The Arch Conjuror of England [Kindle Edition]

Glyn Parry (Author)

Book Description

Outlandish alchemist and magician, political intelligencer, apocalyptic prophet, and converser with angels, John Dee (1527–1609) was one of the most colorful and controversial figures of the Tudor world. In this fascinating book—the first full-length biography of Dee based on primary historical sources—Glyn Parry explores Dee’s vast array of political, magical, and scientific writings and finds that they cast significant new light on policy struggles in the Elizabethan court, conservative attacks on magic, and Europe's religious wars. John Dee was more than just a fringe magus, Parry shows: he was a major figure of the Reformation and Renaissance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Parry has assembled an important contribution to our understanding of how magic became science.”—Philip Ball, Nature

(Philip Ball Nature 20120209)

“In a meticulously researched study, Glyn Parry reassesses Dee’s reputation as a maverick figure on the margins and instead places him at the very heart of the Elizabethan court…a colourful, charismatic and controversial character, Dee is brought to life to great effect”—Anna Whitelock, BBC History Magazine

(Anna Whitelock BBC History Magazine 20120401)

“With this learned book, Parry has rescued Dee from the shadows of his own secrecy and restored him as a glittering light in the magical Elizabethan firmament.”—Nigel Jones, The Sunday Telegraph (Nigel Jones The Sunday Telegraph 20120304)

Book Description

Based on primary documents, this new biography of John Dee, the great magus of the Elizabethan world, challenges many of our beliefs about his occult, religious, and political involvements.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1157 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (April 24, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007P2WYU0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,972 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #79 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > 16th Century

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Best researched book on Doctor Dee April 10, 2013

By Janet Ruprecht

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I believe I have read them all, and this one is the best at uncovering the larger context. I only wish the author had had more sympathy for his subject.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding John Dee and his world. And anyone wanting to learn more about the strange intersections of politics, science, and magic in Elizabethan England.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Dee has escaped us in this book ... July 20, 2012

By Malcolm Cameron

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Arch-Conjuror of England John Dee
by Glynn Parry

John Dee (1527 - 1608) receives a place in mathematical histories for his preface to the first English translation of "Euclid's Elements" by Henry Billingsley and, for example, his friendship with cartographer Gerard Mercator.

Author Glynn Parry describes Dee as "a famous and distinctive Renaissance figure, whether as an astrologer, alchemist, polymath intellectual, or sometime adviser to Elizabeth 1 and her Court". Accordingly he "aims to unlock the secret compartments of Dee's life ... that he was not an austere magician, remote, shunned and feared ... [and] reveals that he was immersed in Tudor society precisely because of his occult philosophy. Properly understood, the story of Dee's life opens a doorway to a forgotten Tudor landscape, not so much a world we have lost but a more strange, unfamiliar place that few modern readers can imagine."

For those interested in the history of mathematics there is only politics and a search for the philosophers stone "that will purify decaying bodies and society alike" as well as change any metal into gold or silver. Many mentions of his mathematics are given but no examples, of astronomical instruments but no descriptions, of studies in perspective and light rays through crystals, of his library of classical Arabic medieval and modern texts, of mathematics applied to law, observations of "Heavenly Influences" between 1547 and 1555, of "Stratarithmetrie" to arrange armies and military use of "perspective glasses", of advice on navigating the North-East passage to Cathay in 1553 using a "paradoxal compass" ... and comment on the search for the North-West passage seeking American gold, the supernova in the constellation of Cassiopeia in 1572, the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1584, plus an unsuccessful attempt to reform the calendar by renumbering the 15th the 25th of December 1582. Only here we glimpse Dee who used his so-called "plain discourse" to display his voluminous learning, taking thirty-two pages to reiterate that the calendar had advanced eleven days ahead of the true solar year since the time of Christ.

Yet Dee has escaped us in this book and perhaps history. We are left with a "magnificent master alchemist", "the sixteenth-century's most remarkable account of angelic magic, [that] most defies historical explanation". But little else, and no examples, for those interested in the history of mathematics.

Malcolm Cameron
20 July 2012

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Thirty bucks for a Kindle December 16, 2012

By James P. Patuto

Format:Hardcover

Wassup with that, no printing or distribution costs, cut me a break sounds like a great book , I'll wait and buy it used or new at Yale U press, sorry bout that Amazon but this ain't right.