There is a fascinating book called Mutus Liber Latomorum, subtitled Le Livre Muet des Franc-Maçons. I suppose the French ‘the silent book of the Free-Masons’ is supposed to be a translation of the Latin title. The book appears to have been originally published (without a title?) in 1765 and should not be confused with the famous alchemical book Mutus Liber from 1677. It was republished in 1993 by J.C. Bailly and some say that it was him who came up with the tile. The republication supposedly contains: “two symbolic and historical studies: one by Philippe Morbach and the other by Didier Kahn, as well as the illustrations presented here”. These studies are not available on the website or a PDF of the book that I found. The original is in possession of the Grand Orient de France.
The book has some 30 colour plates with Masonic symbolism, but not the most usual! Bailly seems to have thought that they were ‘proto AASR’ degrees, but since there are only images and abbreviations, this is hard to say. The book opens with the beautiful tracing board, shown below, which seems to contain only “craft” symbols. Also there are three images that also appear to refer to “craft” degrees. A man with the top (!) of a pair of compasses to his bleeding chest (and a dog) (with the abbreviation “F.M.N.S.” below), in the next image the man holds an open pair of compasses to his chest (I.K.N.) and then follows a skull with bones and a bleeding dagger (T.B.D.G.M.). If the latter is a third degree symbol, are the previous images references to the first two degrees? And where the child fit in?
Mutus Liber Latomorum (1765)