Italian Freemasonry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tells the story of the Lodge and discusses its role in post-Unity Florence. Most importantly, however, the book contains the first complete publication of the Lodge register, listing the nearly one thousand names of all members inducted from 1861 to 1921. This exceptionally valuable historical source is almost unique in Italy. It offers a fascinating insight into the civic life of Florence and a novel key for understanding it. The register contains countless names of people who played major roles in Florentine society, politics, and culture after unification: members of parliament, senators, local officials such as Silvio Berti (the first mayor of Florence from a non-aristocratic family), entrepreneurs, professionals, military men, academics, and artists (sculptors, painters, photographers, theater actors, lyrical singers, musicians). But there are also many ordinary citizens craftsmen, shopkeepers, office workers as well as owners of shops and establishments that have become indelibly associated with nineteenth- and twentieth-century Florence: the Giacosa cafe, the Balboni & Muller bakery, and the Calderai fine-food boutique. This book sheds new light on Florence in the liberal and Belle Epoque period, revealing the often previously unknown Masonic careers of many key figures of local civil society and politics.