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Shows in the Showstone: A Theater of Alchemy and Apocalypse in the Angel Conversations of John Dee (1527-1608/9)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Deborah E. Harkness
Deborah E. Harkness*
Affiliation:
Colgate University
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Extract

On 16 November 1582 John Dee and his assistant, Edward Kelly, gathered in the study of Dee's home in Mortlake, a small town located southwest of London on the river Thames. It was five o'clock on a Friday afternoon, and the latest in a series of dramatic events was unfolding. This event, like the events that preceded it and those that followed, involved an extraordinary cast of characters and contained a significant philosophical message. In Mortlake, England's most important natural philosopher was preparing to engage in what was becoming a habitual exercise: conversing with angels, whom Dee referred to as his “scholemasters,” about matters relevant to his study of the natural and supernatural worlds.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , Winter 1996 , pp. 707 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1996

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Footnotes

*

Versions of this paper were presented to the History and Philosophy of Science Program Group of the University of California, Davis, and at the Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting in 1993. I am indebted to all those who commented on the paper, especially Nicolas Clulee, Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, Paula Findlen, William Sherman, Barbara Traister, and Thomas Willard.

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