Manly P. Hall Library Digitization
In 1934, Manly P. Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles with a singular vision: to make the great truths of humanity's wisdom traditions accessible to seekers everywhere.
House of the Rising Serpent is partnering with CogniVision, specialists in archival digitization, to preserve the Manly P. Hall library collection.
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What the Collection Holds
The collection builds upon the great truths of illuminated thinkers across traditions:
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle — the foundations of Western philosophy
Buddha and Confucius — the wisdom of the East
Hermes Trismegistus — the hermetic tradition linking Egypt, Greece, and the Renaissance
Jesus and Mohammed — the prophetic traditions that shaped civilizations
Countless other prophets, sages, scholars, and mystics — voices preserved across millennia
The emphasis has always been upon idealistic systems of knowledge—those that have helped build a better world. Philosophy. Psychology. Mythology. Anthropology. Religion. World cultures. The library's purpose, as Hall understood it, was to meet society's increasing awareness of the need for an internal philosophy.
His 1928 masterpiece, The Secret Teachings of All Ages—an encyclopedic survey of ancient philosophy, symbolism, and esoterica—established him as one of the 20th century's foremost scholars of the perennial wisdom.
With generous donations from philanthropists and supporters, Hall traveled to the great auction houses of Europe, acquiring rare manuscripts and sourcebooks printed prior to 1800. Book by book, he assembled one of the most significant collections of esoteric and philosophical texts in the Western world.
The collection was deemed so valuable that during World War II, the Library of Congress requested permission to create microfilm copies of its most unique items—a precaution in case the library should be damaged by bombardment.
Manly P. Hall dedicated his life to this work until his death in 1990. The library remains.
The Project
Books decay. Pages crack and crumble. Without intervention, irreplaceable texts face the slow erosion of time.
House of the Rising Serpent is partnering with CogniVision, specialists in archival digitization, to preserve the Manly P. Hall library collection. This includes high-resolution scanning of rare manuscripts, careful handling of fragile materials, and creation of searchable digital archives—ensuring that what Hall spent a lifetime collecting cannot be lost.
Digitization also fulfills Hall's original vision: wisdom accessible to seekers everywhere, regardless of geography or institutional access. The teachings that shaped civilizations, available to anyone searching.
