DEE, John, a mathematician and astrologer, was born in July 1527, at London, where his father was a wealthy vintner. In 1542 he was sent to St John’s College, Cambridge. After five years’ close application to mathematical studies, particularly astronomy, he went to Holland, in order to visit several eminent mathematicians on the Continent. Having continued abroad nearly a year, he returned to Cambridge, and was there elected one of the fellows of Trinity College, then first erected by King Henry VIII. In 1548 he took the degree of master of arts; and in the same year he left England a second time, his stay at home being rendered unpleasant by the suspicions which were entertained of his being a conjuror; suspicions arising partly from his application to astronomy, but especially on account of a piece of machinery in the Ε ∣ ξη ∖∣ η of Aristophanes, which he exhibited to the university, and in which he represented the scarabaeus flying up to Jupiter, with a man and a basket of victuals on its back. These suspicions he could never after shake off; nor did his subsequent conduct, as we shall see, tend to clear him of the imputation; for if he was not actually a conjuror, it was not from want of endeavours to become one.

Upon leaving England he repaired to the University of Louvain, where he was much esteemed, and visited by several persons of high rank. Here he resided about two years, and then set out for France, where, in the college of ìlheims, he read lectures on Euclid’s Elements with great applause. In 1551 he returned to England, and was introduced by the secretary Cecil to King Edward, who assigned him a pension of a hundred crowns, which he afterwards relinquished for the rectory of Upton-upon-Severn; but soon after the accession of Queen Mary, having had some correspondence with the Lady Elizabeth’s servants, he was accused of practising against the queen’s life by enchantment. On this account he suffered a tedious confinement, and was several times examined; but in the year 1555, he obtained his liberty by an order of council.

When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, Dee was consulted by Lord Dudley concerning a propitious day for her majesty’s coronation. On this occasion he was introduced to the queen, who made him great promises, which were never performed, though she condescended to receive his instructions relative to the mystical interpretation of some of his unintelligible writings, which he published about this time. In 1564 he made another voyage to the Continent, in order to present a book which he had dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian. He returned to England in the same year; but in 1571 we find him in Lorrain, where, being dangerously ill, two physicians were sent to his relief by the queen. Having once more returned to his native country, he settled at Mortlake, in Surrey, where he continued his studies with unremitting ardour, and collected a considerable library of curious books and manuscripts, and a variety of instruments, most of which were afterwards destroyed by the mob, as belonging to one who dealt with the devil. In 1578, the queen being then much indisposed, Mr Dee was sent abroad to consult with German physicians and philosophers, or rather astrologers, on the occasion. But having returned to England, he was soon afterwards employed in a more rational service. Her majesty, desirous to be informed concerning her title to those countries which had been discovered by her subjects, commanded Mr Dee to consult the ancient records, and to furnish her with proper geographical descriptions. Accordingly, in a short time he presented to the queen, in the gardens at Richmond, two large rolls, in which the discovered countries were geographically described and historically illustrated. These rolls are preserved in the Cotton Library. His next employment was the reformation of the calendar, a subject[7:7:667] on which he wrote a rational and learned treatise, still preserved in the Ashmolean Library at Oxford.

Hitherto the extravagancies of our eccentrical philosopher seem to have been counteracted by a tolerable proportion of reason and science; but henceforward we must consider him as a mere necromancer and credulous alchymist. In the year 1581, he became acquainted with one Edward Kelly, by whose assistance he performed divers incantations, and maintained a frequent imaginary intercourse with spirits. He was particularly intimate, it seems, with the angels Raphael and Gabriel, one of whom made him a present of a black speculum, in which his angels and demons appeared as often as he had occasion for them; they also answered his questions, and Kelly’s business was merely to record their dictates. In 1583, Kelly and Dee were both introduced to a certain Polish nobleman, then in England, named Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, a person addicted to the same ridiculous pursuits; and the Pole was so charmed with Dee and his companion, that he persuaded them to accompany him to his native country. They accordingly embarked for Holland in September 1583, and travelling over land, arrived at the town of Laski in February following. Their patron, however, finding himself abused by their idle pretensions, persuaded them to pay a visit to Rodolph, king of Bohemia, who, though a credulous man, was soon disgusted with their nonsense. They were afterwards introduced to the king of Poland, but with no better success. Soon after this they were invited by a rich Bohemian nobleman to his castle of Tre-bona, where they continued for some time in great affluence, owing, as they asserted, to their art of transmutation by means of a certain powder in the possession of Kelly.

But Dee having quarrelled with his companion, quitted Bohemia, and returned to England, where he was once more graciously received by the queen, who in 1595 made him warden of Manchester College, in which town he resided several years. In 1604, he returned to his house at Mortlake, where he died in the year 1608, aged eighty-one, leaving a large family and many works behind him.

The principal works which Dee printed and published are, 1. Propaedumata Aphoristica, London, 1558, in 12mo; 2. Monas Hieroglyphica, Antwerp, 1564; 3. Epistola ad Fredericum Commandinum, Pisauri, 1570; 4. Preface to the English Euclid, 1570; 5. Divers Annotations and Inventions added to the tenth book of the English Euclid, 1570; 6. Epistola praefixa Ephemeridibus Joannis Feldi, α 1557; 7. Parallaticae Commentationis Praxeosque nucleus quidam, London, 1573. The catalogue of Dee’s printed and published works is to be found in his Compendious Rehearsal, as well as in his letter to Archbishop Whitgift, to which the reader is referred.

Dee, the name of several rivers in Scotland and England, as those on which the cities of Chester in England, and New Aberdeen in Scotland, are situated.