John Dee | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Dee, c. 1594[a] | |
| Born | 13 July 1527[3] |
| Died | December 1608 or March 1609(1609-03-00) (aged 81) Mortlake, Surrey, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Advisor to QueenElizabeth I |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 7 or 8 (incl.Arthur) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics,alchemy,astrology,Hermeticism,navigation |
| Institutions | |
| Academic advisors | Gemma Frisius,Gerardus Mercator[1] |
| Notable students | Thomas Digges[2] |
John Dee (13 July 1527 – December 1608 or March 1609) was an Englishmathematician,astronomer, teacher,astrologer,occultist, andalchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to,Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time onalchemy,divination, andHermetic philosophy. As anantiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in theNew World to form a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining.
Dee eventually left Elizabeth's service and went on a quest for knowledge of the occult and supernatural. He aligned himself with several individuals who may have been charlatans, travelled through Europe, and was accused ofspying forthe English Crown. Upon his return to England, he found his home and library vandalised. He eventually returned to the Queen's service, but was turned away when she was succeeded byJames I. He died in poverty in London, and his gravesite is unknown.
Dee was born inTower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee, of Welsh descent, and Johanna, daughter of William Wild.[4][5][6][7][8][9] His surname "Dee" is an anglicisation ofWelshdu (black). His grandfather was Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes,Pilleth,Radnorshire; John retained his connection with the locality. His father, Roland, was amercer and gentlemancourtier toHenry VIII. Dee traced descent fromRhodri the Great, 9th-century ruler of theKingdom of Gwynedd, and constructed a pedigree accordingly. His family had arrived in London around the time of Henry Tudor's coronation asHenry VII.[6]
Dee attendedChelmsford Chantry School (nowKing Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford) from 1535 to 1542.[10] He enteredSt John's College, Cambridge in November 1542, aged 15, graduating with aBA in 1545 or early 1546.[11][12] His abilities recognised, he became an original fellow ofTrinity College, Cambridge upon its foundation by Henry VIII in 1546.[13] At Trinity, he designed stage effects for a production ofAristophanes'sPeace. Using pulleys and mirrors, Dee created the illusion of "the Scarabeus flying up to Jupiter's palace" in a mechanical contrivance, possibly based on rediscovered classical techniques. Dee would later claim this to be the source of his reputation as a magician.[14] In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled around Europe, studying at theOld University of Leuven (1548) andBrussels[clarification needed] and lecturing in Paris onEuclid. He studied underGemma Frisius and became friends with thecartographersGerardus Mercator andAbraham Ortelius. Dee also met, worked with and learnt from other continental mathematicians, such asFederico Commandino inItaly.[15] He returned to England with a major collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments. In 1552, he metGerolamo Cardano in London, with whom he investigated a purportedperpetual motion machine and agem supposed to have magical properties.[16]
Rector atUpton-upon-Severn from 1553, Dee was offered a readership in mathematics atOxford University in 1554 but declined it, citing as offensive English universities' emphasis onrhetoric andgrammar (which, together withlogic, formed the academictrivium) over philosophy and science (the more advancedquadrivium, composed of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). He was busy with writing and perhaps hoped for a better position at court.[17] On 17 February 1554, Dee took Catholic orders in the midst of theMarian reaction. The Catholic bishopEdmund Bonner, likely already a close friend of Dee's at this point, gave him special permission to receive all of theholy orders from firsttonsure to priesthood in only a single day.[18][19]
In 1555, Dee joined theWorshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through its system ofpatrimony.[20]In that same year, Dee was arrested and charged with "lewd and vain practices of calculating and conjuring" because he had casthoroscopes ofMary I of England andPrincess Elizabeth. The charges were raised totreason against Mary.[17][21][22] Dee appeared in theStar Chamber and exonerated himself, but he was turned over to Bonner for religious examination. His strong, lifelong penchant for secrecy may have worsened matters. The episode was the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that dogged Dee throughout his life. At some point, possibly before his charges were officially dismissed, Dee became Bonner's chaplain. In some early editions ofJohn Foxe'sActs and Monuments, Dee, as Bonner's chaplain, is recorded debating thereal presence of Christ in the Eucharist with Protestant prisoner Robert Smith (who accused Dee ofMarcionism because his argument in favor oftransubstantiation rested on the idea thatJesus possessed only a spiritual body) and participating in the seventh examination ofJohn Philpot.[14]
