| John Dee: Occult Philosopher and Astrologer to the Queen |
| A Victorian-era oil painting by artist Henry Gillard Glindoni captures one of the most | Párr. 1 |
| enigmatic figures of Elizabethan England. In Glindoni's piece, Queen Elizabeth I sits in an | |
| elevated chair, surrounded by courtiers clothed in sumptuous fabric and the extravagant white | |
| neck ruffs of the time. All are peering with interest at the tall, black-robed figure of a man | |
| 5 | holding a vial over a small fire in a brazier by his feet. | |
| The figure is John Dee, the Queen's advisor and astrologer; a man who mixed science | Párr. 2 |
| and the occult and believed he spoke to angels. The painting captures some of the intrigue | |
| and allure Dee held, but x-ray imaging commissioned for one of the Royal College of | |
| Physicians' exhibition, "Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee," reveals just | |
| 10 | how unsettling his reputation became — it shows that Glindoni first painted Dee surrounded | |
| by a ring of human skulls, reports Mark Brown for the Guardian. | |
| "He is one of Tudor England’s most interesting and enigmatic figures and we are | Párr. 3 |
| exploring that without coming down with a view on whether he is a scholar, courtier or | |
| magician," the exhibition’s curator, Katie Birkwood, tells the Guardian. "He is all of those | |
| 15 | and more." | |
| Dee's library once held more than 3,000 books, writes Sophie Beckwith | Párr. 4 |
| for Culture24, but many were stolen and sold when Dee traveled through Europe. | |
| His collection included tomes on love, history, astrology, alchemy and more, a demonstration of | |
| the breadth of his interest. Many of the books in the exhibit have notes in Dee's own hand. | |
| 20 | One book on mathematics has a Latin inscription describing Dee's stay in "the house of my | |
| singular friend," a reference to the period Dee spent under house arrest with Edmund Bonner, | |
| the bishop of London. He was placed there after a letter he wrote to Elizabeth, predicting that | |
| Queen Mary Tudor I's reign would soon end, was intercepted by Mary's spies. Though Dee | |
| escaped charges of treason, he was sent to Bishop Bonner's, a man known for his ruthlessness | |
| 25 | toward heretics. Whether the men did get along, or whether Dee was being sarcastic in his | |
| inscription, we cannot know, Birkwood tells theGuardian. But when Elizabeth did take the | |
| throne, Dee found favor in her court. | |
| For a time, he was "considered one of the most learned men in Europe," writes Jason | Párr. 5 |
| Louv in his book, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick & the Occult Roots | |
| 30 | of Empire, excerpted at BoingBoing. As Louv details in his book, Dee translated | |
| Euclid's Elements and so introduced the English-speaking world to the +, -, x and ÷ signs. | |
| So influential was Dee that Shakespeare created Prospero in The Tempest, based on him. The | |
| Bard had reason to be inspired by the mysterious figure: Dee also helped create the British | |
| intelligence service and signed his secret letters to Elizabeth with two circles, representing | |
| 35 | eyes, and the number seven, the alchemist's lucky number, writes Peter Gentle for The World | |
| of English. Centuries later, Ian Fleming would read about Dee's life and give his | |
| own creation, James Bond, the "007" code name. | |
| Fessenden, M. (2022, Marzo 28). A Painting of John Dee, Astrologer to Queen | |
| 40 | Elizabeth I, Contains a Hidden Ring of Skulls. . Smithsonian Magazine. | |
| https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-painting-of-john-dee-astrologer-to-queen-elizabeth-i-contains-a-hidden-ring-of-skulls-180957860/ | |