Ancient texts on the occult have been scanned into a digital archive (TASS via Getty Images)

A huge library of books covering all aspects of the occult have been scanned and published on the internet for free.

Over 25,000 texts have been painstakingly added to Amsterdam’s Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica – also known as ‘The Ritman Library’.

The volumes cover all aspects of the occult. From alchemy and mysticism right through to comparative religion and even guides on the art of Freemasonry.

Many of the works in the library’s collection pre-date the 19th century. The project was underwritten by the author Dan Brown – who frequently uses occultist topics in his works.


In fact, the Ritman Library houses the first illustrated edition of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’, which dates back to 1472.

Thousands of the books in the collection pre-date the 19th century (TASS via Getty Images)

Although all the scans of the texts are in the public domain, the library has taken measures to protect them. It uses Javascript code to try and block text scraping on a large scale. However, there are apparently plans to make them downloadable in the future.



So, if you fancy brushing up on your esotericism or want to research your forthcoming quest to find the Holy Grail, you can browse the archive (known as the Hermetically Open Archive) right here.