Dee presented Queen Mary in 1556 with a visionary plan to preserve old books, manuscripts, and records and to found a national library, but it was not taken up.[17] Instead, he expanded his personal library inMortlake, acquiring books and manuscripts in England and onthe Continent. Dee's library, a centre of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars.[23]
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When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1558, Dee became her astrological and scientific advisor. He chose her coronation date and even became a Protestant.[9][24][25] From the 1550s to the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical aid in navigation and political support to create a "British Empire", a term he was the first to use.[26] Dee wrote in October 1574 toWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley seeking patronage. He said he had occult knowledge of treasure in theWelsh Marches and of valuable manuscripts kept atWigmore Castle, knowing that theLord Treasurer's ancestors came from the area.[27]
In 1564, Dee wrote theHermetic workMonas Hieroglyphica (The HieroglyphicMonad), an exhaustiveChristian Kabbalistic interpretation of aglyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. Having dedicated it toMaximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor in an effort to gain patronage, Dee attempted to present it to him at the time of his ascension to the throne ofHungary. The work was esteemed by many of Dee's contemporaries, and the royal secret service valued its treatise on cryptography, but it cannot be fully understood today in the absence of the secret oral tradition of that era.[28]
His 1570 "Mathematical Preface" toHenry Billingsley's English translation ofEuclid's Elements argued for the importance of mathematics as an influence on the other arts and sciences.[29] Intended for an audience outside the universities, it proved to be Dee's most widely influential and frequently reprinted work.[30]
In 1577, Dee publishedGeneral and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, a work setting out his vision of a maritime empire and asserting English territorial claims on theNew World. Dee was acquainted withHumphrey Gilbert and close toPhilip Sidney and his circle.[26]
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By the early 1580s, Dee was discontented with his progress in learning the secrets of nature and his diminishing influence and recognition in court circles. Failure of his ideas concerning a proposed calendar revision,[31] the colonial establishment, and the ambivalent results of voyages of exploration inNorth America had nearly brought his hopes of political patronage to an end. He subsequently began to turn energetically towards thesupernatural as a means of acquiring knowledge. He sought to contact spirits throughscrying, which he thought would act as an intermediary between himself and the angels.[32]
Dee's first attempts with scryers were unsatisfactory, but in 1582, he metEdward Kelley (then calling himself Edward Talbot), who impressed him greatly with his abilities.[33] Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits.[33] These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification,prayer andfasting.[33] Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to humankind. The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some conclude that he acted with cynicism, but delusion or self-deception cannot be ruled out.[34] Kelley's 'output' is remarkable for its volume, intricacy and vividness. Dee records in his journals that angels dictated several books to him this way, through Kelley, some in a special angelic orEnochian language.[35][36]
In 1583, Dee met the impoverished yet popular Polish noblemanAlbert Łaski, who, after overstaying his welcome at court, invited Dee to accompany him back toPoland.[21] With some prompting by the "angels" (again through Kelley) and by dint of his worsening status at court, Dee decided to do so. He, Kelley, and their families left in September 1583, but Łaski proved to be bankrupt and out of favour in his own country.[37] Dee and Kelley began anomadic life in Central Europe, meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences, which Dee detailed in his diaries and almanacs.[35][36] They had audiences withEmperor Rudolf II inPrague Castle and KingStephen Báthory of Poland, whom they attempted to convince of the importance of angelic communication. The Bathory meeting took place at theNiepołomice Castle (nearKraków, then capital of Poland) and was later analysed by Polish historians (Ryszard Zieliński, Roman Żelewski, Roman Bugaj) and writers (Waldemar Łysiak).[citation needed] While Dee was generally seen as a man of deep knowledge, he was mistrusted for his connection with the English monarch, Elizabeth I, for whom some thought Dee was a spy.[38] Dee did indeed pen a covert letter to spymasterFrancis Walsingham in which he said "I am forced to be brief...That which England suspected was also here".[39] The Polish king, a devout Catholic and cautious of supernatural mediators, began their meeting(s) by affirming that prophetic revelations must match theteachings of Jesus, the mission of theCatholic Church, and the approval of the sittingpope.
