Dan Brown-Library Donor
Strangest Library on Earth-Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
Dan Brown1, author of the The Da Vinci Code donated €300,0002 to support the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Ritman Library) in Amsterdam.3 The library is home to more than 25,000 books on ancient mysticism, Hermetica, Alchemy, Mysticism, Rosicrucians, Gnosis and Western Esotericism.
Brown says Amsterdam’s Ritman Library was a big inspiration for him, especially when he was writing 2009’s The Lost Symbol and 2013’s Inferno.
The library is a treasure house and a knowledge centre of the tradition of Christian-Hermetic Gnosis in Europe. As a ‘House of Living Books’ it tells the many-faceted, eventful and still largely unknown story of this spiritual tradition, in which self-knowledge and knowledge of nature provide the key to achieve knowledge of God.
Examples of esoteric trends or currents include alchemy; the philosophia occulta; Christian Kabbalah; Naturphilosophie (i.e., Paracelsism and what followed in its wake); theosophy (i.e., Jacob Boehme and his followers); Rosicrucianism (and the various branches of initiatic societies which appeared subsequently); and Hermetism (i.e., the reception and influence during the modern period of the writings attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegis.4 Hermeticism is named for Hermes Trismegistrus, ("thrice-greatest Hermes") who lived in Hellenistic Egypt during the 2nd century A.D., and wrote on the subjects of Greco-Babylonian astrology and alchemy.
Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels, including The Da Vinci Code, which has become one of the best selling novels of all time as well as the subject of intellectual debate among readers and scholars. Brown’s novels are published in 56 languages around the world with over 200 million copies in print.
Schilling, Erik (2016). Dan Brown Is Paying a Lot of Money to Digitize a Library Devoted to Mysticism. Atlas Obscura.
Wendof, Marcia (2019). Author Dan Brown and Possibly the Strangest Library on Earth. Interesting Engineering.
This was founded in 1984 by the industrialist, Joost R. Ritman, as a private library open to the public with a linked research institute. It gathered literature primarily from the seventeenth century in the field of Rosicrucianism. Ritman is a member of the Interna tional Spiritual Directorate of the Lectorium Rosicrucianum (Lamprecht 2004: 257), an esoteric society that sees itself following in the traditions of the seventeenth century: Rosicrucians, the Cathars, and the adherents of the 'Egyptian Urgnosis' of the Corpus Hermeticum.
Bergunder, Michael. “What Is Esotericism? Cultural Studies Approaches and the Problems of Definition in Religious Studies.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 22, no. 1 (2010): 9–36.
Faivre, Antoine, and Karen-Claire Voss. “Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions.” Numen 42, no. 1 (1995): 48–77.
"Hermeticism is named for Hermes Trismegistrus, ("thrice-greatest Hermes") who lived in Hellenistic Egypt during the 2nd century A.D., and wrote on the subjects of Greco-Babylonian astrology and alchemy."
Hrmmm. He isn't specifically *real*, but a figure of legend - a syncretic god stepped-down in power to a de facto demigod. (I regard him as effectively the conversion of the Mesopotamian Nabu and the various Mesopotamian mystic arts imported into the Greek sphere and modernized.
elm
that kind of carryover from earlier wasn't well understood in the 50's, much less earlier, and not that many people have gotten the memo
I love Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which I read when it first came out. I loved the movie too.
I had ben studying the Priori of Sion, and had several books that discussed the real history of this rather mystical location.
One of these books is: The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail Paperback – 2 May 1996
by Henry Lincoln (Author), Michael Baigent (Author), Richard Leigh (Author)
When the Dan Brown novel came out, I realized instantly what it was based on...and so bought his book. Really well written, a fast paced mystery adventure.
The real story goes that the Priory of Sion was formed to protect the sacred bloodline of Jesus Christ from the Catholic church, which feared the threat to its power and the terrible truth that would fatally undermine the papacy’s authority and fabulous wealth.
The Messiah had conceived at least one child with Mary Magdalene, who had fled to France after the crucifixion. Her descendants were the Merovingian kings overthrown in the eighth century CE who ruled over a large part of modern France, Germany and Switzerland.
The priory’s aim was to reinstate the dynasty and establish a Christian theocracy over Europe ruled by the descendants of Jesus. The Knights Templar had been formed by the priory to achieve this objective, whatever the official reasons given for their creation.
Subsequent centuries had seen a secret battle played out between different forces including the priory, the Templars, the church and Freemasons. They were fighting and scheming for control of the Holy Grail. But what exactly was the Grail? A physical object like a cup used at the Last Supper or the bloodline of Jesus Christ? The so-called Sang Real?
https://thetemplarknight.com/2017/09/29/priory-of-sion/
Thank you for another great post Kathleen
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