The Queen's Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

Rating:
Summary: A Narrative of a Fascinating Elizabethan
Review: Benjamin Woolley in The Queen's Conjurer (The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I) looks at the life of Dr. Dee. He was a fascinating man of his times who was a part of the Elizabethan court and involved in or aware of most of the advances in general science, geography (particulary cartography), and astronomy. He was also involved with what are considered more occult activities in our times such as alchemy, astrology and talking with spirits (with the assistance and possibly under the influence of Kelley, an interesting character in his own right). Dr. Dee would not have seen the differences so sharply between science and the occult as we do now and it is interesting watching his pursuits shift smoothly from one to the other. The book is a straight forward narrative history of this man and it is, therefore, as fascinating as Dr. Dee was. Those looking for a more in-depth look at science or the occult in Renaissance England will be dissappointed, though. The book touches on many topics, such as the tantilizingly brief discussion of spys in the England of Elizabeth, that are not drawn out further than their point of contact with John Dee. It is a good, nicely written examination of one man of his time not a look at one man through the complexities of his time. It will entertain the reader looking for information on this fascinating individual and, hopefully, will lead one to read more about this interesting period of English history.

Rating:
Summary: Informative Biography of an Elizabethan Magus
Review: Benjamin Woolley's 'The Queen's Conjurer' is the most recent attempt to present the life of the English Enigma, Dr. John Dee. Dee is an interesting character and one that has sadly been much maligned over the centuries. Since his death in 1608, he has largely been dismissed at best as an sorcerer and black magicican and, at worst, as a credulous old fool dabbling in astrology and necromancy. Today, despite his prominent historical role in Elizabethan politics and his great contibutions to many fields, he is hardly remembered at all. This book tries to alleviate that problem.

Wolley's work is well-researched and attempts to shed light on Dee's life and his many accomplishments as not only an occultist, but also as an astronomer, mathematician, explorer, and spy. Dee was a product of the Renaissance and devoured knowledge and information. He was an avid bibliophile, a voracious author of various works on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, occult philosophy, and was well-respected by many prominent people at the court of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen herself counted herself one of Dee's benefactors and visited him numerous times at his home at Mortlake, taking a genuine interest in his many magical and mathematical works. Today he is largely remembered for his works concerning "Enochian" or Angel Magic, due to the fact that these are the bulk of his writings that have survived the flames of history. Most of the second half of this book is concerned with Dee's European adventures with the mysterious scryer Edward Kelly, who is largely regarded by history as a charlatan and a rake. Kelly is a shadowy and intriguing figure and we get some insight into his character and motivations but he is never truly revealed to us, perhaps he never will be. In the end, Dee finds that despite a lifetime of great works and accomplishments, he is viewed with mistrust and suspicion by the general public and has lost favor with the new court of King James I. He dies a tired and broken man, and history would continue to tarnish his great name until well into the 20th century.

The Queen's Conjurer is a very readable account of a great and fascinating man.

Rating:
Summary: Informative Biography of an Elizabethan Magus
Review: Benjamin Woolley's 'The Queen's Conjurer' is the most recent attempt to present the life of the English Enigma, Dr. John Dee. Dee is an interesting character and one that has sadly been much maligned over the centuries. Since his death in 1608, he has largely been dismissed at best as an sorcerer and black magicican and, at worst, as a credulous old fool dabbling in astrology and necromancy. Today, despite his prominent historical role in Elizabethan politics and his great contibutions to many fields, he is hardly remembered at all. This book tries to alleviate that problem.

