Temple to craft and prestige

CCASIONALLY, A VERY and unusual volume unexpectedly arrives to lift the spirits of the jaded reviewer of books: the art-historian Burkard von Roda’s tome is just that, a fine piece of book-making, properly designed, well printed, decently bound, and plentifully illustrated, much of it in colour. But it is even more than that, for it is a deeply humane, observant, and intelligent study in which the wide learning of its author is clear, as he deals soberly with a controversial topic that usually has timid English architectural historians whinnying with fright because of the allegedly “secret” subject of Freemasonry, supposedly “difficult” to research by those too idle to trouble themselves to find out.