Brief chronicle of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

The private library of Joost R. Ritman became a public institution in 1984. The decision to make the collections accessible as a research and study centre involved re-structuring the originally private library to suit the needs of the reading public. A modern reference library has been added over the years, and book acquisition and collection building, both for modern and pre-1800 books, is one of the major tasks. The work is carried out by a staff of four: José Bouman, Theodor Harmsen, Cis van Heertum and Helen Wüstefeld.
Esther Oosterwijk-Ritman succeeded Frans A. Janssen as  the BPH's Managing Director; since his retirement in December 2002, Janssen is advisor to the library, especially the publishing house; Carlos Gilly is senior researcher for the Ritman research institute and conducts research on behalf of the library, in which task he is supported by Katja Gilly, the Institute's archivist.
 
On the advice of the Dutch Council for Culture, the State in 2005 acquired a cross section of the rare books and manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. The purchase concerns 25 Books of Hours from the Northern Netherlands, 359 manuscripts after 1500, 44 incunables and 3,961 printed books before 1800 (in all 4,389 works). The continuity of this unique library for the national community, for Dutch cultural heritage and for international scholarship has as a result been secured for the long term.

The works acquired by the State will remain in the BPH and thus continue to be available for scholarly research. The long-standing wish of Mr Ritman to preserve the BPH for the Dutch community and equally the efforts on the part of the State in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Act are thus harmonized. It is the intention that the BPH, in interaction with other scholarly institutions such as the Royal Library and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, will evolve into a prominent institution with an international appeal.

Partnerships

The library’s policy of seeking cooperation with other libraries and related institutions has resulted in a number of successful joint (inter)national exhibitions in the past. A close-knit organization, the library is able to rely on the personal involvement and professional expertise of sister institutions. In 1992 for example, joint efforts by the directors of the BPH in Amsterdam and the Russian Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature (VGBIL) in Moscow to call attention to the fate of collections of books looted in World War II, which were transported to Russia in the post-war period, resulted in the return of a number of books to the Netherlands in September 1992, when they were officially presented to the Amsterdam University Library. Some books with known provenance could subsequently be returned to the owners or their heirs. A catalogue of the books, including an index on provenance, was compiled by staff of the Rudomino Library. Special relations with the VGBIL continue to exist: in 1999 the library donated some 300 modern (post-1800) books on Hermetica, alchemy and related fields. An annotated catalogue of this donation, 'Catalogue of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica donation' was compiled in Russian by the Rudomino's Religious Department curator Ms Tatiana Vsehsviatskaia; for information please contact taniavseh@libfl.ru. Cooperation with the VGBIL furthermore resulted in a major exhibition, first in Moscow, subsequently in St Petersburg in 1993. In 2006, finally, a cooperation agreement was signed between the VGBIL and the BPH.

Other European libraries with which the BPH has special ties because of the nature of the respective collections and shared historical interest are the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, and the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.

Study and presentation of the Hermetic tradition is one of the chief aims of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, and to promote this goal the library's activities range from book publications to book exhibitions, from organizing conferences, at home and abroad, to offering tours of the library collections to interested groups.

Symposia

In the early years of the library’s existence, the BPH co-hosted a four-day conference, in October 1986, on 'Gnosis, de derde component van de westerse cultuurtraditie', in the legendary surroundings of De Kosmos, the most important spiritual and new age centre of the Netherlands at the time. One of the chief speakers was Prof. Dr Gilles Quispel, acknowledged gnosis expert, who holds that Gnosis is the third component of the Western cultural tradition. The conference proceedings with the same title were published two years later, in 1988. Another conference held in De Kosmos with the participation of the BPH was 'De Hermetische Gnosis in de loop der eeuwen' in December 1990; the conference proceedings with the same title were published in 1992 (a German translation came out in 2000).

In November 1986 the BPH organized a special symposium on the Rosicrucian Manifestoes, their sources and impact. This symposium was the first in a series of special symposia relevant to the library's collecting interests. The location was the 'Huis met de Hoofden' on the Keizersgracht, where Jan Amos Comenius first settled when he moved to Amsterdam in 1656. The conference proceedings were published in 1988 as Das Erbe des Christian Rosenkreuz.

Another international symposium on the theme of the Rosicrucians, 'Rosenkreuz als europäisches Phänomen im 17. Jahrhundert', was organized together with the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel eight years later in 1994, and took place in Wolfenbüttel. The conference proceedings with the same title were published by the BPH in 2001.