Wolley's work is well-researched and attempts to shed light on Dee's life and his many accomplishments as not only an occultist, but also as an astronomer, mathematician, explorer, and spy. Dee was a product of the Renaissance and devoured knowledge and information. He was an avid bibliophile, a voracious author of various works on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, occult philosophy, and was well-respected by many prominent people at the court of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen herself counted herself one of Dee's benefactors and visited him numerous times at his home at Mortlake, taking a genuine interest in his many magical and mathematical works. Today he is largely remembered for his works concerning "Enochian" or Angel Magic, due to the fact that these are the bulk of his writings that have survived the flames of history. Most of the second half of this book is concerned with Dee's European adventures with the mysterious scryer Edward Kelly, who is largely regarded by history as a charlatan and a rake. Kelly is a shadowy and intriguing figure and we get some insight into his character and motivations but he is never truly revealed to us, perhaps he never will be. In the end, Dee finds that despite a lifetime of great works and accomplishments, he is viewed with mistrust and suspicion by the general public and has lost favor with the new court of King James I. He dies a tired and broken man, and history would continue to tarnish his great name until well into the 20th century.

The Queen's Conjurer is a very readable account of a great and fascinating man.

Rating:
Summary: A Clear Headed Biography Of A Shadowy Figure
Review: Doctor John Dee is probably one of the most misunderstood figures in Elizabeathan England. His dabbling in the occult has caused many historians to dismiss him. Yet his dabblings were not unusual for his time as it attracted the interest of learned men from Copernicus to Newton. Benjamin Woolley has done a fine job of giving us Dee's life in the context of his time giving the reader a clearer picture of his important role in the court of Elizabeth I.

As a political advisor he strongly urged Elizabeth to abandon Britain's insular view of itself and to expand outward. Here was laid the foundation of what would become the British Empire. Was Dee a conjuror? Yes but you have to consider what the term actually meant in Dee's time. People believed that numbers had a magic power. Those who could work them, mathematicians as Dee was, were said to be able to work or conjure numbers. Was he an alchemist? Very definately but once again we must put it into the context of its time. For the most part alchemists were people who could work metals from ore, what we would call today metalurgists. Those who tried to convert metals into gold mostly worked on the assumption that if silver and other metals could be extracted from other materials then why not. There were of course the charlatans but for the most part the work was an attempt to produce valuable metals via chemistry. The reason why the court of Rudolph II in Prague attracted so many alchemists is quite simple. Large deposits of silver had been found in Bohemia and there was simply a need for them.

Dee's meeting with Edward Kelley and his serious studies of the occult are clearly presented. The author makes no judgement but merely lays things out as Dee thought he saw them. The Enochian and Angelic languages as well as Kelley's alleged versions are covered in depth. How deep Dee's beliefs were are questionable as he himself at times expressed doubts about his dealings with Kelley. Woolley also makes clear that what Dee was involved with in was not considered off the wall in its day as most scholars and learned people believed in it.

Woolley has really done a fine job of giving us a clear picture of a person usually presented to us as a shadowy and mysterious figure. Dee's life was quite open and the realties of it are far more impressive than the myths.

Rating:
Summary: A Clear Headed Biography Of A Shadowy Figure
Review: Doctor John Dee is probably one of the most misunderstood figures in Elizabethan England. His dabbling in the occult has caused many historians to dismiss him. Yet his dabblings were not unusual for his time as it attracted the interest of learned men from Copernicus to Newton. Benjamin Woolley has done a fine job of giving us Dee's life in the context of his time giving the reader a clearer picture of his important role in the court of Elizabeth I.

As a political advisor he strongly urged Elizabeth to abandon Britain's insular view of itself and to expand outward. Here was laid the foundation of what would become the British Empire. Was Dee a conjuror? Yes but you have to consider what the term actually meant in Dee's time. People believed that numbers had a magic power. Those who could work them, mathematicians as Dee was, were said to be able to work or conjure numbers. Was he an alchemist? Very definately but once again we must put it into the context of its time. For the most part alchemists were people who could work metals from ore, what we would call today metalurgists. Those who tried to convert metals into gold mostly worked on the assumption that if silver and other metals could be extracted from other materials then why not. There were of course the charlatans but for the most part the work was an attempt to produce valuable metals via chemistry. The reason why the court of Rudolph II in Prague attracted so many alchemists is quite simple. Large deposits of silver had been found in Bohemia and there was simply a need for them.

