Lutheran Budovec lived in Prague in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and when he noted in his journal the activities of John Dee he profiled a man far different from the “magus of Mortlake” with whom we are familiar. An ambassador, a popular prophet, and a religious rebel – all are suggested in Budovec's brief remarks, but the natural philosophical persona we have come to associate with Dee is absent. The link between Dee's personae, as outlined by Budovec, is communication, a side of Dee's life and activities explored only recently but which is emerging as an important feature of his enigmatic intellect. Recently described as an “arch-communicator” of ideas, Dee is beginning to be seen as both a contemplative natural philosopher and a vocal participant in the intellectual and cultural life of late-sixteenth-century Europe.

Such a combination of activity and contemplation can be seen vividly in the records Dee kept of his conversations with angels as well as the events that surrounded them.