In 1996 the library held a one-day symposium in the University Library Amsterdam on 30 May to mark the publication of the Dutch translation of Asclepius, and to honour the octogenarian nestor of gnosis, Gilles Quispel, co-translator of the Dutch Corpus Hermeticum together with Roelof van den Broek, and translator of the Asclepius. Five specialists, including the laureate himself, contributed to the symposium on the theme of the Hermetic world picture of the Asclepius. The proceedings were incorporated in From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis, Hermetism and the Christian Tradition.

On 25 and 26 October 2007 the BPH hosted a two-day symposium to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in the monumental Huis met de Hoofden on Keizersgracht, the future location of the library. The symposium, ‘From treasure-house to virtual library’, looked forward to the future of Hermetic studies in general and the library’s role in fostering these studies in particular.

On 27 June 2008 the BPH organized a Spinoza day in the Westerkerk which was attended by more than 500 participants. Speakers were: Steven Nadler, Abraham Rosenberg, Herman De Dijn, Carlos Gilly, Piet Steenbakkers, Piet Visser and Wiep van Bunge. The day was chaired by Pim Levelt, Member of the Board of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, was presented with the first copy of the volume Libertas philosophandi. Spinoza als gids voor een vrije wereld.
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On 21 november 2008 the BPH organized a festive Meyrink afternoon in the Westerkerk to launch the new publication Der magische Schriftsteller Gustav Meyrink. Speakers were Meyrink experts Dr. Amanda Ch. Boyd, Dr. Eric Klaus and the Meyrink biographer Mike Mitchell. Dr. Theodor Harmsen introduced the Meyrink collection recently acquired by the BPH and presented in a new exhibition in the library. Actor Hans Radloff gave a lively performance reading Meyrink texts and Frans Smit (another Meyrink biographer) composed and performed on the piano music inspired by the author's work. Poet and performer Simon Vinkenoog reflected on the importance of Meyrink in his life and work.
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Apart from organizing symposia itself, the BPH also participates in relevant conferences organized by other institutions. The opening of the exhibition Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Ermete Trismegisto in 1999 coincided with the symposium 'Marsilio Ficino. Fonti, testi, fortuna', organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Florence from 1-3 October. Carlos Gilly, the BPH's librarian and head of the research institute, was one of the speakers at this international conference, which marked the end of the Ficino commemorative year. Carlos Gilly spoke on 'L'ermetismo nella Spagna del Rinascimento'. In 2000 J.R. Ritman and Frans A. Janssen attended a symposium dedicated to another major figure within the library, Jacob Böhme, which took place in Böhme's native town of Görlitz in October. Frans A. Janssen delivered a talk on the BPH's manuscript copy of Böhme's Mysterium Magnum, which served as copy-text for the 1640 Amsterdam edition.

Exhibitions

Making visible the manuscript and printed material from the Hermetic tradition by means of exhibitions has been a firm policy since the BPH opened officially. The library habitually offers thematic exhibitions of works from its own holdings in the library. One of the best visited exhibitions was Hermes Trismegistus Pater Philosophorum, a survey of the textual history of the Corpus Hermeticum. The exhibition included loans from the Royal Library in Brussels (a tenth-century Latin manuscript on vellum of the Asclepius and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (a fourteenth-century Greek manuscript containing the Corpus Hermeticum, one of three known to be in existence).

The BPH also organizes major international exhibitions abroad in cooperation with host libraries, most recently (2002) in Venice, where the magnificent Sala Sansovina of the Biblioteca Marciana was the location for the exhibition Magia, Alchimia, Scienza dal '400 al '700, L'influsso di Ermete Trismegisto/ Magic, Alchemy, Science 15th-18th centuries, The influence of Hermes Trismegistus, an exhibition which drew more than 50,000 visitors. The exhibition, which opened on 30 May and was prolonged until 15 September, focussed on the presence and the influence of Hermetism in religion, philosophy and science from Bessarion until the Age of Enlightenment. A central figure in the exhibition was Cardinal Bessarion, who owned a codex containing the Corpus Hermeticum before Cosimo de Medici acquired his manuscript, and whose library, donated by him to the city of Venice, reflects his great interest in Platonism and Hermetism.

