The Grand Orient of Italy and Education: the lodges and their deeds in big cities (1868-1925)

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the Italian Freemasonry’s engagement in the educational field. From 1868 to 1925, the lodges under the Grand Orient of Italy fostered and helped many educational establishments. The article considers the following three cities: Turin, Milan and Rome. These important urban centres were different but shared a large number of initiatives and were willing to experiment with new secular learning models (Boarding schools, institutes, leisure courses, evening classes and Popular Universities).