Dee's meeting with Edward Kelley and his serious studies of the occult are clearly presented. The author makes no judgement but merely lays things out as Dee thought he saw them. The Enochian and Angelic languages as well as Kelley's alleged visions are covered in depth. How deep Dee's beliefs were are questionable as he himself at times expressed doubts about his dealings with Kelley. Woolley also makes clear that what Dee was involved with in was not considered off the wall in its day as most scholars and learned people believed in it.

Woolley has really done a fine job of giving us a clear picture of a person usually presented to us as a shadowy and mysterious figure. Dee's life was quite open and the realties of it are far more impressive than the myths.

Rating:
Summary: Combining Science and the Supernatural...
Review: Dr. John Dee is now considered to be the English Renaissance man. This was not always the case, however, because his first biographers, as the author of this fine biography points out, were either `hard-headed rationalist or muddle-headed mystics.' In present time, researchers and historians agree that Dee was a true Renaissance man because he sought to connect or reconcile rationalism with magic, science and the supernatural. This was not unusual for the time. Copernicus cited the mystic Hermes Trismegistus in his Magnum Opus, proposing the heliocentric universe. Isaac Newton began his career as an alchemist, before moving on to modern methods of pure science. John Dee was the most important scientists of the Elizabethan age. But this is only a somewhat recent recognition because throughout the ages he was considered a charlatan, crook, blockhead and "companion of hellhounds". Benjamin Woolley's fine biography combines history, science, espionage and common sense and attempts to answer how a man of genius that had such a major influence in mathematics, astronomy, cartography, navigation and science in general, could die a pauper and in obscurity.

In 1659, a scholar by the name of Meric Casaubon copied and published a collection of Dee's documents, which contained the recordings of spiritual conversations with angels and archangels, and other dialogues, which could be interpreted dubious at best. After the publication Dee's reputation as a credible philosopher went steadily down hill and has taken centuries to recover. Woolley has done some fine research, using Dee's actual diaries, and has painstakingly pieced together his life and career.

The Elizabethan age was a turning point in Western history. The Reformation was essentially a battle for power and knowledge and a bloody war in the name of religion. But it also set the stage for the Enlightenment, and Dr. John Dee was a precursor to the Age of Reason. He was a man of `science', collecting and studying every ancient text he could get his hands on, (his library is the stuff of legend) but rational knowledge, he truly believed, would only take him so far - he desired heavenly knowledge and wisdom. And it is possible that his spiritual researches into the divine nature could have been the cause of his downfall. Dee did not seek worldly gain, riches and material pleasure; his only desire was to attain the secrets of the Holy. Did he pay the ultimate price for this activity?

~The Queen's Conjurer~ is not a dense historical text, but an informative and enlightening piece of research. It casts some light on an intriguing figure, removing him from modern occult history and in to the mainstream.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on Dee yet!
Review: For 25 years I have read & collected everything on John Dee I could find, even to the point of ordering the Sloan MSS fron the British museum. My only complaint about this effort is that it wasn't longer. It reads like a novel. This is the daily life of one of the most fascinating people in British history. Occultists will get clarity on the nature of the Angelic workings, Alchemists get a glimpse of the nature of the craft, students of history are drawn into the gritty reality of fifteenth century Europe. This book carried me through from beginning to end in only two sittings. I couldn't put it down. Well done Woolley!

Rating:
Summary: Dr. John Dee- Mathematician and Mystic
Review: I have always found Dr. John Dee to be one of the most intriguing characters of Elizabethan times. Yet, there seemed to be so little information available about him, only bits and pieces and rumors- often spread by his enemies. Here is a most satisfying biography that not only gives you a complete look at the Doctor's life, but is also supplemented with a wealth of associated detail and historical background. This book turns Dee from a shadowy character to a real man, a great man.

