The queen's conjurer : the science and magic of Dr. John Dee, adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

375 Pages·2001·113.32 MB·English

by  Benjamin Woolley

ALSO BY BENJAMIN WOOLLEY
Virtual Worlds
The Bride ofS cience
THE QUEEN'S
CONJURER

THE QUEEN'S
CONJURER
THE SCIENCE AND MAGIC
OF DR . JOHN DEE,
ADVISER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH I
'Benjamin Woolley
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
New York
I
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
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New York, New York 10011
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of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2001 by Benjamin Woolley
All rights reserved.
Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd.,
195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woolley, Benjamin.
The queen's conjuter : the science and magic of Dr. John Dee, adviser to Queen
Elizabeth I / Benjamin Woolley.-1st ed.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8050-6509-1 (HB)
I. Dee, John, 1527-1608.2. Occultists-Great Britain-Biography.
3. Scientists-Great Britain-Biography. 4. Astrologers-Great Britain
Biography. 5. Great Britain-History-Elizabeth, 1558-1603-Biography.
I. Title.
BF1598.D5 W66 2001
133'·092-dC21
[B]
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First Edition 2001
DESIGNED BY FRITZ METSCH
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
He cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play,
and old men from the chimney-corner.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY,
'Defence of Poesy
-----Holy Roman Empire
DENM,
Brc
H~
..
Baltic S ea
POLAND

AUTHOR'S NOTE
+
FOR CLARITY and consistency, the spellings used in quota
tions have generally been modernized. I have also adopted
the modern Gregorian calendar for dating events, including
those occurring when the old-style Julian calendar was still in use.
The Gregorian system or "new style" was introduced on 4 October
582, making that month ten days shorter. It also standardized on
I
January as New Year's Day. England continued to use old-style
I
dates, and celebrated New Year on Lady Day, 25 March. This
means for example, I March 1584 old style converts to I I March
1585 new style. Where an old-style date identifies an original docu
ment (such as a letter), it has not been converted.
Following Dee's example, I have also anglicized the names of
some of the people and places he encountered during his travels.
The primary source material for this book is a collection of diaries
written by Dee. The personal diaries are preserved in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, the diaries recording the angelic "actions" ,at the
British Library in London. Selections of these diaries have been
published by Casaubon in True and Faithful Relation, Halliwell in
The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, and most recently Fenton in The
Diaries ofJ ohn Dee (see the Bibliography for complete references).
I would like to th\nk Edward Fenton for allowing me to quote
from his book, and also for his help with my research and writing.
For help with research in Bohemia and Poland, thanks go to Michal
Pober, Gyorgy Szonyi, and Yustyne Kilianczyk, who accompanied
me during my travels, and to Vaclav BiiZek, Vladimir Karpenko,
Lubos Antonin, Lubomir Konecny, and Denisa Kera. For sugges
tions, corrections, contributions, and translations, thanks go to Robin
Cousins, Michal Pober, William Sherman, Stephen Clucas, Darby
[ XI ]