John Dee was born on July 13, 1527, and died in December 1608 or March 1609. He was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, mystic, and alchemist. He worked as the court astronomer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He spent much of his time studying alchemy, divination, and mystical teachings. As an expert in old texts, he owned one of the largest libraries in England at that time. He also supported the idea of creating English colonies in the New World to form a "British Empire," a term he helped create.

Later, Dee left Queen Elizabeth’s service and traveled across Europe to learn about the occult and supernatural. He worked with some people who may have been dishonest, and he was accused of spying for England. When he returned home, his house and library were damaged. He tried to return to the Queen’s service, but he was not allowed to stay after Elizabeth was replaced by King James I. Dee died poor in London, and no one knows where he was buried.

Biography

John Dee was born in Tower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee, who had Welsh ancestors, and Johanna, the daughter of William Wild. His last name, "Dee," comes from the Welsh word "du," which means "black." Dee's grandfather was named Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes, Pilleth, Radnorshire. John Dee remained connected to this area. His father, Rowland, was a cloth merchant and a gentleman who served in the court of King Henry VIII. Dee claimed to be descended from Rhodri the Great, a ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in the 9th century, and he created a family history to support this. His family moved to London around the time King Henry VII was crowned.

Dee studied at Chelmsford Chantry School (now known as King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford) from 1535 to 1542. In 1542, at age 15, he entered St John's College, Cambridge, and earned a bachelor's degree in 1545 or 1546. Because of his talent, he became one of the first fellows at Trinity College, Cambridge, when it was founded by King Henry VIII in 1546. At Trinity, Dee designed special effects for a play about the Greek writer Aristophanes' work Peace. Using pulleys and mirrors, he created an illusion of "the Scarabeus flying to Jupiter's palace," which he later said helped build his reputation as a magician. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, Dee traveled across Europe, studying at the Old University of Leuven (in Belgium) and teaching in Paris about the mathematician Euclid. He studied under Gemma Frisius and became friends with mapmakers Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. He also worked with other European mathematicians, such as Federico Commandino in Italy. Dee returned to England with a large collection of math and astronomy tools. In 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London, and they studied a machine that supposedly could run forever and a gem believed to have magical powers.

From 1553, Dee was the rector of Upton-upon-Severn. In 1554, he was offered a job as a math teacher at Oxford University but refused, saying he found English schools too focused on subjects like grammar and rhetoric instead of science and math. He was busy writing and hoped for a better position at court. On February 17, 1554, Dee became a Catholic priest during a time when many people were returning to Catholicism. The Catholic bishop Edmund Bonner, who was already a friend of Dee, allowed him to receive all religious orders in one day.

In 1555, Dee joined the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through a system that passed membership to children. That same year, he was arrested and accused of "lewd and vain practices" for making horoscopes for Queen Mary I and Princess Elizabeth. The charges were upgraded to treason against Queen Mary. Dee defended himself in court and was cleared, but he was sent to Bonner for religious questioning. His habit of keeping secrets may have made the situation worse. This event was the most dramatic in a series of attacks and false accusations that followed Dee his whole life. At some point, Dee became Bonner's chaplain. In early versions of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, Dee is recorded debating the presence of Christ in the Eucharist with a Protestant prisoner named Robert Smith and participating in the seventh examination of John Philpot.

In 1556, Dee gave Queen Mary a plan to save old books and start a national library, but it was not accepted. Instead, he expanded his personal library in Mortlake, collecting books and manuscripts from England and the continent. His library became one of the most important in England and attracted many scholars.

When Queen Elizabeth I became ruler in 1558, Dee became her advisor for astrology and science. He chose her coronation date and even converted to Protestantism. From the 1550s to the 1570s, he helped England's explorers with navigation and supported the idea of creating a "British Empire," a term he first used. In 1574, Dee wrote to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, asking for support, claiming he had secret knowledge about treasure in Wales and valuable manuscripts at Wigmore Castle, where Cecil's ancestors lived.

In 1564, Dee wrote Monas Hieroglyphica (The Hieroglyphic Monad), a complex Christian mystical work based on a symbol he designed. He dedicated it to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, hoping to gain his support. He tried to present it to Maximilian when he became king of Hungary. Many of Dee's contemporaries admired the work, and the royal secret service found its section on codes useful, though it is hard to understand today without the oral traditions of the time.

