John Dee
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"If we substitute mechanics for magic as the operative force used by the Creator, Dee's religion was perhaps not altogether unlike that of Isaac Newton."--Theatre of the World (1969) by Frances Yates |
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John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a noted mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.
Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on advanced algebra at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery. In one of several tracts which Dee wrote in the 1580s encouraging British exploratory expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage, he appears to have coined (or at least introduced into print) the term "British Empire."
