News & Articles

An open 1520s Bomberg Talmud book displaying columns of printed Hebrew text under soft lighting on a warm wooden table.

Travelling North: Early Modern Hebrew Printing as a Multi-Confessional, Trans-National Project

How did a Flemish printer and a Jewish scholar in 1520s Venice reinvent the Talmud, creating a sacred Hebrew layout that still shapes books today?

Strange Houses of Sleep: An Espresso Shot of A. E. Waite’s Mystical Poetry

Did you know that occultist A.E. Waite was a prolific poet? Step inside the verses of his rare 1906 book mapping the mystical journey of human souls.

Letter Design with a Hermetic Touch

Renaissance scholar Geofroy Tory mapped typography to the proportions of the human body and Pythagorean cosmic harmony in his famous 1529 book.

Chinese New Year: Multiple Beginnings of Spring

How do traditional Chinese cosmology, the dynamic Five Phases, and lunar-solar calendars shape a unique understanding of time and seasonal renewal?

‘Alkaloids of Divine Grace’: Carl Jung’s Warning About Psychedelics from the Jung-White Letters

Read about the 1954 correspondence where Carl Jung warns theologian Victor White about the moral and psychological dangers of using psychedelics.

How Someone Puts Himself on a Pedestal and is Thrown Off Again: Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (1716-1788), the Self-Proclaimed Inventor of Four-colour Printing

A look at the rivalry, vanity, and technical mastery behind the 1776 four-color anatomical print of speech organs by Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty.

Marsilio Ficino - Music Therapist

Explore how Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino used cosmic harmony and the healing power of music to cure melancholy and balance the soul.

The Unknown World: A Magazine of Mysticism and Secret Knowledge

A close look at The Unknown World, Arthur Edward Waite’s short-lived 19th-century magazine devoted to esotericism, mysticism, alchemy, and the occult sciences.

A Spiritual Union and Marriage to Die For: Madame Guyon and the Bridal Metaphor in the Song of Songs

Discover the life and theology of Madame Guyon (1648 - 1717), a controversial Christian mystic whose writings link suffering, spiritual death, and divine union.

Two of Cups - Tarot Cards from Robert Gilbert’s Collection

Explore rare Waite-Smith tarot drafts and unique artifacts in Gilbert’s collection. Uncover the material history, mystical evolution, and secrets of A.E. Waite.

The ‘Dweller of the Threshold’ in Western Initiatory Literature

The ‘Dweller’ or ‘Guardian of the Threshold’ is claimed to be a specter which appears to the initiate as soon as they begin to ascend the path into the higher worlds of s

The Famous Engravings Accompanying Böhme's Works, which were (not) appreciated by everyone

Who engraved Jacob Böhme's mystical prints? A diary in the BPH collection unveils Michael Andreae and the curious fate of his recut copper plates.

The Wonder-Working World of ‘Christian’ Reuchlin

Reuchlin's pioneering Christian Cabbala works defended Jewish literature, linked Jesus to the Tetragrammaton, and bridged Kabbalah with Renaissance humanist thought.

Survival of the Smartest?

Reflections from clearing out the Schuhmacher antiquarian bookshop: how books survive across centuries, and why banned books endure longest of all.

Empires of the Stars: The Long Life of Hellenistic Astrology

Trace astrology's journey from Hellenistic Rome to Sasanian Persia, where emperors, scholars, and mystics shaped a thousand year tradition of cosmic wisdom.

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