Dee's 1570 "Mathematical Preface" to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid's Elements argued for the importance of math in other fields. It was meant for people outside universities and became Dee's most widely read and reprinted work.

In 1577, Dee published General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, which outlined his vision for a powerful sea empire and claimed English rights to the New World. He knew people like Humphrey Gilbert and was close to Philip Sidney and his group.

By the early 1580s, Dee was unhappy with his progress in learning natural secrets and his fading influence at court. His ideas for a new calendar, colonial efforts, and the uncertain results of explorations in North America had nearly stopped his hopes for political support. He then focused more on the supernatural, hoping to gain knowledge through contacting spirits. He used scrying, a method he believed would connect him to angels.

Dee's first attempts with scryers were not successful, but in 1582, he met Edward Kelley (who called himself Edward Talbot), who impressed Dee with his abilities. Dee hired Kelley and devoted himself to supernatural studies. These "spiritual conferences" were done with deep religious devotion, after periods of purification, prayer, and fasting. Dee believed they could benefit humanity. Kelley's role is harder to judge: some say he was dishonest, but others think he may have been delusional. Kelley's writings were detailed and vivid. Dee recorded that angels dictated several books to him through Kelley, some in a special angelic or Enochian language.

In 1583, Dee met Albert Łaski, a poor but popular Polish nobleman who invited Dee to join him in returning to Poland. With encouragement from the "angels" (through Kelley) and because of his declining status at court, Dee agreed. He, Kelley, and their families left England in September 1583, but Łaski had no money and was unpopular in Poland. Dee and Kelley began a wandering life in Central Europe.

Personal life

John Dee supported English exploration and expansion to help renew England politically and spiritually. He was married three times and had eight children. His first wife, Katherine Constable, married him in 1565. They had no children, and she died in 1574. His second wife, whose name is unknown, married him in 1575. She also died in 1576 without children.

In 1578, when Dee was 51, he married Jane Fromond, who was 23 years old. Jane had previously worked at the Elizabethan court as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln, before marrying Dee. They had seven or eight children: Arthur Dee (1579–1651), Michael Dee (died 1594), Rowland Dee, Katherine Dee, Madinia Dee, Frances Dee, Margaret Dee, and possibly Theodore Dee (1588–1601).

Dee wrote that Thomas Jones, who may have inspired the Welsh folkloric figure Twm Siôn Cati, was his cousin. They exchanged letters, and Jones visited Dee multiple times.

From 1577 to 1601, Dee kept a diary (also called an almanac) that was not always complete. This diary is the main source of information about his life during this time. In 1587, Kelley told Dee that an angel wanted them to share wives. Theodore Dee, born nine months later, may have been fathered by Kelley instead of Dee.

Jane Fromond died in Manchester from bubonic plague in March 1604 and was buried in the Manchester Cathedral burial grounds. Michael Dee, born in Prague, died on his father’s birthday in 1594. Theodore Dee, born in Třeboň, died in Manchester in 1601. Dee’s sons Arthur and Rowland, as well as his daughter Katherine, outlived him. No records exist for his youngest daughters, Madinia (sometimes spelled Madima), Frances, and Margaret, after 1604. It is believed they died during the epidemic that killed their mother, as Dee had stopped keeping a diary by then.

Arthur Dee studied at Westminster School, and Dee wrote to his headmaster about typical concerns parents have for their children in boarding school. Arthur helped his father with alchemical and scientific work and often acted as his diviner until Kelley joined them. Later, Arthur became an alchemist and Hermetic author, with his works published by Elias Ashmole.

John Aubrey, an antiquary, described Dee as tall and slender. He wore a long, flowing robe with hanging sleeves and a slit. Dee had a fair, clear complexion and a long beard as white as milk. Aubrey called him a very handsome man.

Achievements

John Dee was deeply religious, and his beliefs were shaped by ideas from ancient systems, including Hermetic, Platonic, and Pythagorean teachings, which were widely studied during the Renaissance. He believed that numbers were the foundation of all things and essential to understanding the world. From Hermeticism, he learned that humans had the potential to use mathematics to achieve great power. Dee aimed to unite the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and restore the pure religious teachings of ancient times.

