The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee

The Private Diary of Dr. John
Dee, by John Dee

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Title: The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee And the Catalog of His
Library of Manuscripts
Author: John Dee
Editor: James Orchard Halliwell (AKA Halliwell-Phillipps)
Release Date: October 16, 2006 [EBook #19553]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's Note:

As explained in Footnote n, John Dee's Diary includes occasional
words and phrases written in Greek script, but in the English language.
Since a direct transliteration would spoil the effect, these passages are
shown in the simple "Rotate-13" code. Details are given at the end of
the text, before the Errata. A few words of true Greek have been
transliterated and shown between +marks+. Latin words written in
Greek script are treated the same way.
Letters written in superscript are shown in {braces} or as ordinals: A{o}
(Anno), 5ª (quinta). For consistency, the abbreviation f^o in manuscript
descriptions is shown as fº to match 4º and 8º.
Footnotes to the Diary have small letters: [a], [b]. Footnotes to the
Catalogue are numbered: [1], [2]. Except for footnote references, all
text in brackets is in the original, as are parenthetical question marks.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The PRIVATE DIARY
of DR. JOHN DEE,
and The Catalogue of His Library of Manuscripts,
from the Original Manuscripts
in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and Trinity College Library,
Cambridge.
Edited By JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, Esq. F.R.S., Hon.
M.R.I.A., &C. &C. &C.
[Illustration: Camden Society Logo]
London: Printed for the Camden Society, by John Bowyer Nichols and
Son, Parliament Street.
M.DCCC.XLII.

(No. XIX.)

COUNCIL of THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, For The Year 1841-2.
President, The Right Hon. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M.P.
THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. Director. The Right Hon.
LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A. JOHN BRUCE, Esq. F.S.A. Treasurer.
JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, Esq. F.S.A. C. PURTON COOPER, Esq.
Q.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A. T. CROFTON CROKER, Esq. F.S.A.,
M.R.I.A. Sir HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., Sec. S.A. JAMES
ORCHARD HALLIWELL, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. The Rev. JOSEPH
HUNTER, F.S.A. Sir FREDERICK MADDEN, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A.
JOHN GAGE ROKEWODE, Esq. F.R.S., Dir. S.A. THOMAS
STAPLETON, Esq. F.S.A. WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq. F.S.A.
Secretary. ALBERT WAY, Esq. M.A., F.S.A. THOMAS WRIGHT,
Esq. M.A., F.S.A.

PREFACE.
The present volume contains two curious documents concerning Dr.
Dee, the eminent philosopher of Mortlake, now for the first time
published from the original manuscripts. I. His Private Diary, written in
a very small illegible hand on the margins of old Almanacs, discovered
a few years ago by Mr. W. H. Black, in the library of the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford. II. A Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts,
made by himself before his house was plundered by the populace, and
now preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.
The publication of this Diary will tend perhaps to set Dee's character in
its true light, more than any thing that has yet been printed. We have,
indeed, his "Compendious Rehearsall," which is in some respects more
comprehensive, but this was written for an especial purpose, for the
perusal of royal commissioners, and he has of course carefully avoided

every allusion which could be construed in an unfavourable light. In the
other, however, he tells us his dreams, talks of mysterious noises in his
chamber, evil spirits, and alludes to various secrets of occult
philosophy in the spirit of a true believer. Mr. D'Israeli has given a
correct and able view of his character in his "Amenities of Literature,"
which is remarkably confirmed in almost every point by the narrative
now published. "The imagination of Dee," observes that elegant writer,
"often predominated over his science; while both were mingling in his
intellectual habits, each seemed to him to confirm the other. Prone to
the mystical lore of what was termed the occult sciences, which in
reality are no sciences at all, since whatever remains occult ceases to be
science, Dee lost his better genius." I shall refer the reader to this
popular work instead of attempting an original paper on the subject,
which would necessarily be greatly inferior to that drawn by the
masterly hand of the author of the "Curiosities of Literature."
The Catalogue of Dee's Library of Manuscripts, although long since
dispersed, is valuable