Item 11.6 - Proceedings of the blessed confraternity of the Parallelepiped, Vol. I

1 vol., c 275 x 230 x 30 mm; 4 unnumbered ff. front matter; ff. 1-200; 1 unnumbered f. between ff. 103-104 and between ff. 139-200.
1 loose sheet inside front cover.
1 gathering of 6 single sheets loose between ff. 174-175.

The report dated 1 Feb. 1866 of the 'Keeper of the Archives' in the companion volume O.11.6a states that the individual papers given at the society in 1864 and 1865 have just been 'rebound in an orderly and strictly chronological form' in two volumes.

Gift of A. C. Moule, son of original member of the society H. C. G. Moule, May 1939.

Loose sheet at front of volume: 'Key to Names from Initials' [omits John Henry Ellis].

Mock definition of 'Parallelipiped', '... there be some do clepe this the Regular Bricke', from 'Ben Jonson's English Dictionary' facing title page. Full title given as 'Proceedings of the Blessed Confraternity of the Parallelepided in hebdomadal function assembled. Figure of brick drawn out below title, with the initials of one of the founders of the society - Handley C. G. Moule, Joseph A. Lobley, Duncan C. Tovey, [John] Henry Ellis, Charles B. Davies, John H. I. Oakley - written on each face. Quotations below: 'Of the tale of the bricks ye shall not diminish aught' [Exodus 5.8]; 'As atoms in one mass united mix, / So bricks attraction feel for kindred bricks' [Smith (1812), Rejected Addresses].

This volume contains papers given at meetings of the society in 1864; they are listed on the back of the title page by term and date (including the Long Vacation), with the initials of the author and the running page number. The initials of the original members are also written out on the page opposite, with a note recording an 'Election' in 'October Term', in which Clifford was elected to join the society when Henry Ellis left Cambridge.

Titles of papers given include 'On Hellenolatry', and 'On Organ-Grinding' by J. A. Lobley, and 'Devotional Feelings of a Heathen', by C. B. Davies. A paper given by H. C. G. Moule to the Classical Association at Durham, 26 May 1917 entitled 'The Classics as an influence in education and a joy in life' has been inserted before f. 176. It mentions 'the dear raftered attic in beloved Trinity' where the following paper was first read, and remembers the friends from the society of which he is now the only surviving member.

James catalogue: https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.11.6