Filed by on

Note: 300,000 Euros=approx. $337,000/USD.

From Reuters:

American author Dan Brown has donated 300,000 euros ($335,000) to Amsterdam’s Ritman Library, where he researched some of his best-selling novels, to help preserve its ancient works. The funding will be used to digitize part of the library’s rare collection of books and manuscripts about the Hermetic religious tradition that Brown referenced when writing “The Lost Symbol” and “Inferno”, it said in a statement.

Read the Complete Article

From the Ritman Library

The comprehensive digitization project will be carried out by Picturae, a company specializing in making Dutch cultural heritage digitally accessible. It is expected that the core collection of The Ritman Library will become available online in the spring of 2017. The Ritman Library’s collection comprises some 25,000 works: c. 4,600 manuscripts and printed books before 1900, c. 20,000 books printed after 1900, unique archival collections and a collection of prints. The collection is regarded as world heritage, being one of the finest private collections of rare books in the world. Director Esther Ritman: “It has always been our dream to connect this treasure house with the community and make it Hermetically Open to all. Thanks to Dan Brown we can digitize our core collection. I am thrilled to see this dream becoming a reality.”

Viewers can follow the digitization process on YouTube, FB, Instagram, and the library’s digitization project website (includes intro video featuring Dan Brown).

See Also: Digitization Project Plan 16 pages; PDF)