Royal College of Physicians and John Dee

As mentioned two posts ago, as well as posting about mathematicians I do post about important libraries and museums.  I had the amazing privilege today of reading in the Royal College of Physicians, London.  I read books that had belonged to John Dee, that had been part of his incredibly famous library.  I'll say a little bit here about Dee and his library, but I'm trying to hold back a bit, as I will be writing quite a lot about his life, his work, and his library over a large number of posts in the next couple of months.

The Royal College of Physicians came to be in possession of books from John Dee's library through a rather circuitous route.  (As I'm writing at the moment I'm stating this from memory and will correct it later if there are errors.)  Dee was a great lover of and collector of books.  He even wrote to Queen Mary I of England, encouraging her to create a national library (at a time when so very many books were being lost  .  .  . but more on this anon).  She didn't take him up on his plea, and so he, personally, in his fervor for having and preserving knowledge, amassed the largest library in all of England.  Sadly, while he was travelling on the continent between 1583 and 1588 with his scrier, Edward Kelley, his library was ransacked.  Thankfully, he had taken 800 of his favorite books with him (I can relate to wanting my most precious books with me at all times - but by horse and cart across a continent?!?!).  Of the 3000 books and manuscripts left behind, many were stolen.  A great deal of those that were stolen somehow ended up in the library of Nicholas Saunders.  You can see in the picture below a book belonging to John Dee but in which Nicholas Saunders had inscribed his own name and date over the name and date of John Dee.  (Thank you to the Royal College of Physicians for allowing me to reproduce these images on my blog!)

After Saunders' death, his books passed directly (or through an unidentified person) to the Marquis of Dorchester, Henry Pierpoint, upon whose death his family gave them to the RCP, which is how the Royal College of Physicians has a collection of books initially belonging to a mathematician and magus.

Today as I read through books set aside for me based on our correspondence, I was privileged to have Rare Books and Special Collections Specialist Katie Birkwood sitting nearby ready to help me with any questions I had.  She is so  enthusiastic and so very knowledgeable about these books, about Dee, and about so much more!  And she was so gracious as to have selected so many books for me that she felt I would find helpful.  It was an amazing privilege to read at the RCP!  Here is the part of the collection brought out for my consideration - of the 20 books here I only found time for 4 of them in the 5 hours that I was reading!  Obviously there is much more to explore, and I am booked in again for Thursday.

Below I am including some images from my readings today.  Again, I am holding back on content for now, but one thing to notice is Dee's "manicules," his doodles of hands with a finger pointing to an important point of text.  Another thing that jumped out at me was how he indicated a few lines or a paragraph.  See if you notice these things:

See the "manicule?"

Dee's Signature

Another Manicule (and who is Dee pointing out here?)

Two manicules on the same page

To mark off lines or paragraphs I use a straight, vertical line; Dee is a little fancier.

The triangle - or "delta" caught my eye - since Dee often used it as his name

I mentioned this mark to Katie, and she, ever so gently, pointed out the word "Delta" in the text.

 Some of Dee's writing is very easy to read (above), and some of Dee's writing is very hard to read (below).

I found so much in my reading, but, again, I am holding back for now, so as to place items in context in the life and work of Dee as I move forward.  Here is a five-minute video of an interview with Katie Birkwood about the John Dee exhibition that she curated four years ago, which, in part, sowed the seeds in me for this current sabbatical:

If interested, you can find more videos about Dee by Katie Birkwood by going to YouTube and doing a search using her name.