Symposium in the Huis met de Hoofden.

On October 26 2007 the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) celebrated its 50-year jubilee with the opening of a new exhibition, Jacob Böhme’s Way into the World by the Dutch minister of Education, Culture & Science, R.H.A. Plasterk and Prof. Dr. H. Schmidt-Glintzer, director of the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, a major lender to the exhibition. Esther Oosterwijk- Ritman, director of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, presented a new publication of the library’s publishing house In de Pelikaan, a volume of essays combined with a catalogue, Jacob Böhmes Weg in die Welt, containing the fruits of twenty years of research into Böhme’s surviving autographs, partly carried out or initiated by the Ritman Institute.

Prior to the opening of the exhibition, scholars and librarians from the Netherlands and abroad came together in the Huis met de Hoofden, the future location of the BPH, to look forward to the future of the library during the two-day symposium ‘Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica 1957-2007. From treasure house to virtual library’. The speakers, scholars with close relations to the library, added lustre to the jubilee by discussing relevant themes or by signalling future developments in the field of digitization.

08min35

Moderator:

Prof. Dr. W.J.M. Levelt
Member of the Board of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
Former president Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Director Emeritus Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Speakers:

J.R. Ritman
Founder Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
Member Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in the mirror of time

Prof. Dr. R. van den Broek
Professor emeritus History of Christianity (Universiteit Utrecht)
Member Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Honorary doctorate Sorbonne (Paris)

The BPH and the Study of Ancient Hermetism and Gnosticism

Prof. Dr. A. Faivre
Professor emeritus Chaire d’Histoire des courants ésoteriques et mystiques dans l’Europe moderne et contemporaine, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris)
Board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism

Some reflections on the importance of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Hermetic Studies -- past, present and future

Mrs. Dr. E.V. Genieva, Library for Foreign Literature
Director General of the Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature (Moscow)

The light that the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica brought to Russia

Dr. C. Gilly
Senior Researcher Ritman Instituut
Former librarian Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Comenius in Amsterdam: Seine Gönner, seine Bücher und seine radikalen Besucher im het Huis met de Hoofden

Prof. Dr. F.A. Janssen
Professor emeritus in the History of Books and Libraries (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Member Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts
Former director Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Ad fontes: how great treasures found their way to Amsterdam

Prof. Dr. J.-P. Mahé
Professor emeritus of the Armenian Institut National des langues et civilisations orientales (Paris)
Directeur d’études École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris)
Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris)

From the Huis met de Hoofden to the Bailiwick of Air-sur-la-Lys: Christian Hermetism in Flanders and the Netherlands in the Renaissance and early Modern Times

Prof. Dr. J. van Oort

Professor in Gnosticism and Patristics (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
President of the International Association of Manichaean Studies
Managing Editor of the Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Brill)

The Study of the Mani Codex and the Gospel of Judas Codex in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: Recent, Past and Imminent Future

Mrs. E. Oosterwijk-Ritman
Director and Librarian Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
Member of the International Advisory Board of the General Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature (Moscow)

Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica 1957-2007 and the Huis met de Hoofden: a House for the Future

Drs. A.W. Rosenberg
Librarian Ets Haim/ Livraria Montezinos (Amsterdam)

Analogue metadata in the treasure house

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
Professor Geschichte der Philosophie und der Geisteswissenschaften (Freie Universität Berlin)

Was ist Christliche Kabbala in der Frühen Neuzeit?