The Ritman Library was founded by Dutch businessman Joost Ritman in 1957. A modern day Cosimo de Medici, Joost made it his life’s mission to collect rare manuscripts related to the Hermetic-Christian tradition. 

The library contains over 28,000 books that focus on Europe’s culture of free thinking dating to the Renaissance. The priceless collection offers insight into humanities connection to God and the Cosmos. Many of the books are one of a kind, the library owns a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum published in 1471, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and rare incunables dating to the earliest stages of printing in Europe. 

Although Hermetic wisdom is the main source of inspiration, ‘the center is everywhere, and circumference nowhere’, books covering topics on Rosicrucianism, Alchemy, Mysticism, Gnosis, Esotericism, Comparative Religion, Freemasonry, the Holy Grail, Sufism, Kabbalah, and Astrology abound. 

The Embassy of the Free Mind is a museum, research institute, and academy that offers an intellectual platform inspired by the extraordinary collection. For any student, researcher, scientist, or seeker of truth, it is well worth paying Amsterdam a visit. The Embassy is a modern day version of the House of Wisdom, Plato’s Academy, and the Library of Alexandria.