: The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee and the Catalog of His Library of Manuscripts by Dee John Halliwell Phillipps J O James Orchard Editor - Dee John 1527-1608; Dee John 1527-1608 Diaries; Manuscripts English England Oxford Catalogs; Manuscripts English Engl

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Editor: James Orchard Halliwell

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.

London: Printed for the Camden Society, by John Bowyer Nichols and Son, Parliament Street.

COUNCIL of THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, For The Year 1841-2.

PREFACE

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 for the notices which it preserves of several middle-age treatises not now extant. He is said to have expended on this collection the sum of three thousand pounds, a very large sum in those days for a person of limited income.

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