We’ll bring you some exciting news in 2018. Thanks to generous donations from da Vinci code Author Dan Brown, the Littmann Library in Amsterdam – a considerable collection of pre-1900 books on alchemy, astrology, magic and other occult subjects, digitizes thousands of rare texts under a digital education project called “Hermetically Open.” We’re happy to report it now The first 2,178 books from the Ritman Project are now available in the online reading room.
Visitors should note that these books are written in several different European languages. Latin, medieval and early modern European academic languages dominate, and it is a distinctive Latin, loaded with technical and alchemical terms. Other books are available in German, Dutch and French. Some or all of these languages will, of course, have a simpler time than monolingual English speakers, but there is much to them too.
In addition to the joy of paging through old and unusual books, effectively English speakers can quickly find a collection of easy-to-read books by clicking on the “Place of Publication” search filter and selecting Cambridge or London. Trap was tortured to death by biting the margins of Manmouth Tarkin and Eugenius’s edges in a trapby Thomas Vaughn, published in 1650.
The language is archaic, with lots of quirky spelling and uses for “long s”, and the content is odd. Those familiar with this type of writing recognize many formulas through historical research and the work of recent interpreters such as Aleister Crowley and Mrs. Blavatsky. Tracking magical responses between plants, fauna and celestial phenomena. Careful analysis of the name. Astrology and long language etymology; numerological discourse and philosophical poetry. Early psychology and personality typing. Mysterious coded myths and medical procedures. We’ve become accustomed to it through popular media, and we’ve come to think of magic books as full of cookbooks, recipes and spells, but reality is very different.
You will encounter a vast and strange treasure Online Libraryconsider the type of magician that people represent Goethe Faustpunctured his research,
Where the welcoming sunlight is tense
However, the painted painted painted paint is appealing.
Hemed by many fallen mountains
Books eaten by worm, grey with dust,
Vaulted ceiling creep
The library does not contain only occult books. Like the weary scholar Faust, the old alchemist clicks on Cambridge as the publication “Current Philosophy Studied/and Jurisprudence, Medicine, and, alas! Theology.” and finds the above works of Henry More. “One of the famous ‘Cambridge Platonists'” and the Linda Hall Library “prospered in the mid-17th century, he did his best to reconcile Plato with Christianity, and he did his best to soften the mechanical philosophy that began to lead mechanical philosophy to British natural philosophy.” People studying European intellectual history have more existences. This collection It’s not abnormal. For hundreds of years it has been difficult to separate theology, philosophy, medicine, science (or “natural philosophy”) from the pursuit of alchemy and astrological pursuit (“natural philosophy”). (Isaac Newton is a famous example of a mathematician/scientist/alchemist/believers of strange apocalyptic predictions.) Input Ritman’s new digital collection of occult texts is here.
Note: Previous versions of this post were published on our site in 2018.
Related content:
Big archives of occult recording: Historical audio lets you hear trances, paranormal music, Glossolalia and other strange sounds (1905–2007)
Discover The key to hellIllustrated Guide to Black Magic of the 18th Century (1775)
Isaac Newton’s recipe for the mythical “Philosopher’s Stone” has been digitized and placed online (along with his other alchemical manuscripts)
Aleister Crowley reads occult poems in only known recordings of his voice (1920)
Surreal paintings by Occult Magician, Author & Mountaineer, Aleister Crowley
Josh Jones He is a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
