Dee, Arthur

Dee, Arthur. Fasciculus chemicus translated by Elias Ashmole edited by Lyndy Abraham. English Renaissance hermeticism, no. 6. Edited by Lyndy Abraham. 

Son of John Dee, Arthur was one of the leading English Paracelsians of the early seventeenth century. Like Francis Anthony and others, his views led him to be persecuted by the Royal College of Physicians. He served as Royal Physician to James I, and later was summoned to Russia to serve as Tsar Michael s personal doctor. 

Abraham, Lyndy. "Arthur Dee s Hieroglyph." In Deviceful settings the English Renaissance emblem and its contexts, eds. Michael Bath and Daniel Russell. New York AMS Press, 1999. 

Hasolle is an anagram for Ashmole. Contents Arthur Dee Doctor of Physick, his chymicall collections pp. [16], 1-153 Arcanvm or, The grand secret of hermetick philosophy. .. The work of a concealed author [i. e. Jean d Espagnet]. .. 3d ed. amended and enlarged, pp.155- 268. Has special t.p. 

Espagnet, Jean d . "Arcanum or, the grand secret of Hermetick philosophy. Wherein, the secrets of Nature and Art, concerning the matter and manner of making the Philosophers Composition, are orderly and methodically manifested. The work of a concealed author. The third edition emended and enlarged." In Fasciculus Chemicus, ed. Arthur Dee, 155-268., 1650. 

This was a key work of 17th century alchemy. It was written in Latin by Jean d Espagnet as Enchiridion physicae restitutae... and the first edition was issued at Paris in 1623. A number of editions were issued over the next decades and it was included in a number of alchemical compendia. An English translation, translated by Elias Ashmole, was printed in 1650, in Arthur Dee s Fasciculus chemicus or chymical collections "... 

Abraham, Lyndy. Harriot s gift to Arthur Dee literary images from an alchemical manuscript. Cambridge, Durham Thomas Harriot Society, 1993. 34p. 

Appleby, John H. Arthur Dee and Johannes Banfi Hunyades further information on their alchemical and professional activities. Ambix 24, no. 2 (Jul 1977) 96-109. 

Appleby, John H. Some of Arthur Dee s associations before visiting Russia clarified, including two letters from Sir Theodore Mayerne. Ambix 26 1-5. 

Waite, Arthur Edward], Haunts of the English mystics. No. 1. - John Dee. 

Ashm. 195, fo. 195 208, fo. 54 where the dare is given as 25 Nov. This might have been Timothy Willis, an alchemist who was himself called before rhe Censors in August 1596 Annals, 6 Aug. 1596, p. 102. See J. H. Appleby, Arthur Dee and Johannes Banfi Hunyades, 24 (1977), 96-109, esp. 99. 

In England, the cause was supported by men like Francis Anthony, Robert Fludd and John Dee s son Arthur. The Royal Society of Physicians made a point of persecuting anyone suspected of Paracelsian sympathies (both Anthony and Fludd clashed with the Society). Other names in this field include John French (fl. 1640s), Thomas Thymme (d. 1620), who knew John Dee and translated Duchesne into English, and Nicholas Culpepper (1616—1654), the celebrated herbalist. 

For several months they wandered, until in September 1586 Count Wilhelm Rosenberg of Bohemia invited them to stay in his castle at Trebona. Kelley immersed himself in his alchemical experiments, and even Dee began to take a necessary interest in the subject. There are many stories that they succeeded in making gold John Aubrey, the 17th-century writer and antiquarian, wrote that "Arthur Dee, his sonne, a physician at Norwich, and intimate friend of Sir Thomas Browne, told Mr. 

Was this "very boke of Dunstan" the manuscript that Kelley had bought from the innkeeper There are many who believe that it was, and that Kelley incorporated the teachings of this manuscript in his own book The Stone of the Philosophers. Dee s son Arthur, who later took the post in Russia that his father had refused, often referred to the Book of Dunstan in his writings. 

Court alchemists included Giordano Bruno (Henry III of France 1551-1589), Arthur Dee (Elizabeth I, Charles I) and Joseph Duchesne (Henry IV of France 1553-1610). 

On the other hand more general and popular histories, in particular those in western languages, have often claimed that the occult sciences flourished in Muscovite Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The tmth of the matter, as far as alchemy is concerned, lies somewhere between the two, and perhaps the most balanced, if brief and incomplete, survey to date is to be found in a biographical study of Arthur Dee by Figurovski. ... 

For further detail and bibliography see Figurovski, note 7 above J.H. Appleby, Arthur Dee and Johannes B nfi Hunyades Further Information on their Alchemical and Professional Activities , Ambix, 24, 2 (1977), pp. 96-109 and idem, Some of Arthur Dee s Associations before Visiting Russia Clarified, including Two Letters from Sir John Mayeme , Ambix, 26, 1 (1979), pp. 1-15. 

See Appleby, Arthur Dee , p. 89. Appleby notes that It is a curious fact that several British doctors, besides Arthur Dee, were connected both with Russia and alchemy . Figurovski goes as far as to claim that alchemy was introduced into Muscovy by the English Figurovskii, note 7, p. 36. 

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