John DEE
Born: 13 Jul 1527, London, Middlesex, England
Died: Dec 1608, Mortlake, Surrey, England
This remarkable mathematician and astrologer is
supposed to have been descended from a noble old Welsh House. He affirmed that
among his direct ancestors was Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales. His father was a vintner
and a man of high repute in the court of
Henry
VIII, with some affluence,
allowing him to give his son a decent education. John Dee went to St.
John's
College in Cambridge at the age of 15 in 1542, where he studied math and
astronomy, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree two years later. After
receiving his first degree, he traveled to Holland meeting with many scholars.
When he returned to England, he brought with him the first astronomer¹s staff
of brass along with two brass gloves constructed by Gerard Mercetor, a famous
cartographer of that time. After his return he received a Master of the Arts
degree but was soon forced to leave England after being accused of being a
conjurer thanks to a machine he built. During his first sojourn away from
England, he first went to Louvain, France then spent some time in Paris, giving
lectures on Euclid's Elements and the basics of Geometry at the Sorbonne. Dee
was offered a permanent post there, but he declined the post to return to
England where he had been recommended for the post of Rector of
Severn-upon-Severn by
Edward VI, the son of
Henry VIII.
While performing the duties of Rector, with the assurance of a home and steady
income, Dee exclusively devoted himself to astrological studies.
He put this knowledge at the service of the 1553 expedition seeking a northeast passage and, as a result, became a scientific adviser to the Muscovy Company. Years later, having read Gilbert's unpublished treatise advocating a search for a northwest passage, and learning that one of the Company's agents, Michael Lok, was involved in such a project, Dee showed interest and was again brought in as an adviser in 1576. He gave a crash-course to Frobisher, Hall and others in the mathematical science of navigation, and may have recommended works on cosmography and navigation to be acquired for the voyages. In gratitude, Lok bought Dee some shares in the venture; Dee may have invested a little of his own money too. Dee was one of the commissioners appointed to oversee the conduct of the expeditions and the smelting operations, and probably contributed to the drafting of the instructions governing the latter two voyages.
But Edward died at 16 and this once again left him in an awkward financial situation. Dee cast the horoscope for Queen Mary and later visited Mary's half sister Elizabeth in jail to determine when Mary would die. In 1553 he was accused of 'using enchantments against the queen's life' and imprisoned at Hampton Court. Such accusations of witchcraft and sorcery plagued Dee all his life, despite his many scientific achievements. Dee said in his translation of Euclid's Elements in English that he was regarded as 'a companion of the helhounds (sic), a caller and a conjurer of wicked and damned spirits'. Dee was accused of black magic and jailed. In 1555 Dee was freed by an act of the Privy Council and he took his liberty. Mary died in 1558. Dee's fortunes began to rise upon the accession of Elizabeth I, due to the fact that Lord Robert Dudley, one of the Queen's favorites, asked Dee to pick a 'propitious day' for her coronation. Elizabeth met Dee and was so impressed with him that she had him give her lessons in astrology. Soon after, Dee again went to the Continent for several years, traveling throughout Europe. In 1571, Dee purchased a mansion at Mortlake on the Thames river where he began a collection of curious books and manuscripts and objects, most of which were later destroyed by mobs that thought Dee was familiar with the Devil and was confiscated by the Queen after 1583. The collection included 4000 rare books and 700 choice manuscripts, many of which are to be found in the British Museum. He also became well known as an astronomer, as well as an astrologer with many people coming to consult his advice. Dee practiced astrology for his living, but he studied the Talmud, Rosicrucian theories and practiced alchemy in hopes of finding the elixir of life and the Philosopher's Stone.
For several years after 1583 Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly lived in
Trebona in Poland, the home town of Albert Laski, who sponsored their alchemical
researches. In about a year, Laski's fortune was spent, and the men began to
travel about Poland and Bohemia, from city to city finding new people to dupe.
These travels went on until 1587, when in Prague Dr. Dee's health began to fail
and when Kelly and Dee had a falling out because of Kelly's new explorations of
a book called The Necronomicon, that frightened both Dee and his family.
Dee is
said to have found a copy of the Necronomicon, given to him by the alchemist
Jacob Eliezer known as the "Black Rabbi" (this book does exist and was
the basis of Kelly and Dee's Endochian magic, Crowley's The Book of the Law
and H.P Lovecraft's Cthulthu Mythos). Shortly after that Dee returned to
England along with his family. As for the final fate of Kelly, he continued to
attempt to dupe people in Germany, claiming that he had the philosopher's stone
and the elixir vitę as before, but not finding as much interest as before.
Eventually he was arrested as a heretic and a sorcerer in Prague, and again in
southern Germany. But, after the second imprisonment he attempted to escape from
his prison, only managing to fall and brake two of his ribs and both legs. He
died in 1593 due to his injuries.
Dee returned to England, welcomed by
Elizabeth and the court then went back to
his home in Mortlake. Dee found his house ransacked with many of his possesions stolen or
destroyed. Elizabeth gave him 2,000 pounds for the damage. Continuing his search for the
philosopher's stone, that
always had eluded him. His experiments yielded nothing except to impoverish Dee.
Seeing his plight,
Elizabeth gave him first the position of chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral in London and then the wardenship of Manchester College that
he held until 1603 when he finally retired to his home for good. While he was
warden of Manchester College Dee translated his copy of the Necronomicon into
English and was never printed. After Dee's death the book went into the
collection of Elias Ashmole then into the Bodleian Library in Oxford until it
was stolen in 1934 Back at Mortlake for good, Dee was a fortune-teller which
gave him the reputation of being a wizard. Dee petitioned James I in 1604 for
protection against such accusation. Replying to them by saying "that none of
all the great number of the very strange and frivolous fables or histories
reported and told of him were true". Dee died at the age of 81 in 1608, in
extreme poverty.
Dr. John Dee, despite his apparent delusions, was one of the keenest minds of
his time. He his credited for making the calculations that would enable England
to use the Gregorian calendar, he championed the preservation and the collection
of historic documents and he was very well known for being a great astronomer
and mathematician. It could be said that Dr. Dee was the one of the first modern
scientists, although he was one of the last serious alchemists, necromancers and
crystal gazers.
It is easy to imagine what John Dee's alchemy lab must have looked like. There were probably many old tomes on the bookshelves, and several glass jars or bottles used for alchemical experimentation. There may have even been some glass jars storing strange herbs and plants used in necromancy as well.
Sources:
Barrett, Francis The Magus Reprint of the 1801 edition Secausus, NJ Citadel
Press 1967
Encyclopędia Brittanica 9th edition vol 7 Edinburgh 1887
Encyclopędia Brittanica 11th edition vol 7 New York 1911
Low, Collin The Necronomicon Anti-FAQ 1995
Spence, Lewis The Encyclopedia of Occultism New York University Books 1959
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