In 1570, Dee promoted policies to strengthen England politically and economically, and to establish colonies in the New World. His work Brytannicae reipublicae synopsis (1570) described the state of England during Queen Elizabeth’s reign and discussed trade, ethics, and national strength.

In 1576, Dee published General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, the first book in a planned series to support the creation of English colonies abroad. A symbolic image on the book’s cover showed Britannia kneeling at the shore, asking Elizabeth I to protect England by building a strong navy. Dee used stories from Geoffrey of Monmouth, which linked Ireland to King Arthur’s conquests, to argue that Arthur had created a "British empire" overseas. He claimed that new colonies would benefit England economically if protected by a powerful navy. Dee is often credited with creating the term "British Empire," though another writer, Humphrey Llwyd, used the term earlier in 1568.

In 1577–1580, Dee marked a claim to North America on a map, noting that "circa 1494 Mr. Robert Thorn his father, and Mr. Eliot of Bristow, discovered Newfound Land." In his 1580 work Title Royal, he wrote that Madog ab Owain Gwynedd had discovered America, aiming to support England’s claim to the New World over Spain’s. He also argued that Brutus of Britain, King Arthur, and Madog had conquered lands in the Americas, meaning Elizabeth I of England had a right to those lands as their heir.

Reputation and significance

About ten years after John Dee's death, Sir Robert Cotton, a collector of historical items, bought land near Dee's home and started searching for old papers and objects. He found several manuscripts, mostly records of Dee's conversations with angels. Cotton's son gave these to a scholar named Méric Casaubon, who published them in 1659. The book, titled A True & Faithful Relation, included a long introduction that criticized Dee. It was the first public account of Dee's spiritual meetings and became popular. Casaubon, who believed in spirits, claimed Dee was unknowingly controlled by evil spirits, thinking he was speaking with angels. This book helped create the image of Dee as a tricked and confused person for the next two and a half centuries.

Around the time the book was published, members of the Rosicrucian movement claimed Dee was one of their members. However, there is no clear evidence that an organized Rosicrucian group existed during Dee's lifetime, nor that he belonged to any secret group. Dee's reputation as a magician and his story about working with Edward Kelley made him a popular figure for writers of fiction and later magicians. These stories often hide the real facts about his life, including his efforts to help heal conflicts between religious groups in England. Queen Elizabeth I used Dee as her court astronomer not only because he practiced Hermetic arts but also because he was a deeply religious and trustworthy person.

In the 20th century, historians Charlotte Fell Smith and Frances Yates helped people understand Dee's true character and importance. They showed how magic, science, and religion were connected during the Elizabethan Renaissance. Fell Smith wrote that Dee was unfairly judged by later generations and that it was time to examine why. Today, Dee is seen as a serious scholar, a devoted Christian, a skilled scientist, and one of the most knowledgeable people of his time. His library in Mortlake was the largest in England before it was destroyed. He also advised Queen Elizabeth on science and supported plans to colonize North America.

Dee worked to improve navigation and map-making. He studied with Gerardus Mercator and owned many maps, globes, and tools for astronomy. He created new tools and methods for exploring polar regions. He helped choose and train sailors for English explorations. Dee believed mathematics was central to learning and promoted its use outside universities. He wrote in English so more people could understand his ideas. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid encouraged people without university education to study math, and it was widely read by craftsmen and artisans.

In the 20th century, the town of Richmond honored Dee by naming a street near Mortlake "Dee Road." Dee was friends with Tycho Brahe and knew the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, translated by Thomas Digges. He used Copernican ideas in his calculations, though he never openly supported the idea that Earth orbits the Sun. Dee suggested changes to the Gregorian calendar, including adjusting the date of the year's start to January 1st. However, England ignored these ideas because they were linked to the Catholic Church.

Dee is often connected to the Voynich manuscript, which was bought by Wilfrid Voynich in 1912. Voynich thought Dee might have owned it and sold it to Rudolph II, but Dee's records show no evidence of this. Dee did own a copy of the Book of Soyga, another mysterious book.

The British Museum has several items once linked to Dee:
– A black mirror, called Dee's Speculum, which was owned by Horace Walpole. Walpole claimed it belonged to Dee, though Dee's writings do not mention it.
– Small wax seals used to support a table where Dee performed spiritual practices.
– A large wax seal, called the "Seal of God," used with a crystal ball for scrying.
– A gold amulet showing one of Kelley's visions.
– A small crystal globe, possibly owned by Dee.

