RENAISSANCE MAN: The Reconstructed Libraries of European Scholars: 1450-1700
Series One: The Books and Manuscripts of John Dee, 1527-1608

Part 1: John Dee’s Manuscripts from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

"Renaissance Man” seeks to make available the actual volumes - printed and manuscript - that made up the libraries of some of the great European scholars in the period 1450-1700.

It does so without duplicating the work already done in the filming of English printed books listed by Wing and Pollard & Redgrave. This project focuses on:

• Copiously annotated volumes which tell us much about the reading habits of scholars of this period;
• Books printed on the Continent of Europe which necessarily do not feature in STC; and
• Unique manuscript volumes owned or written by the collectors.

The project begins with the reconstructed library of John Dee (1527-1608), whose wide range of interests and great learning amply qualify him as a Renaissance Man. The reconstruction is based on Roberts & Watson’s John Dee’s Library Catalogue published by the Bibliographical Society, London in 1990.

John Dee is remembered as a mathematician, pioneer of navigation, alchemist, astrologer to Elizabeth I, leading advocate of experimental science, magician and as one of the most learned men of his day, possessing a most magnificient library. He moved in esteemed circles and was variously sponsored and consulted by the Dudleys, the Sidneys, Sir Edmund Dyer, Walsingham, Sir William Pickering, Lord Burghley, the Earls of Pembroke and Bedford, Queen Elizabeth I, Emperors Maximillian II and Rudolf II, M de Monluc, Ortelius and Prince Laski.

His preface to the first English edition of Euclid’s Elements in 1570 had an immense influence on the growth of the study of mathematics and on the use of mathematics in areas as diverse as land measurement and stagecraft. Mathematics were also central to his advocacy of a positivistic scientific method, gaining knowledge through the accruate measurement and recording of repeatable experiments. Dee’s manuscripts show that he was heavily influenced in this by the teachings of Roger Bacon, but Dee was able to reach a broader audience due to the power of the printed word. His mathematical fame also rests on his reform of the English Calendar and the fact that he was trusted with this task is testimony to the high regard that his contemporaries had for him.

In his Preface to the Elements of Euclid, Dee also championed the use of vernacular language to explain scientific theories which was instrumental in allowing learning to spread beyond the universities.

His importance in the fields of Geography, Hydrography and Navigation is best illustrated by the fact that he numbered amongst his friends and teachers Pedro Nuñes (the Portugese Cosmographer Royal who was appointed Dee’s literary executor), Gemma Phrysius (the Flemish mathematician, Cosmographer and Cartographer who taught Dee at the University of Louvain), Gerard Mercator (a fellow pupil of Phrysius), Abraham Ortelius, Oronce Finé and Christopher Saxton (who visited Dee in Manchester). Furthermore, during his long period of service for the Muscovy Company, Dee was himself responsible for the technical instruction of Richard Chancellor, Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Stephen and William Borough, Arthur Pet, Walter Raleigh and probably, but not certainly, Francis Drake. Dee was involved in the opening of mining ventures in England and in the planning of early settlements in Virginia.

Dee’s work in the fields of Alchemy, Astrology and Magic brought him both prestige and notoriety. Elizabeth I made frequent demands on his services and Dee’s skills were called upon, at Robert Dudley’s suggestion, to name the most favourable day for her coronation. The Queen visited his library following his return from travels to Padua, Venice, Urbino, Pressburg and Antwerp (including a meeting with Conrad Gesner) and gave help to enable him to replace volumes which had been stolen whilst he was away. As Dee’s books and manuscripts show, he became a fervent advocate of Parcelsus and was largely responsible for introducing Paracelsian ideas into England. However, the distrust of magic and scepticism at his claims of talking to angels led to a degree of ridicule and disgrace during the reign of James 1.

