Dee, John ___ 1527-1608 ___ British ___ teacher, scientist

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
A mathematician, philosopher and alchemist, Dee was chiefly known as an astrologer. He is thought to have inspired the character Prospero in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. After studying at Cambridge and abroad, he worked as an astrologer for Queen Mary Tudor. However, he also spent some time in prison on witchcraft charges. Later, he became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. His diary entries are not very long, and they show much interest in the weather, money and health matters. In one particularly disturbing passage he writes about how his nurse, Ann Frank, cut her own throat.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1660-1669 ___ domestic political social people historyeye self love/sex health culture society family

WEB TEXT LINKS
googlebooks
etext
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Oxford University, Bodleian Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Private Diary of Dr. John Dee
 

May 2005, September 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.