A virtuoso's history: antiquarianism and the transmission of knowledge in the alchemical studies of Elias Ashmole.

On August 20, 1672, the antiquary and occult enthusiast, Elias Ashmole (1617-92) carefully recorded that he had acquired "Dr. Dees Manuscripts, all written with his owne hand" of "his Conferences with Angells." l His precious acquisition was a manuscript by John Dee (1527-1609) that could be bound with Ashmole's printed copy of Dee's wondrous communication with his heavenly messengers, A True & Faithful Relation Of What passed for many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits (1659).Its provenance appeared to be traceable to its very composition over a hundred years before through the careful narrative of the wife of his friend and colleague, John Wale.2 She recounted how the shopkeeper had acquired a cedar chest from the Woodall family, father and son surgeons, the younger of whom was surgeon to none other than Charles II. The shopkeeper believed the elder Woodall bought the chest when it was put up for sale along with the rest of John Dee's estate. The couple had the chest for twenty years or so, until about 1662 ("about 4 years before the fatal Fire of London"3) when, upon moving it in their house they heard "some loose thing ratle in it." Her husband examined the chest and discovered a "private drawer" containing "divers Bookes in Manuscript & papers" and a smaller box that contained a rosary.4There was surely a note of apology if not embarrassment as Mrs. Jones explained what happened next. They did not make much of their discovery of the books because "they understood them not" and their servant, noticing their lack of interest in these mysterious papers, proceeded to tear off sheets to line her pie plates.5 To the relief of Ashmole (and past and present custodians of the past), the owners discovered the work of their overly efficient servant and preserved the remaining papers, even saving them (but not their cleverly designed chest) from the flames of the Great Fire of London. Wale now presented the extant manuscript of England's most celebrated magus-and a pretty fair antiquary in his own right6-and merely requested in return a copy of Ashmole's recently published The Institution, Laws O" Ceremonies Of the most Noble Order Of The Garter, which Ashmole happily provided "fairly bound, & gilt on the Back."7Almost as a curator of fine art traces the ownership of a painting through extant bills of sale and auction records, Ashmole recorded the provenance and details of the narrative. Where did the manuscript come from? Who owned it? How did it come into their possession? Could the author be verified? These were often hard, sometimes impossible questions to answer but they were crucial to the early modern antiquary. It was surely the well-documented, unambiguous answers to these questions and the fact that the manuscript was indisputably by the hand of John Dee that pleased him so much.Ashmole was an immensely learned and curious individual and brought numerous perspectives to any single issue or text. In addition to antiquarianism and the occult, he was also very interested in botany, medicine, numismatics, heraldry, political and ecclesiastical history and local antiquarian history-many of which, as we will see, were relevant for him to understand occult texts. For Ashmole was that most elusive of creatures-an early modern virtuoso.8 Contemporaries used this term to describe an individual with numerous interests, talents and skills and NicolasClaude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) and Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) were just a few of Ashmole's fellow virtuosi.However, it is precisely the virtuoso's considerable interests that complicate our ability to comprehend their work and goals. Historical scholarship, for good reasons, has tended to focus on either a humanistic approach that considers political, ecclesiastical or cultural interests or those that approximate the natural sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, medicine or even the occult. Recent scholarship has begun to study antiquaries and virtuosi less discretely and such contributions are crucial because only then do we appreciate the degree to which early modern scholars viewed knowledge as unified. …