An earlier and related exhibition was organized together with the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Marsilio Ficino, physician, philosopher and humanist, whose translation of the Corpus Hermeticum reintroduced Hermes Trismegistus to the West on a large scale. The exhibition ran from 1 October 1999 to 8 January 2000 under the title Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Ermete Trismegisto/ Marsilio Ficino and the Return of Hermes Trismegistus and took place in the Biblioteca Laurenziana, in the marvellous rooms designed by Michelangelo. The exhibition concentrated on the person and work of Marsilio Ficino and on the (history of the) works attributed to the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus, 'pater philosophorum'. The rediscovery of Hermetism took place in Renaissance Florence in the circles of Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, making the Biblioteca Laurenziana a very apt location for this exhibition devoted to Ficino and Hermes.

Two other international exhibitions reflecting the library's interest sphere took place in Wolfenbüttel (1995) and in Moscow and St Petersburg (1993) respectively. In 1995 the BPH organized together with the Herzog August Bibliothek a major exhibition around the early Rosicrucians in the months of March through May under the title Cimelia Rhodostaurotica. The exhibition focussed on the earliest reception of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes, not only in the German-language areas but also in other European countries, and showed predecessors, origins and earliest reception of the Manifestoes as well as the enormous range of material produced in reaction to the published Manifestoes. The exhibition was also on show later that year in the Amsterdam University Library.

In 1993, in the early days of glasnost, the BPH together with the Rudomino Library for Foreign Literatures in Moscow presented an exhibition which re-introduced to the Russian audience a spiritual tradition which had been suppressed since the late 18th century. This exhibition under the title 500 Years of Gnosis in Europe opened in Moscow in March in the presence of the Dutch ambassador and delegates from the Russian Ministry of Culture, and travelled to St Petersburg in May of the same year.

More than ten years later, late in 2004, the BPH returned to Moscow as one of the major loan-givers to organize with the Rudomino Library an exhibition entitled 'The Call of the Rosycross. Four centuries of living tradition', which also brought together manuscripts and printed books from a select number of Russian libraries and institutions to celebrate the fourth centenary of the birth of the Rosicrucian movement.

Apart from mounting original exhibitions, the library occasionally welcomes travelling exhibitions which are of particular relevance to its collecting areas. From October to December 1999 for instance, the BPH hosted the exhibition Geheimnisse der Alchemie, compiled by Egyptologist Thomas Hofmeier and archeologist Manuel Bachmann, founders of the Institut für Geschichte und Hermeneutik der Geheimwissenschaften in Basel, Switzerland). The exhibition, earlier on show in the University Library Basel and the Kantonsbibliothek (Vadiana) in St. Gallen, offered a survey of the history and iconography of alchemy, with special attention to Basel as a centre for alchemy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the autumn 2005 the highly successful exhibition King Arthur in the Netherlands was held in the BPH on the occasion of the conference of the International Arthurian Society, organized that year by the Dutch branch of the IAS. This exhibition for the first time united medieval Arthurian treasures from major libraries in the Netherlands. The exhibition opened with the BPH’s Grail Manuscript.

The library also acts as loan-giver to relevant exhibitions taking place in national and international libraries and institutions, as in the year 2000, which marked the fourth centenary of the death of Giordano Bruno in Rome. To commemorate Bruno, a special exhibition was mounted in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome under the title 'Io dirò la verità': Giordano Bruno 1548-1600. The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica provided a small number of loans for this exhibition, amongst which an English manuscript translation of De l'infinito, universo e mondi, produced in 1650: Of the infinite universe and innumerable worlds, which was never printed. Three years before, in 1997, the library lent a number of books to the exhibition Science at the Court of Rudolf II, part of the impressive manifestation around Rudolf II and Prague, which offered exhibitions on various locations in Prague, a symposium, lectures and broadcasts. Among the books lent by the BPH was a 16th-century manuscript copy, in Czech, of Paracelsus' Prognostication auf xxiiii jar zukünfftig (1536). This translation was probably produced early in the reign of Rudolf II, under whose aegis Prague flowered into a centre for Hermetic studies.

Since 1984, the BPH has evolved into an institution which strives to promote the Hermetic tradition and make available its collections, not only to the specialists and experts, but also to the general audience. Exhibitions, symposia and publications serve various purposes: from fully documented book exhibitions with a broad appeal to scholarly text studies and conference (proceedings). Since 2001, the library has been able to expand both premises and staff and is equipped to welcome both the generally interested visitor as well as the more specialized reader.