Arthur Dee
Arthur Dee (born July 13, 1579 in Mortlake , † September 1651 in Norwich ) was a doctor and alchemist .
He was the eldest of a total of 8 sons who came from Dr. John Dee's third marriage to Jane Fromand emerged. At the age of 5, Arthur accompanied his parents, and Edward Kelley with his wife, on their wanderings through Bohemia. In the course of this trip, his father let him learn the Latin language, but his upbringing during this period was probably irregular. It was almost 10 years before he returned to England. He received his further education at the Westminster School . He was a doctor of medicine and proposed in 1614 by the Archbishop of Canterbury for an office in the London Charterhouse because of his reputation ; a hospital that had recently been founded by Thomas Sutton in a Carthusian monastery .
He became the doctor of Michael I of Russia (the founder of the Romanov dynasty) and lived in Moscow for 14 years. There he also wrote his book Fasciculus Chemicus , which was published in Paris in 1631; a collection or excerpts of various alchemical writings, including by Petrus Bonus , John Dastin , Gerhard Dorn , Arnaldus de Villanova , Basilius Valentinus , George Ripley , Morienus , Artephius , Ewaldus Vogelius, the books Clangor Buccinae, Scala philosophorum and Rosarium philosophorum, Pseudo -Lull , Pseudo-Geber , Aristotle , Pseudo-Avicenna and Michael Maier . The individual chapters in Ashmole's English translation are: 1. Natural Matter 2. Preparation 3. Weight in preparation 4. The philosopher's Fire 5. The Rise or birth of the Stone 6. The Weights of 2nd Work 7. Imbibition 8. Fermentation 9. Projection. 10. Multiplication. Dee wrote introductions to each of the chapters.
When his wife died in 1637, Dee returned to England and became the doctor of King Charles I there. Arthur Dee lived in Norwich until his retirement, where his friend Sir Thomas Browne had also settled. Dee's acquaintance with Browne has been little explored; but it was Browne to whom Arthur Dee bequeathed much of his alchemical manuscripts and books.
Arthur Dee married Isabella, daughter of Judge Edmund Prestwich in Manchester in 1602. The couple had 12 children in total, and John Dee saw four of the children grow up.
literature
- TC, Article Arthur Dee in Dictionary of National Biography , Online
Fonts
- Fasciculus chemicus, Basel 1629 (Latin)
- English translation by Elias Ashmole (under the anagram James Hasolle): Fasciculus chemicus or chemical collections, Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors, Archive , London 1650, New York edition : Garland Press 1996 (Ed. Lyndy Abraham). Additionally with a translation of the Arcanum by Jean D´Espagnet.
References and comments
- ↑ Possibly Theobaldus van Hoghelande , see Theatrum Chemicum
- ↑ Charlotte Fell-Smith: John Dee , London: Constable & Company, 1909, chapter 23
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dee, Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Alchemist and occult writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 13, 1579 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mortlake |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1651 |
| Place of death | Norwich |