'John Dee evoking a spirit with Edward Kelley' Image Via: Wikimedia Commons Many of Kelley’s documents are featured within Medieval and Early Modern Studies, including an interesting Treatise on the Philosophers Stone. Kelley claimed to be a medium and spent many hours with Dee ‘communing’ with angels or ‘Pure Verities’ as Dee would refer to them. Dee fully indulged in the more spiritual of his many obsessions particularly in the later part of his life after making the acquaintance of the young Edward Kelly. It perhaps seems a little unusual to a contemporary audience, but the Queen’s scientific advisor also claimed to have communicated with angels. It is the alchemical aspects of Dee’s life that I find the most intriguing. Some of the highlights of this within Renaissance Man include Euclidis Geometrica and Dr John Dee: Life and Writings which provides a collection of writings and notes by the man himself, providing an excellent insight into his life. A notorious scribbler and doodler, Dee’s books contain numerous musings on the subjects within and their relation to his own life. It is this collection which forms a pivotal part of the Renaissance Man collection. Unfortunately, these ideas were rejected and instead, Dee concentrated on transforming his own home at Mortlake into a vast collection of 4,000 tomes on a variety of subjects. In 1556 Dee presented Queen Mary with the concept of a ‘National Library’ and early ideas regarding the preservation of books and manuscripts. It was an image that would later lead to his arrest and one which he would never shake. It was here his reputation as a ‘magician’ was gained, thanks to the astounding stage effects he engineered for a production of Aristophanes’ Peace. 'John Dee (1527-1608 or 1609) Image via: Wikimedia Commonsīorn in London in 1527, Dee became an original fellow of Cambridge at the age of 15 in 1542. Indeed, such was the strength of this reputation that there’s much evidence to suggest he inspired Marlowe’s Faustus, Shakespeare’s Prospero and Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist. Personally however, it is his reputation as an alchemist and magician that I find the most intriguing. Dee was a man of many talents being not only a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth but signed himself 007 (centuries before Fleming utilised the codename) and coined the term ‘British Empire’.
One of the most interesting and certainly intriguing collections included is Renaissance Man: The Books and Manuscripts of John Dee. This week sees the release of Research Source: Medieval and Early Modern Studies, a rich resource covering topics such as the Black Death, the restoration of the English Monarchy and the Glorious Revolution.
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