In December 2004, a crystal ball used by Dee and a 17th-century explanation of its use were stolen from the Science Museum in London but were later recovered.

To people today, Dee's work mixes magic and science, but it is not accurate to separate these ideas as completely different. His beliefs and practices reflect the time he lived in, where science and mysticism were not clearly divided.

Literary and cultural references

John Dee was a well-known figure in books written by his peers and has remained a part of popular culture, especially in stories or fantasy settings from his time or involving magic and the occult.

Edmund Spenser may have written about Dee in The Faerie Queene (1596). William Shakespeare may have based the character of Prospero in The Tempest (1610–1611) on Dee.

Dee is the subject of a painting titled John Dee Performing an Experiment Before Queen Elizabeth I by Henry Gillard Glindoni.

Dee is a major character in John Crowley’s four-volume novel Ægypt, with the first book, The Solitudes, published in 1987.

Donald McCormick said that Dee inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond character. He also claimed that the "007" nickname came from a symbol used by Dee. However, scholar Teresa Burns has questioned this claim, as there is no clear evidence linking "007" to Dee’s symbols.

In Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee, Dee is shown as a magician who moves Queen Elizabeth I from the 16th century to the 20th.

John Dee is one of the main antagonists in the book series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. In the series, Dee gains immortality from his mentors, the Dark Elders.

The film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) includes two scenes where Queen Elizabeth consults Dr. Dee, played by David Threlfall.

In the historical mystery The Bones of Avalon (2010) by Phil Rickman, Dee is the main detective investigating the disappearance of King Arthur’s bones during Elizabeth I’s reign. The play Burn Your Bookes (2010) by Richard Byrne explores the relationships between Dee, Edward Kelley, and Edward Dyer.

The opera Dr Dee: An English Opera (2011) by Damon Albarn examines Dee’s life and work.

In the book Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, published July 10, 2012, Dee appears as a minor character. Harkness, a historian of science and Elizabethan expert, used her research on Dee for the book.

John Zorn’s string quartet The Alchemist (2014) was inspired by Dee and Kelley’s alchemical work.

The Iron Maiden song "The Alchemist" from the album The Final Frontier (2010) is about John Dee.

American rapper Ghostemane has a song titled "John Dee" with lyrics about the occult.

In Robert Eggers’ 2024 film Nosferatu, the character Professor Albin Everhart Von Franz, played by Willem Dafoe, is shown reading Mysteriorum Libri Quinque (John Dee’s Five Books of Mysteries) when introduced.

Dee (or a character based on him) appears in several video games, including Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, and ZombiU.

Works

• Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564
• Preface to Billingsley's Euclid (Billingsley's translation of Euclid's Elements), 1570
• General and Rare Memorials, Pertayning to the Perfect Art of Navigation: Annexed to the Paradoxal Cumpas in Playze. 1577.
• On the Mystical Rule of the Seven Planets, 1582–1583
• Dee, John; Kelly, Edward; Casaubon, Meric (1659). A True & Faithful Relation of what Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits. T Garthwait. ISBN 978-5-88514-094-2. {{ cite book }}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Quinti Libri Mysteriorum. British Library, Sloane MS 3188. Also found in a copy made by Elias Ashmole, located in Sloane MS 3677.
• Joseph H. Peterson, ed. (2003). John Dee's Five Books of Mystery: Original Sourcebook of Enochian Magic. Boston: Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1-57863-178-0. from the collected works known as Mysteriorum libri quinque
• John Dee, The Mathematicall Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570). (Reprinted New York: Science History Publications (1975) ISBN 0-88202-020-X)
• John Dee, John Dee on Astronomy: Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1558 & 1568) edited by Wayne Shumaker, Berkeley: University of California Press ISBN 0-520-03376-0
• John Dee, Autobiographical tracts of John Dee, Warden of the College of Manchester, ed. James Crossley. Chetham Society Publications, Vol XXIV. Manchester, 1851
• John Dee, Diary for the years 1595–1601, ed. John E. Bailey. Privately printed, 1880
• J.O. Halliwell, ed. (1842). The Private Diary of Dr John Dee. Camden Society.