The Secret History of Freemasonry

(Nandana) #1
The Templars and the Parisian Builders 137

consisted of the rue Saint Landry and rue de la Regraterie, the new
Notre Dame, the rue Saint Christopher and rue Saint Genevieve, the
crossroads, and the Palu Market.
Crossing the Seine again, we arrive at the Ile de la Cite, by the Petit
Pont. This brings us to the Left Bank, the old university quarter. We are
still in the Templar's censive district, although at its southernmost
point. This domain belonged in large part to the free and franchised
fiefs of Garlande and the Franc Rosier. It encompassed: the rue de
Garlande (now the rue Galande, which should not be confused with the
rue de la Calandre on Ile de la Cite), the rue de la Huchette, the lower
part of the rue Saint Jacques, the rue de la Parcheminerie,* the rue
Erembourg de Brie or Boutebrie, the rue du Foin (which started at the
rue Saint Jacques and ended at the rue de la Harpe), the rue des
Mathurins (now rue Sommerand), the rue des Massons (rue
Champollion), the rue de la Harpe, the rue Platriere or des Plastriers
(rue Domat), and the Palais des Thermes.+
Here, too, we find the presence of masons and builders. First there
is the rue des Massons (or des Masons; called the rue Champollion after
1868), which has been in existence since 1254 (vicus cementariorum)++
in close proximity to two other streets that should not be confused with
each other or their namesakes on the Right Bank: the rue des Plastriers
or Plastriere (rue Domat), and the rue Plastriere (rue Serpente today).
The rue des Plastriers was at least partially within the Templars' censive
district. It has been in existence since the thirteenth century. In 1247,
1250, and 1254 it was referred to as both vicus Plastrariorum and vicus
Plasteriorum and is mentioned in fourteenth-century titles as Plastriers
or Platriers. In the sixteenth century it became the rue du Platre and in
1864 it became the rue Domat. Interestingly, in the thirteenth century a
house called the domus Radulphi plastrarii is mentioned as having
stood there and, in the fifteenth century, mention is made of a Maison


* A mansion called the Franc Rosier (the Maillets) was located on this street in the six-
teenth century and was under the jurisdiction of the grand prior of Malta's censive dis-
trict. Refer to Berty, Tisserand, and Platon, Topographie historique du vieux Paris
(region centrale de l'Universite) (Paris: Imprimeri+ e Nationale, 1897), 305.
++ [This refers to the construction built over the ancient Roman baths. —Trans.]
There is a reference in 1263 to the name vicus lathomorum. The street was shared by
the censive districts of the Temple and Saint Germain.
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