End-of-Year Fundraising
Help us raise $500,000 in December, 2025 to support the digitization of thousands of NeoLatin works of the Renaissance
Support our mission.
Become a patron.
The Renaissance blossomed when patrons preserved hidden wisdom and made it available to seekers. The Ancient Wisdom Trust continues that tradition, digitizing and illuminating thousands of texts on hermeticism, alchemy, and esotericism with modern tools of technology.
Today, new advances in AI and machine learning allow us to remetabolize knowledge, transforming how research is conducted, connected, and shared across disciplines. If you believe wisdom should be accessible for all, become a patron of this new renaissance.
The Problem
The Translation Gap
- ~70% of European books (1450-1700) were written in Neo-Latin
- Only ~5% have been translated to English
- Less than 30% have been digitized at all
- Scholars estimate 40+ million ancient manuscripts remain inaccessible
The AI Training Gap
Every major language model (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) is trained on digitized books. But they're systematically missing:
- Primary Renaissance sources
- Ancient philosophical and scientific texts
- Non-mainstream intellectual traditions
- Hermetic, alchemical, and esoteric knowledge systems
As AI systems become more powerful, this gap becomes more consequential.
The Human Access Gap
Even scholars who read Latin cannot easily access these works. They sit in rare book collections, uncatalogued or poorly catalogued, unknown to most researchers and completely inaccessible to general readers.
The Solution
We will create a complete pipeline:
Scan → Digitize → Translate → Publish → Distribute
Technical Infrastructure
- High-resolution scanning and OCR processing
- AI-assisted translation with expert verification
- Version-controlled translation improvement system
- Public API for AI system integration
- Digital library platform for human readers
Quality Assurance
- Multi-tiered review process
- Subject matter expert validation
- Translation quality scoring (target: >80% expert approval)
- Connection to source images for verification
Accessibility
- Open access to all digitized materials
- Machine-readable datasets for AI training
- Human-friendly reading interfaces
- Citation and version control for scholarly use
What $500,000 Accomplishes
100 Books Digitized and Translated
- High-resolution scans of complete works
- Professional OCR processing
- Expert-reviewed English translations
- Full metadata and cataloguing
Technical Platform
- Digital library website with search and download
- API access for AI companies and researchers
- Translation workflow and quality assurance systems
- Infrastructure to scale to thousands of books
Proof of Business Model
- Pilot partnerships with AI companies
- Subscription model validation
- Revenue projections for sustainability
Our Roadmap to Preserving Ancient Knowledge
A multi-year plan to preserve, digitize, and share humanity’s oldest andd foundational ideas.
2025
Raise Initial Funding
Goal: Raise $500,000 to fund initial prototype
2026
1st Half of 2026
Platform & Library Prototype
- Deliverables: 100 digitized books, translation infrastructure, public digital library
- Path to Sustainability: Demonstrate revenue model from AI partnerships and subscriptions
2nd Half of 2026
Expansion to 5,000 Texts
- Deliverables: Expand to 5,000 books from the Amsterdam collection
- Impact: Showcase ability to scale and reach a wider audience
2027
Global Expansion
- Deliverables: 20,000 high-priority texts from global collections
- Vision: Establish a self-sustaining platform serving AI companies, researchers, and scholars worldwide
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