Panel 2 image 11

This somewhat uncommon portrayal of the 47th proposition of Euclid can also be found on early tracing boards.

The characters inside seem to spell INRI. IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDÆORVM, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”. The letters can be found on other (and later) Masonic images.

“Why the 47th Problem of Euclid should be combined with a reference to Jesus Christ is not immediately clear but may indicate that to ‘masons’ (and therefore ‘Masons’) this mathematical formula was of prime importance in their working lives and that Jesus Christ held the same, prime, position in their religious lives.” (Cooper)

Cooper is also convinced that this symbol must have been copied from the title page of the 1723 Constitution of the “Moderns”, because it was not, and still is not, “a feature of Scottish Freemasonry”. I found this unconvincing. This form the image (with two squares on top, the Constitutions have the more common 3x4x5 image) can also be seen on an English tracing board. Euclid is mentioned in Old Charges of well before 1717, so perhaps the inclusion (in this form) on the Kirkwall Scroll comes from a tradition that was already there.
Be that as it may, if Cooper is correct that the symbol never found its way to Scottish Freemasonry, this symbol is another indication that the scroll was painted in England.

Cooper starts his description of panel 2 with “one ‘group’ of four, possibly five, symbols on the right centre edge are considered to be one symbol or very a closely related set of symbols”. So he links the images 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14, but he does not say why they are closely related.

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