In 1587, at a spiritual conference in theKingdom of Bohemia, Kelley told Dee that the angelUriel had ordered the men to share all their possessions, including their wives. By this time, Kelley had gained some renown as analchemist and was more sought after than Dee in this regard: it was a line of work with prospects for serious, long-term financial gain, especially among the royal families of central Europe. Dee, however, was more interested in communicating with angels, who he believed would help him solve the mysteries of the heavens through mathematics, optics, astrology, science, and navigation. Perhaps Kelley, in fact, wished to end Dee's dependence on him as a diviner during their increasingly lengthy, frequent spiritual conferences.[37] The order for wife-sharing caused Dee anguish, but he apparently did not doubt it was genuine, and they apparently shared wives. However, Dee broke off the conferences immediately afterwards. He returned to England in 1589, while Kelley went on to be the alchemist to Emperor Rudolf II.[37][40] Nine months later, on 28 February 1588, a son was born to Dee's wife, whom Dee baptised Theodorus Trebonianus Dee and raised as his own.
Dee returned toMortlake after six years abroad to find his home vandalised, his library ruined, and many of his prized books and instruments stolen.[23][37] Furthermore, he found that increasing criticism ofoccult practices had made England still less hospitable to his magical practices and natural philosophy. He sought support from Elizabeth, who hoped he could persuade Kelley to return and ease England's economic burdens through alchemy.[b] She finally appointed Dee the warden ofChrist's College, Manchester, in 1595.[41]
This former College of Priests had been re-established as a Protestant institution by royal charter in 1578.[34] However, he could not exert much control over its fellows, who despised or cheated him.[17] Early in his tenure, he was consulted on thedemonic possession of seven children; he took little interest in the case but allowed those involved to consult his still-extensive library.[17]
Dee left Manchester in 1605 to return to London,[42] but remained warden until his death.[43] By that time, Elizabeth was dead andJames I gave him no support. Dee spent his final years in poverty at Mortlake, forced to sell various possessions to support himself and his daughter, Katherine, who cared for him until his death there late in 1608 or early in 1609, aged 81.[42] His precise date of death is unknown, as both the parish registers and Dee's gravestone are missing.[17][44] In 2013, a memorial plaque to Dee was placed on the south wall of the present church.[45]
Dee "promoted English overseas exploration and expansion in terms of a political and spiritual renewal at home".[46]
Dee was married three times and had eight children. He married his first wife, Katherine Constable, in 1565. They had no children, and she died in 1574. He married his second wife, whose name is unknown, in 1575. She died in 1576, again with no children.[47]
In 1578, when he was 51, he married the 23-year-oldJane Fromond (1555–1604), who had her own connection with the Elizabethan court as a lady-in-waiting toElizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln until she married Dee. They had 7 or 8 children, namely:Arthur Dee (1579–1651), Michael Dee (died 1594), Rowland Dee, Katherine Dee, Madinia Dee, Frances Dee, Margaret Dee, and possibly Theodore Dee (1588–1601).[48]
Dee referred to Thomas Jones, who is the likely loose inspiration for Welsh folkloric outlawTwm Siôn Cati, as his cousin; the pair corresponded, and Jones visited Dee several times.[49]
From 1577 to 1601, Dee kept a sporadic diary (also referred to as his almanac), from which most of what we know of his life in that time has been gleaned.[20] In 1587, Kelley informed Dee of the angel's wish that they share wives. Theodore Dee, born nine months later, could have been fathered by Kelley, and not Dee.[20]
Jane died in Manchester ofbubonic plague and was buried in theManchester Cathedral burial grounds in March 1604.[50] Michael, born in Prague, died on his father's birthday in 1594. Theodore, born inTřeboň, died in Manchester in 1601. His sons Arthur and Rowland survived him, as did his daughter Katherine, "his companion to the end".[48] No records exist for his youngest daughters Madinia (sometimes spelled Madima), Frances and Margaret after 1604, so it is widely assumed they died in the epidemic that took their mother (as Dee had by this time ceased to keep a diary).[17]
