Talk:Isabelle Gatti de Gamond

First female Freemason in Belgium?
I have to question this claim... given the existence of female Freemasons in both France and the Netherlands since the mid 1700s, I find it very unlikely that she was the first in Belgium. Blueboar (talk) 13:48, 8 February 2013 (UTC)


 * The article is wrong (mea maxissima culpa) because the source says (my translation): 'First Belgian woman to be initiated into Freemasonry, in a French lodge, the Diderot Lodge, at the beginning of the 1890s, she appeared to be about to be received [elle semble avoir &eacute;t&eacute; sur le point d'&ecirc;tre acuillie] into the fr:Les Amis philanthropes in 1905.' (Gubin et al, DDFB, p. 270) So her death did not prevent her becoming the first female Freemason as I mistakenly wrote - she was that already - what it prevented was her membership of an "ancient" Belgian lodge. You may well wish to dispute the fact, but the source's claim seems clear on the face of it. Angus McLellan (Talk) 02:05, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * OK... let me see if I can sort this out... 1) She was not the first woman to become a Freemason in all of Belgium... but 2) She might have become the first woman to join some specific lodge (but her death prevented this).  Do I have these facts correct?   Question, had she joined some other lodge before she died?  Was she a Freemason? Blueboar (talk) 04:18, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * No, I'm afraid you don't have that correct. Like I said the source reads "First Belgian woman to be initiated into Freemasonry ... at the beginning of the 1890s". Can you find a reliable source for a Belgian female Freemason before 1890? Angus McLellan (Talk) 21:22, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Well, I suppose it depends on how you define "Belgian". Our article on History of Freemasonry in Belgium lists five Lodges of Adoption (ie lodges that admitted women) that existed in the area that today is called Belgium in the 1780s... presumably they all had female members. Blueboar (talk) 22:45, 9 February 2013 (UTC)