John Dee was also one of the first advocates of a national library, as his Supplication to Queen Mary in 1556 witnesses. He proposed the gathering and copying (where volumes had to be returned) of books and manuscripts held by British owners and a series of purchasing expeditions to the continent to enable British scholars to benefit from the new scholarship and learning that was a central part of the European Renaissance. In the absence of any royal enthusiasm for such a project he set about creating his own library of printed works and manuscript volumes. What he created was the largest private library in Elizabethan England with particular strengths in the fields of Alchemy, Astrology, Astronomy, Botany, Cabbala, the Fine Arts, Geography, Hebrew texts, History, Language and Literature (especially Continental Literature), Logic, Magic, Mathematics, Medicine, Natural Philosophy, Navigation and Neo-Platonist texts.

Major authors featured include: Albertus Magnus, Alkindi, Aristotle, Roger Bacon, Cardano (whom Dee met in Southwark), Cicero, Copernicus, Dastin, Euclid, Ficino, Oronce Finé, Galen, Geber, Grosseteste, Hermes Trismegistus, Hippocrates, Jordanus, Bonus Lombardus, Ramon Lull, Pico della Mirandola, Antoine Mizauld, Sebastien Muenster, Paracelsus, Proclus, Ptolemy, Rasis, Strigelius and Tritheim.

The library was unlike those of contemporaries in its size, ambition and in the relatively small number of volumes devoted to Theology or Law. It was notably up to date and reflected his desire to combine the best of ancient learning with the latest scholarship. It was frequently consulted by his closest friend, the poet and courtier Edward Dyer and by Raleigh, Leicester, the elder and younger Hakluyt, Thomas Digges, William Camden, William Bourne, Thomas Harriot, Robert Record and Dee’s pupil, Sir Philip Sidney.

It is interesting to note that books printed in English or in England make up less than 6% of total volumes in the library - underlining the fact that the study of Early English Books can provide only part of the overall picture of Renaissance culture.

Dee’s library allows us to understand the mental framework and cultural context of English Renaissance writers, statesmen, scientists and explorers.

It will provide an important resource for those studying:

• Medieval & Renaissance Studies
• Intellectual History
• The History of the Book
• Reception Theory & Renaissance Reading habits
• Literary and Cultural Studies
• The watershed between Magic and Science

The Structure of Dee’s Library and of this Project

Dee’s Library consisted of 2292 printed volumes and 199 manuscript volumes according to his library catalogue of 1583. This can be increased to c2337 printed volumees and c378 manuscript volumes if we add in materials known to have been in his library but not included in the 1583 catalogue. Unfortunately, the library was dispersed both before and after his death, with the result that a reconstruction of his library involved tracking down his books and manuscripts in both private and public ownership around the world. To date, some 344 manuscript volumes (91% of the original number) and 327 printed volumes (14% of the original number) have been traced in just over 50 libraries world-wide.

The first stage of this project is the bringing together on microfilm of these widely scattered, surviving manuscripts and annotated books. All of these volumes have unique characteristics, so there is no overlap with any existing microfilm project. This frst stage will make approximately 9 parts. Guides will provide details of the contents of all of these volumes.

The second stage will be to select representative editions of the other works known to have existed in Dee’s library. This will be screened carefully to exclude volumes published in commonly available microfilm projects. Our guides will detail which volumes have been excluded (with reasons - and references to their location in other projects where possible) as well as giving details of all volumes included. This second stage will make approximately 3 parts.

The finished publication will provide Renaissance scholars with a detailed picture of Dee’s Library and will grant access to those texts which have hitherto been most difficult to consult.

The project will enable a more balanced view of Renaissance culture by providing copies of texts not previously covered by major microfilm projects. In particular, it will highlight the importance of the circulation of manuscript texts in the Renaissance period. It also provides a practical way to supply copies of the most frequently consulted continental books.

The project will provide insights into reading habits in the period and into the remarkable character of John Dee. He was, in Roberts and Watson’s words, “an owner, reader and persistent and detailed annotator of books over a very wide range of subjects.”

We commence the reconstruction with a large collection of manuscript material from the Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Bringing together 63 manuscripts in all, Part 1 of this microfilm edition includes medical texts, works and spheres and spirits, saints’ lives, commentaries, diaries, many works on alchemy and texts on astronomy (including many by early Islamic scientists), arithmetic, geometry, the art of navigation, optics and theology.

