JOHN DEE: ALCHEMY, DIVINATION AND SUPERNATURAL

John Dee

Today, The Grandma has gone to the library to search more information about John Dee, one of the most interesting figures of the 16th century in England. The Grandma has been searching in different areas of the library because John Dee was an astronomer, but also a mathematician, an astrologer, an occult philosopher, and an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.

Before going to the library, The Grandma has continued studying her Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 6. The Functions (IV) (Spanish Version)

John Dee (13 July 1527-1608 or 1609) was an English/Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.

He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. He was also an advocate of England's imperial expansion into a British Empire, a term he is generally credited with coining.

Viewed from a 21st-century perspective, Dee's activities would seem to straddle the worlds of magic and modern science, though this distinction would have been meaningless to him. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on Euclidean geometry at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties.

More information: BBC

Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery.

Simultaneously with these enormous efforts, Dee immersed himself in the worlds of sorcery, astrology and Hermetic philosophy. He devoted much time and effort in the last 30 years or so of his life to attempting to commune with angels in order to learn the universal language of creation and bring about the pre-apocalyptic unity of mankind. 

John Dee

A student of the Renaissance Neo-Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, Dee did not draw distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations into Hermetic magic, angel summoning and divination. Instead he considered all of his activities to constitute different facets of the same quest: the search for a transcendent understanding of the divine forms which underlie the visible world, which Dee called pure verities.

Dee amassed one of the largest libraries in England. His high status as a scholar also allowed him to play a role in Elizabethan politics. He served as an occasional advisor and tutor to Elizabeth I and nurtured relationships with her ministers Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. Dee tutored and enjoyed patronage relationships with Sir Philip Sidney, his uncle Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Edward Dyer, and Sir Christopher Hatton.

Dee was born in Tower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee, of Welsh descent, and Johanna Wild. His surname Dee derived from the Welsh du (black); his grandfather was Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes, Pilleth, Radnorshire, and John retained his connection with the locality. His father Roland was a mercer and gentleman courtier to Henry VIII. 

John Dee claimed to be a descendant of Rhodri the Great, Prince of Wales and constructed a pedigree showing his descent from Rhodri. Dee's family arrived in London in the wake of Henry Tudor's coronation as Henry VII. Jane Dee was the daughter of William Wild.

More information: Smithsonian

Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School, now King Edward VI Grammar School, from 1535 to 1542. He entered St John's College, Cambridge, in November 1542, aged 15, graduating BA in 1545 or early 1546. His abilities recognised, he became an original fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, on its founding by Henry VIII in 1546. At Trinity, the clever stage effects he produced for a production of Aristophanes' Peace procured him the reputation of being a magician that clung to him through life.

In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Louvain (1548) and Brussels and lecturing in Paris on Euclid. He studied with Gemma Frisius and became a close friend of the cartographer Gerardus Mercator and cartographer Abraham Ortelius.

Dee also travelled extensively throughout Europe meeting and working with as well as learning from other leading continental mathematicians such as Federico Commandino in Italy. He returned to England with an important collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments.

In 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London: during their acquaintance they investigated a perpetual motion machine as well as a gem purported to have magical properties.

Mathematical Preface

Rector at Upton-upon-Severn from 1553, Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford University in 1554, which he declined, citing English universities' emphasis on rhetoric and grammar which, together with logic, formed the academic trivium over philosophy and science, the more advanced quadrivium, composed of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, as offensive. He was occupied with writing and perhaps hoped for a better position at court. In 1555, Dee became a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through the company's system of patrimony.

That same year, 1555, he was arrested and charged with calculating for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth; the charges were expanded to treason against Mary. Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this entire episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that would dog Dee throughout his life. Clearing his name yet again, he soon became a close associate of Bonner.

Dee presented Queen Mary with a visionary plan for the preservation of old books, manuscripts and records and the founding of a national library, in 1556, but his proposal was not taken up. Instead, he expanded his personal library at his house in Mortlake, tirelessly acquiring books and manuscripts in England and on the European Continent.

More information: The Many-Headed Monster

Dee's library, a centre of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars.

When Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, Dee became her trusted advisor on astrological and scientific matters, choosing Elizabeth's coronation date himself. From the 1550s through the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical assistance in navigation and ideological backing in the creation of a British Empire, a term that he was the first to use.

Dee wrote a letter to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, in October 1574 seeking patronage. He claimed to have occult knowledge of treasure in the Welsh Marches, and of valuable ancient manuscripts kept at Wigmore Castle, knowing that the Lord Treasurer's ancestors came from this area.

In 1577, Dee published General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, a work that set out his vision of a maritime empire and asserted English territorial claims on the New World. Dee was acquainted with Humphrey Gilbert and was close to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle.

John Dee

In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica, an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation.

Having dedicated it to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor in an effort to gain patronage, Dee attempted to present it to him during the time of his ascension to the throne of Hungary. This work was esteemed by many of Dee's contemporaries, but the work can not be interpreted today without the secret oral tradition from that era.

He published a Mathematical Preface to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid's Elements in 1570, arguing the central importance of mathematics and outlining mathematics' influence on the other arts and sciences. Intended for an audience outside the universities, it proved to be Dee's most widely influential and frequently reprinted work.

One of the important early products of the English School was the first English translation of the Elements of Euclid. This translation was carried out by The Lord Mayor of London Sir Henry Billingsley and not from a Latin translation but direct from the Greek. Published in 1570 this mathematical milestone contained a preface as well as copious notes and supplementary material from John Dee and this preface is considered to be one of Dee's most important mathematical works.

More information: Royal Collee of Physicians

By the early 1580s, Dee was growing dissatisfied with his progress in learning the secrets of nature as well as his failing influence and recognition in court circles. Failure of his proposed calendar revision, imperial recommendations and ambivalent results from exploration of North America had nearly brought his hopes of political patronage to an end. As a result, he began a more energetic turn towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. Specifically, he sought to contact spirits through the use of a scryer or crystal-gazer, which would act as an intermediary between Dee and the angels.

Dee returned to Mortlake after six years abroad to find his home vandalized, his library ruined and many of his prized books and instruments stolen. Furthermore, Dee found that increasing criticism of occult practices had made England even more inhospitable to his magical practices and natural philosophy.

Dee sought support from Elizabeth, who hoped he could persuade Kelley to return and ease England's economic burdens through alchemy. She finally appointed Dee Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, in 1595. This former College of Priests had been re-established as a Protestant institution by a Royal Charter of 1578.

He left Manchester in 1605 to return to London; however, he remained Warden until his death. By that time, Elizabeth was dead, and James I provided no support.

Dee spent his final years in poverty at Mortlake, forced to sell off various of his possessions to support himself and his daughter, Katherine, who cared for him until the end. He died in Mortlake late in 1608 or early 1609 aged 81.

More information: The Telegraph

Neither the circle without the line,

nor the line without the point,

can be artificially produced. 

John Dee