A noted English mathematician, astronomer, geographer and consultant to Elizabeth I. He was also interested in alchemy, astrology, divination and Rosicrucianism?.
Born in London. He graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge aged eighteen. He lectured briefly at Cambridge before he left England to study in continental Europe and lecture in Paris and Louvain. He returned to England in the 1540s. In 1553? during the reign of Mary I he faced a Star Chamber prosecution, accused of black magic but he was only briefly jailed. When he was released he became a scientific advisor to Elizabeth I, even deciding on the auspicious date for her coronation in 1558?.
Travelling widely abroad with a pension from Elizabeth I, and possibly acting as a spy, Dee strove to increase his knowledge and add to his library. His main published work was Monad Hieroglyphia (1564) a dense Kaballa? influenced work on alchemy. But in 1570? he wrote the preface to the first English translation of Euclid's works.
He met [Edward Kelly]? (or Kelley), a convicted forger, in 1582 and Kelly became his companion. Kelly acted as intermediary for Dee in his attempts to receive visions from 'angels' using a globe of crystal - a magical system and language called Enochian? was apparently derived from this scrying (Dee's crystal globe ended up in the British Museum un-noticed for many years in the mineral collection)
In 1583? his home and library at Mortlake? were destroyed by a mob fearful of this 'magician', Dee was away in Europe at the time.
He was warden of Manchester College from 1595 until 1604. When Elizabeth I died in 1603 so did Dee's influence, he was forced to retire to his home at Mortlake where he died in poverty.
He was married three times and had eight children.
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