The Hidden Chapter

An Investigation into the Custody of Lost Knowledge
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Byrom Projects
Publication date: Mar 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0956639400
Cover Cost: 25.00
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The Hidden Chapter Press Release (163 Kb)

Prelude (425 Kb)

List of Illustrations (418 Kb)

Hidden Chapter Contents (415 Kb)

By Joy Hancox

The Hidden Chapter is the climax of over twenty years of research into a collection of geometrical and mathematical drawings that had once been in the possession of John Byrom, an eighteenth century poet and secret Jacobite whose biography Joy Hancox was writing.
With John Byrom's death in 1763 the drawings had been put to one side and their significance was overlooked. When Joy Hancox set out to discover the meaning and purpose of 516 pieces of paper and card as a resource, there were only a few scholars with any understanding to enlighten her and even these offered different interpretations. So she embarked on a remarkable journey that completely changed her life.

In the process Joy Hancox came to believe that some forty of the drawings were concerned with the design concept of the Elizabethan playhouses, and traced the connection between the drawings and the site of the first brass works in the Kingdom at Tintern, Monmouthshire.

Joy Hancox's investigation into St. Michaels Church, Tintern Parva, with ground penetrating radar and archaeology has revealed unexpected facts about the Elizabethan Earls of Pembroke and, later, John Loraine Baldwin. She also presents evidence for a college of mathematics and philosophy at Nurtons nearby from the reign of Elizabeth I until the Civil War.

The book continues the search for the provenance and purpose of John Byrom's collection of geometrical drawings. It shows that while some are mandalas for meditation, others clearly contain information of practical use in recording and interpreting data and the design concepts of buildings. Some of that information indisputably derives from Templar Traditions and early Freemasonry. Indeed the role of Freemasonry is revealed in an unexpected light.

The aim of this book is to provide factual data, accumulated after years of research, for scholars and all those interested in Hermetic Studies, the Elizabethan playhouses, Freemasons and Templars.

It also sheds new light on Francis Bacon, John Dee, the Merovingians in Wales and the life of Jean Cocteau.