Ritman Library endangered again: PLEASE Participate

This morning we received the following communication on behalf of Professor Wouter Hanegraaff, Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents, University of Amsterdam.

Everyone in our field should know of the vital importance the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica has played in the collection, conservation, and dissemination of esoteric literature, much of it in rare and first editions from the fifteenth century to the present.  Its helpful and highly qualified staff, publications, exhibitions, and open-bay collections have fostered scholarship to an unprecedented extent in Europe and more widely in the international community since 1957.

The collection is now in danger of sale and disposal.

Prof. Wouter Hanegraaff, Chair of the History of Hermetic Philosophy at the University Amsterdam, would welcome all expressions of support for the maintenance of this unique and irreplaceable resource for our studies. Please write to him expressing your support for the BPH.

Unfortunately I have news that will come as a great shock to everybody involved in hermetic studies and related fields. It is widely known that the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam, founded by J.R. Ritman, was in great danger in the 1990s, when the ING bank took possession of the collection and threatened to sell it. Fortunately, the Dutch government intervened: the BPH was put on the list of protected Dutch heritage, and the state eventually acquired over 40% of it. The books remained at the same physical location, integrated with the rest of the collection, and the government would eventually acquire all of it. As part of this process, there were great plans for further expansion. All of this was taking some time, partly due to the financial crisis and a change of government, but nobody doubted that the library was safe.

Last week this turned out to be incorrect. An extremely valuable medieval manuscript owned by the BPH (The Grail of Rochefoucauld) was put on sale at Sotheby’s, and this triggered a reaction from the Friesland Bank, which took possession of the library, that had apparently been brought in as collateral, in order to get back a 15 million loan from mr Ritman. At present the BPH is closed, and intense negotiations are going on behind closed doors. It is impossible at this moment to predict the outcome, but there is no doubt that the situation is extremely serious. There is a very real possibility that the Friesland bank will try to sell at least the 60% of the library that is still owned by mr Ritman, and nobody knows what implications this will have for the rest of the collection and the BPH as a whole, including its staff. The Netherlands have a brandnew right-wing government that has announced a program of radical financial cuts in the culture section and elsewhere, which makes a renewed intervention from that side highly unlikely.

The story is just beginning to be picked up by the Dutch media but doesn’t yet seem to have spread abroad. If the Ritman library would go down, this would mean an enormous blow to international scholarship in hermetic studies. The damage would be irreversible. It is important to raise awareness about what is going on, so feel free to circulate this document to anybody of your acquaintance who is involved in the study of hermeticism and related domains. To express your concern by means of a letter, email Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents, University of Amsterdam): [email protected]

Link to Ritman Library website: http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/