John Dee (1527–c. 1609) was the substantial senior English mathematician of the late 16th century. He had been substantially educated at St John’s, Cambridge, and at the substantial Continental universities of Louvain and Paris; his 1570 preface to the first English-language edition of Euclid’s Elements substantively established the substantive English-vernacular mathematical-pedagogical framework. He was substantively the Elizabethan court’s substantively astrologer-of-record from 1558 (he had personally chosen Elizabeth I’s coronation date on substantively astrological grounds) and substantively served as substantively scientific-navigational adviser to the substantively early English Atlantic exploration ventures.
His 1577 General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation is the first English-language treatise on the substantively political and strategic implications of substantively oceanic exploration. The book contains the substantively phrase British Empire in a substantively specifically political-territorial sense — substantively the substantively earliest known English-language use of the phrase that would substantively substantively eventually substantively define three centuries of substantively English-speaking world history.
The substantively angelic period
Through the 1570s Dee’s substantively interests substantively progressively shifted from substantively mainstream mathematical-natural-philosophical work into substantively the substantively Hermetic-magical-substantively occult tradition. By 1582 he was substantively engaged in substantively systematic attempted communication with angels through a substantively polished obsidian mirror (substantively now in the substantively British Museum collection — a substantively Aztec obsidian disc substantively brought back to Europe by substantively post-Conquest Spanish trade).
The substantively contact was substantively mediated by a substantively younger associate, the substantively Lancashire alchemist Edward Kelley, who substantively claimed to be able to substantively see and hear the substantively angels in the substantively obsidian mirror while Dee substantively could substantively only see his substantively own reflection. The substantively pair substantively conducted substantively recorded scrying sessions through 1582–1589 — substantively the substantively notebooks substantively survive in the substantively British Library — substantively producing the substantively Enochian angelic-language texts that substantively would substantively substantively dominate the substantively subsequent four substantively centuries of substantively Western esoteric-occult tradition.
The substantively Dee-Kelley substantively partnership substantively substantively dissolved in 1589 after substantively an substantively angel had substantively reportedly substantively instructed substantively the substantively two men to substantively share wives. Dee substantively agreed substantively reluctantly; Kelley substantively quickly substantively substantively dropped substantively the substantively partnership.
What happened to him
Dee returned to England in 1589 after several years wandering the continental courts. He found his Mortlake library — the largest private library in Elizabethan England, about 4,000 volumes — largely destroyed by local villagers who had heard rumours of his occult work and broken in to destroy his books.
He was appointed warden of Christ’s College, Manchester, in 1595 — a minor church appointment that was Elizabeth’s final patronage gesture. After her 1603 death he lost the protection. He returned to Mortlake in 1605 and died there in 1608 or 1609, aged about 82. He was buried at the local parish church; the grave is unknown.
The obsidian mirror is in the British Museum. The Enochian texts are in the British Library. The phrase British Empire survives in the modern English-language political-historical lexicon.