J.R. Ritman Library - Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

New owner for 'Huis met de Hoofden' on the Keizersgracht

Joost Ritman is the new owner of the Huis met de Hoofden, which presently houses the Amsterdam Bureau for Monuments & Archeology (BMA). Ritman has in mind a public function for the building similar to the vision which inspired his Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica.

Because the BMA is moving to the former offices of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) on the Vijzelstraat, the city council decided to sell the Huis met de Hoofden, on the condition that the new owner would be respectful of the history of the monumental building and would find a fitting public function for it.

In 1957 the Amsterdam businessman Joost Ritman founded the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, a scholarly yet publicly accessible library in the field of the Christian-Hermetic gnosis. In 1984 a research institute and a publishing house were added to the library. With the acquisition of the Huis met de Hoofden, Ritman hopes to create a forum for a wide range of activities with an open, cultural character and with its roots in modern society. In future it will be possible to explore the study of gnosis in the Huis met de Hoofden.

In the seventeenth century, the Czech thinker Comenius lived in the Huis met de Hoofden for a number of years. He defined the search for wisdom as follows: “All the world is a school of divine wisdom, which man must finish before he is admitted to the heavenly academy.”
And now the Huis met de Hoofden will be a place where that divine wisdom can be studied.

Translation of the news item of Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie, Amsterdam