Volumes of particular interest include:

• MS Ashmole 57. Thomos Norton, The ordinal of alchemy, 1577, beautifully written in Dee’s italic hand and bound in purple velvet.
• MS Ashmole 204. A series of Medical recipes in Dee’s hand with various diary entries for 1593-4.
• MS Ashmole 341, with frequent Dee marginalia, includes Aegidius de Lessinis, De Temporibus and De Essentia Motu et significatione cometarum, together with Abhomadi Malfegeyr, De crepusculis; Hermes, De 15 stellis; Practica geometriae; Martianus Capella, De nuptiis mercurii et philologiae; A de Villa Di, Carmen de algorismo and the manuscript also contains Astronomial instrument; Demonstrationes trigonometricae; Quantitas anni solaris; and Nova compilacia compoti Johannis de Sacrobosco.
• MS Ashmole 487-488 contain the text of Dee’s private diary and provide the most complete and reliable information we have of his life and times. Halliwell’s 1842 edition of this diary aroused much interest, but has proven to be unreliable and inaccurate.
• MS Ashmole 1451 part 2. The larger pieces include Morienus, De destructione 12 aquarum; Capitulum mirabile; Emericus de Monteforto, Secreta secretorum and Alchemy. There are frequent Dee marginalia throughout.
• MS Ashmole 1471 contains Geoffrey of Meaux, On the causes of the Black Death, Raymundus de Insula, Physica; R Lull, Ars generalis; Medical synonyms, multiplication tables and versions of Chiromancy and Alchemy.
• MS Ashmole 1788 has a number of papers concerning John Dee including his Horoscope on the birth of Edward Kelly.
• MS Ashmole 1789. A plain discourse concerning the reformation of the vulgar calendar, Reformed calendar for 1583, general and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect art of navigation all in Dee’s hand, excepting a letter to Dee of which there is also a copy in his hand.
• MS Bodley 438. A copy of Bacon’s De erroribus Medicorum; Bacon’s De regimine senuum et seniorum, De compositione quarundam medicinarum, Antidotarius, two extracts from the Compendium philosophiae and another copy of the De retardatione senectutis.
• MS Digby 73. Descriptio et virtutes herbarum aliarumque medicinarum extracta ex lib. II. 2 Canonis Avicennae et ex Serapeione, Bartholomeo Glanvilla; Notae ex Mesue; Medica.
• MS Digby 76 ff1-109. R Bacon, Communia naturalium II. i-iii, De mathematica; R Bacon (?), Fragmentum commentarii super Euclidem; Fragmentum de corporibus; Gundissalinus, D divisione philosophiae; Fragmentum commentarii in Boethium de arithmetica. There are frequent marginalia in Dee’s hand. Folio 1 is inscribed “Joannes Dee 1556, Maij 18 Londini, emi ex bibliotheca Lelandi”.
• MS Digby 190 includes Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus; R Bacon, De principiis naturae, De somno et vigilia, Metaphysica; Commentarium in 7 aenigmata Aristotelis; R Wallingford.
• Quadripartitum; fragments of Alfraganus and Grosseteste, with many marginal annotations by John Dee himself.
• MS e Musaeo 116. G Chaucer, Treatise on the astrolabe; Sir John Mandeville, Travels; Godefridus, Abbreviation of Palladius De Plantatione arborum; and Henry Daniell, Libri tres uricrisiarum.
• MS Rawlinson D. 241. John Dee, A diary of experiments.
• Any such list can only hint at the richness of the entire collections which will be of value to both Medieval and Renaissance scholars across many disciplines. There are a total of 13 texts by Roger Bacon; 3 texts of Euclid’s Elements; alchemical works of Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Hermes Trismegistus, Ramon Lull and others; works of arabic science; literary and historical works by Bede, Bothuus, Chaucer, Grosseteste and Lydgate; and much more besides.
• Moving on to later parts of this Series - researchers should note the revised library coverage and publication schedule for Parts 2, 3 and 4.
• The 71 volumes of manuscript material from Corpus Christi College, Oxford will now be made available in Part 2 of this project.