What comes across is the amazing breadth and depth of Dee's interests and scholarship. He was already famed for his remarkable intellect and ability as a student at Cambridge. At a time when most scholars barely processed a reading knowledge of bad Latin, he mastered classical Greek to be able to read the forgotten works of Plato and Pythagoras. He was a personal friend and correspondent to the great men of the age such as Tycho Brahe and Mercator. Dee himself was famed as a great mathematician in Europe (at a time when simple trigonometry was almost unknown in England.) He was offered high positions at the great courts of Europe, but turned these offers down out of a deep seated desire to raise up his country of birth to be their eventual global equal (at this time England was a poor, backward, weak backwater.) Indeed, the first conception of a British Empire, founded upon a strong Royal Navy, was first expounded by Dee.

John Dee was as close to modern scientist as existed in the 16th century. He independently came to the conclusion that bodies of unequal weight fall at the same rate- before Galileo. He was recognized as England's top expert on optics and lenses. He was recognized as one of the top experts on navigation and chart making of his day. He kept detailed astronomical observations that even Tycho Brahe admired. He based his astrological work upon the heliocentric "heresy" of Copernicus. He was an expert in geology and ores and leased his own tin mine. He also collected the biggest research library of the age in Mortlake, which was a gathering place of the greatest minds of England and the continent. In short- Dee was a competent expert in several areas of natural philosophy and applied technology. He believed in detailed observation and record keeping- in both natural, and supernatural, phenomena.

The thing is, Dee believed his accomplishments in the more material and practical sciences to be among his lesser accomplishments. Like Newton after him, his real passion was with the deepest cosmic and spiritual secrets. This led to his fame as an astrologer, and an alchemist, and a cabalist. Dee's passion was to discover the ancient, true, original religion of mankind, the "prisci theology." That is why he could walk easily among both Protestants and Catholics- he ultimately considered both of their dogma's to be equally absurd. Dee had a much more open mind that the "scientists" of later centuries- he studied all unknown forces, natural or supernatural. This was why be studied and practiced natural magic (Agrippa's three books were always open upon his desk for quick reference.) He knew that hidden currents influenced the day-to-day world, and he documented his observations even if he couldn't explain them in terms of material cause and effect. This also led to his interest is scrying and the use of natural sensitives to communicate with spirits. It should be noted, that no one at this time doubted the existence of such spirits- it was as self evident as the existence of God. In fact, many powerful lords of the day employed seers and scryers, including the earls of Leicester, Pembroke, and Northumberland.

All in all, you come away with a renewed respect for Dee. You realize that his only fault was to be born in a society of petty, ignorant, lesser men. It was they that libeled and slandered his image and painted him as a superstitious conjuror. Indeed, the only real mistake that the good Doctor made was to outlive his beloved queen and protector.

Rating:
Summary: Magic and Science
Review: In 1527, when England was sharing with the rest of Europe the boom in art and learning called the Renaissance, was born Dr. John Dee, about whom history has yet to decide. He has been regarded as an intellectual giant, a genius of languages, a dupe, a fraud, and a prophetic mystic, among other things. A new biography, _The Queen's Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I_ (Henry Holt) by Benjamin Woolley, shows how he was all of this and more. It is a clear biography of a fascinating figure, and an examination into the way of thought of Dee's times.

