The Rare Book Room
09/01/2015 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThe emerald serpent is still slinking about in Amsterdam. One of the highlights of the trip so far {aside from the main purpose of catching up with family) has been the visits to a very strange and obscure library hidden in an unremarkable side street just around the corner from the teeming hordes at the Anne Frank Museum.
Tuesday was the first opportunity for a proper peek. Got there just before 3pm so had only two hours of slinking but most important of all was booking a guided tour of the rare book room for the following day.
The first hour was spent drooling over the dusty old tomes on display under lock and key of course as part of the new exhibition about Hermes Trismegistus - Master of Change and International Man of Mystery.
Less than 20 minutes of browsing on the open shelves produced such gems as "Geheimkulte" {Secret Cults} and "The Encircled Serpent" (a detailed history from the early 1900s about the representations of a certain sibilant creature in ancient art, religion and culture.
The big event was the following day at 2.30pm. The tour guide who is also one of the curators brought me upstairs to the treasure trove of assorted arcane delights and also asked if there were any topics that particularly interested me. I chose alchemy and tarot and got to see one of the original Rider Waite decks in its box and then a veritable feast of old tomes from the 16th to 18th centuries. Apparently even back in those days Amsterdam had been a hot bed of liberalism where stuff could be published that would get you burnt at the stake or worse in most of the rest of Europe. But even so, not everything was allowed. One book had no author name or printer listed on the cover for fear of prosecution and was dated 1551 when it was actually from 1581 so that when the thought police came and found it on your shelf, you could claim it was just some old book that belonged to grandma
Many of the books had been coloured in by hand and some of the grimoires were written by hand too.
One of the biggest fattest tomes on the list of forbidden books was a 17th century Latin translation of the Koran. It was strange seeing this book without a trace of the usual elegant Arabic calligraphy and the accompanying text on the opposite pages as is so usual these days. Got to asking what it takes to get on the banned book lists these days. The tour guide suggested maybe the application forms for joining ISIS. At that stage we were both probably clueless about what had happened in Paris that very morning.
She must have shown me at least 10 of their precious treasures, each more decadent and decorative than the last. The tour which was supposed to have been for only 30 minutes went almost twice as long and they did not charge a cent extra. Maybe they just like sharing their love of wierd and wonderful books with like minded creatures.
Apparently you can request the really rare stuff in advance and then peruse at your leisure in the special reading room where the staff and assorted researchers work and keep a beady eye on the visitors.
Tuesday was the first opportunity for a proper peek. Got there just before 3pm so had only two hours of slinking but most important of all was booking a guided tour of the rare book room for the following day.
The first hour was spent drooling over the dusty old tomes on display under lock and key of course as part of the new exhibition about Hermes Trismegistus - Master of Change and International Man of Mystery.
Less than 20 minutes of browsing on the open shelves produced such gems as "Geheimkulte" {Secret Cults} and "The Encircled Serpent" (a detailed history from the early 1900s about the representations of a certain sibilant creature in ancient art, religion and culture.
The big event was the following day at 2.30pm. The tour guide who is also one of the curators brought me upstairs to the treasure trove of assorted arcane delights and also asked if there were any topics that particularly interested me. I chose alchemy and tarot and got to see one of the original Rider Waite decks in its box and then a veritable feast of old tomes from the 16th to 18th centuries. Apparently even back in those days Amsterdam had been a hot bed of liberalism where stuff could be published that would get you burnt at the stake or worse in most of the rest of Europe. But even so, not everything was allowed. One book had no author name or printer listed on the cover for fear of prosecution and was dated 1551 when it was actually from 1581 so that when the thought police came and found it on your shelf, you could claim it was just some old book that belonged to grandma
Many of the books had been coloured in by hand and some of the grimoires were written by hand too.
One of the biggest fattest tomes on the list of forbidden books was a 17th century Latin translation of the Koran. It was strange seeing this book without a trace of the usual elegant Arabic calligraphy and the accompanying text on the opposite pages as is so usual these days. Got to asking what it takes to get on the banned book lists these days. The tour guide suggested maybe the application forms for joining ISIS. At that stage we were both probably clueless about what had happened in Paris that very morning.
She must have shown me at least 10 of their precious treasures, each more decadent and decorative than the last. The tour which was supposed to have been for only 30 minutes went almost twice as long and they did not charge a cent extra. Maybe they just like sharing their love of wierd and wonderful books with like minded creatures.
Apparently you can request the really rare stuff in advance and then peruse at your leisure in the special reading room where the staff and assorted researchers work and keep a beady eye on the visitors.