• These include medical texts, works on the spheres and on spirits, romances, saint’s lives, commentaries, grammars, alchemical receipts and texts on astronomy, geometry, music theory, numerology and rhetoric. It is not surprising that there are also a large number of volumes concerning Hermetic Philosophy, the Occult, and Alchemy, as many of the key works in this area were circulated in manuscript form only.
• Arabic and Classical authors are all well represented in a list which includes Aegidus, Albumazar, Almanser, Althazen, Aquinas, Aristotle, Roger Bacon, Boethius, Walter Burley, Bernard of Clairvaux, Guido della Collumna, Euclid, Eusebius, Geber, Gregory, Grosseteste, Hermes, Hippocrates, Robert Holcot, Homer, Alanus de Insulis, Jordanus, Kratzer (in his autograph), Ramon Lull, John Lydgate, Albertus Magnus, Nicolaus, Ortolanus, Wilhelmus Parisienis, Pseudo-Archimedes, Pseudo-Aristotle, Pseudo-Lull, Ptolemy, Richard Rolle, Johannes de Rupescissi, Albert of Saxony, Statius, Urso and Richard of Wallingford.
• Volumes of particular interest include:
• Ms 101 Works of Haly ibn Ridwan, Almanser, Ptolemy, Hermes and Bethen and a commentary on Ptolemy.
• Ms 125 A heavily annotated volume concerning alchemy, the occult and Hermetic Philosophy, featuring Roger Bacon’s Speculum Secretorum and other texts by Galfridus de Vino Salvo, Albertus Magnus, Hermes, Geber, Nicolaus and others.
• Ms 135 An account of the causes and cures of illness and the only known text of Sydracon - a 13th Century Chanson de Geste.
• Ms 149 A heavily annotated volume containing the works of Roger Bacon and Aristotle.
• Ms 191 A list compiled by John Dee of books owned and borrowed.
• Ms 220 A 15th Century text of Adam Carthusianus’ Treatise of the 6 masters, the 12 prophets and other works, and Rolle’s The Boke of the Crafte of Dyinge and A treatise of gostely battaile.
• Ms 224 A 12th and 13th Century composite volume containing Boethius’ Arithmetica and Musica and Euclid’s Geometrica.
• Ms 232 A 13th Century manuscipt of Grosseteste’s Le Château de l’amour and the Life of St Mary of Egypt.
• Ms 237 The lives of St Katharine and St Margaret, John Lydgate’s Life of our Lady and an English translation of The Pilgrimage of the Soul.
• Ms 254 An Almanack for 1583 by Dee and 3 letters from Walsingham to Dee.
• Ms 255 A commonplace book with miscellaneous notes by Dee including pedigrees of King Philip of Spain, the Indian Prince Altabilipa, the Kings of Mexico and Queen Elizabeth I, presumably for use in casting horoscopes.
• Ms 283 Variouos works on the astrolabe and astronomy, Euclid’s Optica, and texts by Ptolemy, Psuedo-Aristotle and Gregory the Great.

Part 3 will feature manuscripts and annotated books from Cambridge collections.

Part 4 is now scheduled to begin coverage of the two Dee manuscript volumes and 161 of his printed books, many with annotations, from the Library of the Royal College of Physicians in London.

Dee’s library can be used for far more than the study of John Dee himself. It provides evidence of the interdisciplinary and multicultural approach to learning in the period and provides an excellent starting point for any investigation of the contemporary appreciation of magic, the sciences, exploration and discovery, mathematics, neo-platonism and the influence of all of these on the literature of the period.

This microfilm project constitutes a major research resource for any aspect of the Renaissance. For Renaissance scholars in general, for all those interested in the early history of science, the literature and culture of the period, the history of the book and for themes as wide-ranging as alchemy, exploration and navigation, the occult, politics and statecraft, it opens up many new potential avenues of research. For many libraries it will usefully compliment collections of early English books, offering a more rounded view of Renaissance learning.

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