Symposia in 1998
Prof. Dr F.A. Janssen lectured on two books present in the library at the
University of Amsterdam for a 'Typographical Masterpieces' lecture series
on 7 and 14 April 1998: Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
(1499) and Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples' edition of the Quincuplex Psalterium
(1509).
Symposia in 1997
Adam McLean held two talks for the conference 'Prague, alchemy and the hermetic tradition', held at the end of August to conclude the manifestation around Rudolf II and Prague.
Frans A. Janssen spoke at the IAB congress (see also under Exhibitions in 1997) on the theme of the collections of the BPH: 'Ad fontes'.
Carlos Gilly and Frans A. Janssen spoke at the conference 'Magic, millennium and new religious movements', organized by the Italian-based Centro Studi sulle Nuove Religioni (CESNUR), at the Free University in Amsterdam in August. Gilly spoke about 'La magie en Moyen Age'; Janssen discussed 'The sources of modern esotericism and the BPH'. The same organization hosted a conference in October in Turin on the theme of Rosicrucianism: 'La croce e la rosa'. Gilly contributed with a talk about distortions and forgeries of the Rosicrucian myth: 'Malintesi e contrafazzioni del mito rosacruciano'.
In the same month he presented his contribution 'Comenius und sein Collegium Lucis' to a symposium in Wolfenbüttel on the theme of Enlightenment and Esotericism. Proceedings of all conferences are expected to be published in the future.
Symposia in 1996
The library held a symposium in the University Library Amsterdam on 30 May to mark the publication of the Dutch translation of Asclepius (see under activities in 1996). The symposium was also organized in honour of Prof. Dr G. Quispel, co-translator of the Dutch Corpus Hermeticum (issued by 'In de Pelikaan'; fourth edition 1996), and translator of the Asclepius. Five specialists, Prof. Dr J.-P. Mahé, Dr P. Kingsley, Prof. Dr R. van den Broek, Dr C. Gilly and the laureate himself contributed to the symposium on the theme of the hermetic world picture of the Asclepius.
Carlos Gilly participated in various conferences with lectures on Tommaso Campanella and the Rosicrucians (for the Luigi Firpo foundation in Turin), on the early Rosicrucian Christoph Besold and on Paracelsus (for the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel), on the dissident theologian and humanist Sebastian Castellio (for the Attila Józef University in Szeged) and on early 17th-century prophecies (for the University of Basel).
Adam McLean presented a contribution to the conference 'The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited', held in Ceský Krumlov in the Czech Republic under the title 'The imagery of alchemy and Rosicrucianism'.
Symposia in 1995
Frans A. Janssen addressed the Dutch Book-Historical Society annual conference in June on the subject of '"Occult" books in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica'.
Symposia in 1994
The BPH organized a two-day symposium on the Russian mason N.I. Novikov in cooperation with the Pushkin Museum in St Petersburg and the Rudomino Library in Moscow in May. The BPH hosted the West-European part of the conference, where Frans A. Janssen spoke on behalf of the library on 'Novikov, Freemasonry and Enlightenment'.
The BPH organized together with the Herzog August Bibliothek a symposium on the theme of 'Rosenkreuz als europäisches Phänomen im 17. Jahrhundert'. Both the founder of the library, J.R. Ritman, and librarian Carlos Gilly presented papers at the symposium. The conference proceedings will be published by the Herzog August Bibliothek in 1998.
Symposia in 1993
A two-day symposium under the title '500 Years of Gnosis in Europe' was held in Moscow in March to mark the opening of the exhibition of the same name in Moscow. Among the speakers were Prof. Dr. A. Faivre (Sorbonne), Prof. V.V. Ivanov (Rudomino Library), Dr C. Gilly (BPH) and Dr S.M. Nekrasov (Pushkin Museum). The Russian-language proceedings of this conference were presented to J.R. Ritman by Dr E.U. Genieva, director of the Rudomino Library for Foreign Literatures, in 1994.
Frans A. Janssen read Gilly's paper, 'Theophrastia Sancta', in his absence at the Glasgow conference 'Transformation of Paracelsianism 1500-1800' in September. Proceedings of this conference will be published in 1998.
Symposia in 1990
J.R. Ritman spoke at the Dutch-language conference 'Hermetic Gnosis through the Ages' on the theme of 'The universal gnosis'. The proceedings were published in 1992.
Symposia in 1987
The library participated in the Comenius conference in his birthplace Uherský-Brod in September.
Symposia in 1986
In November 1986 a three-day international symposium was held under the title 'Das Erbe des Christian Rosenkreuz', the first in a series of symposia with which the library intended to call attention to subjects relevant to its collection areas. Among the speakers were Prof. Dr Martin Brecht, on the significance of J.V. Andreae for Jan Amos Comenius, Prof. Dr Antoine Faivre, on the Rosicrucian manifestoes, and Dr H.M.E. de Jong, on The chemical wedding in the alchemical tradition. The conference proceedings were published by the BPH in 1988.
Das Erbe des Christian Rosenkreuz. Johann Valentin Andreae 1586-1986 und die Manifeste der Rosenkreuzerbruderschaft 1614-1616. 228 pp.
J.R. Ritman spoke on 'The universal gnosis' at the Dutch-language conference 'Gnosis. The third component of the European cultural tradition'. The proceedings were published in 1988.