On May 3, 2025 in Grosseto at the Hotel Granduca at 10:30 am, will be presented the book by Dr. Richard Berman “ESPIONAGE, DIPLOMACY & THE LODGE – SPIONAGGIO, DIPLOMAZIA & LA LOGGIA”, translated by W. Bro. Martino G. A. Cartella, SLGR, Lodge Membership Officer of Certes Lodge No. 4606.

Dr. Berman will also be the speaker of the “PRESTONIAN LECTURE” at the Freemasons Hall on May 8, 2025.

The book is published by DIFFUSIONE CULTURALE LIMITED, an English non-profit organization that has the objective of spreading the history of English Freemasonry in Italy and of which W. Bro. Martino G. A. Cartella is the Secretary.

Who is Richard Berman.
He researches, writes and lectures on 18th-century social and political
history, with a focus on British, Irish and American
Freemasonry, the largest and most influential of the many
18th-century fraternal societies. He holds a PhD in History from the
University of Exeter, an MA in Economics from the University of
Cambridge and has done two years of post-doctoral research at the
MEHRC at the University of Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Research
Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. His various books are available on
Amazon.
There are various aspects through which it is possible to analyze the
history of Freemasonry, but there are two in particular:
an esoteric aspect, linked to Tradition, an ancient path that
we find expressed in rituals; a historical aspect that instead focuses on the culture, history and knowledge of the men who founded it in 1700 by reworking the
ancient constitutions of the artisan corporations.
Berman analyzes this second aspect, in relation to English
Freemasonry, with great mastery, knowledge of the history of 1700, of the
men and documents, in particular of the statutes of the new
organization and of the ancient traditions that through them
found new life.
There is much ignorance and misinformation about Freemasonry in particular
it is described as an undifferentiated, homogeneous, uniform
and above all coherent phenomenon.
Founded in England it then found a way to spread to many other
countries with characteristics that were not identical but linked to the traditions and
environments in which it developed.
In Italy two serious errors are made:
Freemasonry is identified with that linked to the French tradition and in particular “Napoleonic”.
It is mainly attributed a political, profane role.