A Translation of the 'Regius Poem' - circa 1390

The Manuscript is a very small quarto on vellum, and is No. 17, A1. in the Bibl. Reg., British Museum. It is described in David Casley’s Catalogue of the MS's of the Old Royal Library, 1734, page 259, as "A Poem of Moral Duties: here entitled, Constitutiones Artis Gemetrie secundem Euclidem. - Whoso wol bothe wel rede and loke."

The existence of this MS. has been known for a long time, but its contents were mistaken until Mr. Halliwell-Phillips drew attention to it in a paper "On the introduction of Freemasonry into England," read before the Society of Antiquaries in the 1838-9 session. He thereafter published two small editions of a work entitled "The Early History of Freemasonry in England," giving a transcript of the poem.

"In the year 1757, King George II., under an instrument that passed the Great Seal, presented the old Royal Library to the nation. At that time it was deposited in the old Dormitory at Westminster, to which place it had been removed from Ashburnham House, at the time of the lamentable fire which broke out in that building on the 23rd October, 1731 from which it fortunately sustained but slight injury." [Sims’s Handbook to Library of Brit. Mus., 1854. p. 35.]

The facsimile above is the exact size of the original. It bears the Royal arms stamped on both covers, and G.R.II., with the date 1757. The lettering on the back has also been reproduced. The MS. was bound in its present cover in or about the year 1838.

The age of the MS. has been variously estimated. Mr. Halliwell and the late Rev. A.F.A. Woodford supposed it to have been written about 1390, or earlier.

The MS. is admitted to be the oldest genuine record of the Craft of Masonry known. Mr. Halliwell pointed out that the writer of the poem was evidently a priest , from the words, "And when the gospel me rede schal," on line 629. He also drew attention to line 143, which intimates a still older MS. must have existed when the poem was written.

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