Dee first came to the attention of the larger world when at the age of nineteen, as a student in Cambridge, he mounted a play by Aristophanes, _Peace_, which calls for a giant dung beetle to fly the hero up to the palace of Zeus. Calling upon his passion for mathematics, before there were stage tricks such as projectors, lighting, motors, or fog machines, Dee indeed made a giant beetle fly around the main hall of Trinity College. He astonished the audience, and no one knows how he did it, but some suspected black magic, a suspicion that was forever to taint him. Woolley shows that although Dee was a serious astronomer and chemist, he was also an astrologer and alchemist, but also shows how magic pervaded Renaissance thought. What really makes Dee extreme is his close association with "scryvers," spiritual mediums who gazed at crystal balls to consult with spirits. The scryver most associated with Dee, because of almost twenty years of joint work together, was Edward Kelley, a histrionic and demanding seer whom Dee originally distrusted and then began to use to lay a foundation for a system of occult knowledge. Kelley would look into Dee's crystal balls and report the visions; Dee could never see them, but he took down voluminous notes and tried to make sense of them. He worked for years on understanding the strange pre-Babel language the spirits were supposed to be showing.

Power and riches eluded Dee, however much of the language he came to understand. He and Kelley were astonishingly busy, pulled by their language researches, divining for treasure, and pursuing various occult projects. Dee did astrological consultations all his life, earning some money thereby. He constantly sought some sort of sinecure within Elizabeth's court, and only intermittently was successful. In 1589, after six years in Europe, Dee returned to his home near London and found it in ruins, with his huge library and collections of scientific equipment stolen. His reputation had been stolen, as well.

Woolley proves himself a guide who can benefit us by his meticulous research. Dee left many intimate records, not only of all the things the spirits revealed to him, but of his daily activities, his wife's menses, the couple's copulations, his dreams, and more. Woolley has intimately described the mystical foolishness as well as the scientific practicality of a mysterious man who ought to be better known as a significant intellectual figure.

Rating:
Summary: Magic and Science
Review: In 1527, when England was sharing with the rest of Europe the boom in art and learning called the Renaissance, was born Dr. John Dee, about whom history has yet to decide. He has been regarded as an intellectual giant, a genius of languages, a dupe, a fraud, and a prophetic mystic, among other things. A new biography, _The Queen's Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I_ (Henry Holt) by Benjamin Woolley, shows how he was all of this and more. It is a clear biography of a fascinating figure, and an examination into the way of thought of Dee's times.

Dee first came to the attention of the larger world when at the age of nineteen, as a student in Cambridge, he mounted a play by Aristophanes, _Peace_, which calls for a giant dung beetle to fly the hero up to the palace of Zeus. Calling upon his passion for mathematics, before there were stage tricks such as projectors, lighting, motors, or fog machines, Dee indeed made a giant beetle fly around the main hall of Trinity College. He astonished the audience, and no one knows how he did it, but some suspected black magic, a suspicion that was forever to taint him. Woolley shows that although Dee was a serious astronomer and chemist, he was also an astrologer and alchemist, but also shows how magic pervaded Renaissance thought. What really makes Dee extreme is his close association with "scryvers," spiritual mediums who gazed at crystal balls to consult with spirits. The scryver most associated with Dee, because of almost twenty years of joint work together, was Edward Kelley, a histrionic and demanding seer whom Dee originally distrusted and then began to use to lay a foundation for a system of occult knowledge. Kelley would look into Dee's crystal balls and report the visions; Dee could never see them, but he took down voluminous notes and tried to make sense of them. He worked for years on understanding the strange pre-Babel language the spirits were supposed to be showing.

Power and riches eluded Dee, however much of the language he came to understand. He and Kelley were astonishingly busy, pulled by their language researches, divining for treasure, and pursuing various occult projects. Dee did astrological consultations all his life, earning some money thereby. He constantly sought some sort of sinecure within Elizabeth's court, and only intermittently was successful. In 1589, after six years in Europe, Dee returned to his home near London and found it in ruins, with his huge library and collections of scientific equipment stolen. His reputation had been stolen, as well.

Woolley proves himself a guide who can benefit us by his meticulous research. Dee left many intimate records, not only of all the things the spirits revealed to him, but of his daily activities, his wife's menses, the couple's copulations, his dreams, and more. Woolley has intimately described the mystical foolishness as well as the scientific practicality of a mysterious man who ought to be better known as a significant intellectual figure.