ORDER OF THE KNIGHTHOOD OF THE UNION. - Lot 287

ORDER OF THE KNIGHTHOOD OF THE UNION. Printed on vellum, signed and sealed, issued in Vienne on the banks of the Rhône, August 15, 1726. Large folio printed in Roman and italic script, decorated with an engraved entablature, a historiated lettering and a large typographical frame repeated on the side margins. The document, written in verse, is drawn up in the name of "Bienfaisant", founder and Grand Master of the Order of the Union. It confers on an officer named "M. de la Porte", colonel of the Vitry dragoon regiment and grand prior of the Berry province, his admission to this chivalric brotherhood under the symbolic name of "Frère Digne". The text develops the pacifying and fraternal ideology of this order with Masonic and chivalric accents: "Nous Bienfaisant, Fondateur & grand Maître / D'un Ordre érigé sous un Nom / Qui seul fait aisément connoître / Qu'un Esprit de Paix l'a fait naître..." Further on, the recipient receives "Letters Patent" in order to enjoy "without contradiction the goods that the Union brings", with the privileges, honors and pre-eminences attached to the Order. The document is dated "à Vienne sur les bords du Rhône", on the "fifteenth day of the century one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six". It bears, at the bottom of the document, an important handwritten signature of the "First Grand Master & Benefactor", as well as a countersignature of "F. Modeste". Large intact red wax seal preserved in perfect condition. Rare testimony to the chivalric and confraternal societies of the early XVIIIᵉ century, blending initiatory rhetoric, ideals of concord and pseudo-nobility ceremonial. A fine, highly decorative copy in remarkable condition.