Arthur Dee (13 July 1579 – September or October 1651) was a physician and
alchemist
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...
. He became a physician successively to Tsar
Michael I of Russia
Michael I ( Russian: Михаил Фёдорович Романов, ''Mikhaíl Fyódorovich Románov'') () became the first Russian tsar of the House of Romanov after the Zemskiy Sobor of 1613 elected him to rule the Tsardom of Russia.
He ...
and to King
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...
.
Youth
Dee was the eldest son of
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
by his third wife, Jane, daughter of Bartholomew Fromond of
East Cheam
Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to tw ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. He was born at
Mortlake
Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many cen ...
on 13 July 1579. As a child he accompanied his father on travels through
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
and
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
. After his return to England he was placed at
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
, on 3 May 1592, under the tuition of
Edward Grant
Edward Grant (April 6, 1926 – June 21, 2020) was an American historian of medieval science. He was named a Distinguished Professor in 1983. Other honors include the 1992 George Sarton Medal, for "a lifetime scholarly achievement" as an histori ...
and Camden.
Anthony Wood was informed that he subsequently studied at Oxford, but he took no degree and it is not known which college he attended.
Medicine
Settling in London with the intention of practising "physic" (medicine), he exhibited at the door of his house a list of medicines which were said to be certain cures for many diseases. The censors of the
College of Physicians A college of physicians is a national or provincial organisation concerned with the practice of medicine.
{{Expand list, date=February 2011
Such institutions include:
* American College of Physicians
* Ceylon College of Physicians
* College of Phy ...
summoned him to appear before them, but it is not known what the outcome was. Proceeding to Manchester, Dee married Isabella, daughter of Edward Prestwych, a justice of the peace.
Through the recommendation of
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
Dee was appointed one of the physicians to the Tsar Michael I of Russia. He remained in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
for about 14 years, principally in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. There he wrote his ''
Fasciculus Chemicus
''Fasciculus Chemicus'' or ''Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors'' is an anthology of alchemical writings compiled by Arthur Dee (1579– ...
'', a collection of writings on
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
.
Returning to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on the death of his wife in 1637, Dee became physician to King Charles I. On his retirement, Arthur Dee moved to
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, where he became a friend of
Sir Thomas Browne. His relationship to Browne has been little explored, only one literary critic speculating on it:
The philosopher's stone
In 2018, Megan Piorko, a PhD student at
Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...
, discovered a coded text in one of Dee's alchemical notebooks purporting to contain a recipe for the so-called
philosopher's stone
The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", ...
, a mythical elixir of life capable of changing base metals into gold or silver and of imparting immortality. Piorko and digital humanities scholar Sarah Lang published the full text in September 2021. It was deciphered later that year by the mathematician and cryptologist Richard Bean of the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
.
The decoded text describes the processing of an alchemical "egg" in an
athanor
In alchemy, an athanor ( ar, التنور, ''at-tannūr'') is a furnace used to provide a uniform and constant heat for alchemical digestion. Etymologically, it descends from a number of Arabic texts of the period of the Califate which use the ...
, a slow-burning furnace popular with alchemists. Then there must be a wait for the three universal alchemical phases to occur: black, white, and red. If all steps are followed correctly, "you will have a truly gold-making elixir by whose benevolence all the misery of poverty is put to flight and those who suffer from any illness will be restored to health," the text states. While alchemy has been regarded as pseudoscience for centuries, a number of academics have voiced an interest in attempting to recreate Dee's experiment.
[
]
Death and aftermath
Arthur Dee, having fathered seven sons and six daughters, died in September or October 1651 and was buried in St George's Church, Tombland, Norwich
St George's Church, Tombland, Norwich is a Grade I listed parish church in Norwich.
History
The church is medieval dating from the 15th century. Legacies were left for the building of the tower in 1445.
Organ
The church contained an organ whi ...
. Most of his alchemical manuscripts and books were bequeathed to Sir Thomas Browne.
In the early 20th century, Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
stole a number of Arthur Dee's Russian translations of his father's writings. These were later reclaimed by the Romanov family and returned to the Imperial Library in Moscow.[Arthur Dee ]Fasciculus Chemicus
''Fasciculus Chemicus'' or ''Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors'' is an anthology of alchemical writings compiled by Arthur Dee (1579– ...
translated by Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...
, edited Lyndy Abraham, Routledge, New York and London 1997.
References
* Charlotte Fell-Smith, ''John Dee'' (1909) Constable & Company, Londo
*
External links
''Fasciculus Chemicus'' or ''Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors''
London, 1650
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dee, Arthur
1579 births
1651 deaths
People educated at Westminster School, London
16th-century English medical doctors
17th-century English medical doctors
English alchemists
English occult writers
17th-century occultists
16th-century alchemists
17th-century alchemists