Good evening,

Lets see how many other books some of you have read. I will post a few research based topics, and we shall see how many people cna expand on them.

Dr. Dee
-born in 1527
-astronomer for Queen Elizabeth 1

Edward Kelley
-had ears cut off for counterfeiting (wore cap to hide this.
-met Dee in 1582
-calledhimself a scryer
-said an angel stated he and Dee should share their wives
-wife sharing started a fight, Kelley quit his post as scryer

May 3 1587 they reunited and shared wives, the new union caused fights and they split ways again.

Kelley went to germany to a city, where he was tried for heresy and was given a death sentence. He tried to climb the prison wall and fell breaking both legs and 2 of his ribs. He died of his injuries in february 1593.

Dee had no luck with other scryers and wrote to no avail. after his seccond wife died, he himself died poor in Mortlake in 1608.

If you have more information on these two, please add on.

Here goes...

John Dee (1527-1608)

Son to Rowland Dee, a minor of Welsh descent and later a Gentleman server in the household of King Henry VIII.

Dee entered John's College at Cambridge University when he was 15 years old, from which he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1546. He was part of the original Fellows of Trinity College (founded later that same year by the King), from which he earned his Master of Arts degree.

The "Doctor" attached to his name may have been an honorary title as there is no evidence he was ever awarded a doctorate from any university in Europe.

During his years with Queen Elizabeth, he was once arrested and tried for treason, then acquitted due to lack of evidence. This happened during Tudor's stint while Elizabeth was under House arrest.

Elizabeth gave monikers such as My Noble Intelligencer and my Ubiquitous Eyes to Dee. Coincidentally, Dee used to sign his letters to the Queen with the numeral 007 (no shit!)...

He delved deeply into Tudor genealogy to prove Elizabeth's legal claims to New World territories, and promoted the reform of the English calendar.

He studied cartography and navigation under Gerhardus Mercator. Dee later encouraged the quest for the Northwest Passage and supplied geographical and navigational ressources to English explorers such as Drake and Frobisher.

At one point, before the creation of the English national library, Dee was owner to the largest collection of scientific and philosophical books and manuscripts in England.

Edward Kelley (1555-1597)

Kelley was born the same year Dee faced charges of treason in the Court of the Star Chamber. His father might have been an apothecary. Kelley's true family name may have been Talbot and he may have attended Oxford University for a short time when he was 17 years old.

It is rumoured he was pilloried at Lancaster for counterfeiting and got his ear cropped as a result. He is famous for having dug up the corpse of a pauper in the graveyard of Walton-le-Dale church (Lancashire) for necromantic purposes.

He supposedly bought 2 caskets from an innkeeper while travelling through Wales after being forced to abandon his legal scribe profession due to the aforementionned necromantic practices. One casket contained the red and white powder of alchemy, while the other casket contained an alchemical manuscript called Book of St. Dunstan ...

Elias Ashmole contends this, prefering another version of this story, in which Kelley and Dee went together to Glastonbury where they found the aforementioned powder together (in the crypt of a Catholic Bishop, if I'm not mistaken).

The only certainty being that Kelley arrived at John Dee's place (at Mortlake) in possession of the Book of Dunstan and a small quantity of powder he beleived to be alchemical.

Apparently, Kelley got with Dee for the specific purpose of decyphering the Book in order to produce more of the alleged magical red powder.

Well... That's it for now. Does that help, or is it common knowledge to you? The credit goes to Donald Tyson, author of the book "Enochian magic for beginners" (c) 1997.

HS!
S.

Kelly's fall, if it happened at all, was at a Czech prison near the German border sometime after 1596 when he was imprisoned after a fight with an alchemist's assistant.

If you are looking for information about Dee & Kelly I would recommend The Queen's Conjurer by Benjamin Wooley, published by Henry Holt.

Good evening,

That is great information, and I do have that book. Mainly this post served to see if there are many people out that can take the time to read any books at all. What I posted was only out of one paperback book that I know is not truly accurate. Let's see how many others can add to what you have to say.

HS!!!

Good evening,

Thank you sir for naming that book, I will be sure to aquire it very soon. This was mainly to see how many people out there do any reading or research of people of the past. I have numerous books that include these two men. This short post with questionable authenticity serves only to prompt others to add, and to serve my own curiosity about who studies and who does not.

Thank you for your time and book suggestion.

HS!!!

I have this one. It is currently in my ever growing pile of "to be read next".

Most definitely concur. Wooley’s book on Dee is certainly the one for anyone who wants to get an all round overview of John Dee’s life.

It shouldn’t really be a surprise that Dee is mainly known now for his scrying, Enochian endeavours etc. That’s what most people want to read about after all. But whilst reading the parts of the book before all the “weird” stuff, I was amazed at how much Dee actually achieved and the level of his accomplishments. In many ways, it’s quite sad that his whole persona revolves around rather dodgy occult practices and his real, quantifiable, talents have been overlooked. The word “genius” is bandied around far too often these days, but I think that John Dee most certainly deserves to be considered in this definition.