While Arthur was a student at theWestminster School, Dee wrote to his headmaster, echoing the normal worries of boarding-school parents.[citation needed] Arthur was an apprentice in much of his father's alchemical and scientific work and, in fact, often his diviner until Kelley appeared. He went on to become an alchemist and Hermetic author, whose works were published byElias Ashmole.[17]
TheantiquaryJohn Aubrey[c] describes Dee as "tall and slender. He wore a gown like an artist's gown, with hanging sleeves, and a slit.... A very fair, clear sanguine complexion... a long beard as white as milk. A very handsome man."[44]
Dee was a devout Christian, with his religiosity influenced by doctrines from Hermetic,Platonic, andPythagorean systems, which were pervasive in theRenaissance.[51] He believed thatnumbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge.[9] FromHermeticism he drew a belief that man had the potential for divine power that could be exercised through mathematics.[30] His goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of theRoman Catholic andProtestant churches and the recapture of the puretheology of the ancients.[9]
From 1570 Dee advocated a policy of political and economic strengthening of England andestablishment of colonies in the New World.[4] His manuscriptBrytannicae reipublicae synopsis (1570) outlined the state of theElizabethan Realm[52] and was concerned with trade, ethics and national strength.[4]
His 1576General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation was the first volume in an unfinished series planned to advocate for the establishment of English colonies abroad.[53] In a symbolic frontispiece, Dee included a figure ofBritannia kneeling by the shore beseeching Elizabeth I to protect her nation by strengtheningher navy.[54] Dee usedGeoffrey's inclusion ofIreland inKing Arthur's conquests to argue that Arthur had established a "British empire" abroad.[55] He argued that the establishment of new colonies would benefit England economically, with said colonies being protected by a strong navy.[56][57] Dee has been credited with coining the termBritish Empire,[58] butHumphrey Llwyd has also been credited with the first use in hisCommentarioli Britannicae Descriptionis Fragmentum, published eight years earlier in 1568.[59]
Dee posited a formal claim to North America on the back of a map drawn in 1577–1580;[60] he noted that "circa 1494 Mr. Robert Thorn his father, and Mr. Eliot of Bristow, discoveredNewfound Land."[61] In hisTitle Royal of 1580, he wrote thatMadog ab Owain Gwynedd had discovered America, intending thereby to boost England's claim to the New World over that ofSpain's.[62] He also asserted thatBrutus of Britain and King Arthur, as well as Madog, had conquered lands in the Americas, so that their heir, Elizabeth I of England, had a prior claim there.[26][63]
Some ten years after Dee's death, the antiquarianSir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington bought land around Dee's house and began digging for papers and artifacts. He found several manuscripts, mainly records of Dee's angelic communications. Cotton's son gave these to the scholarMéric Casaubon, who published them in 1659, with a long introduction critical of their author, asA True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some spirits.[35] As the first public revelation of Dee's spiritual conferences, the book was popular. Casaubon, who believed in the reality of spirits, argued in his introduction that Dee was acting as the unwitting tool of evil spirits while believing he was communicating with angels. This book is mainly responsible for the image, prevalent for the next two-and-a-half centuries, of Dee as a dupe and deluded fanatic.[51]
About the time theTrue and Faithful Relation was published, members of theRosicrucian movement claimed Dee as one of their number.[64] There is doubt, however, that an organized Rosicrucian movement existed in Dee's lifetime, and no evidence that he ever belonged to any secret fraternity.[33] His reputation as a magician and the vivid story of his association withEdward Kelley have made him a seemingly irresistible figure tofabulists, writers ofhorror stories, and latter-daymagicians. The accretion of fanciful information about Dee often obscures the facts of his life, remarkable as they were. It also does nothing to promote his Christian leanings: Dee looked to the angels to tell him how he might heal the deep and serious rifts between the Roman Catholic Church, theChurch of England, and the Protestant movement in England.[65] Queen Elizabeth I used him several times as her court astronomer, not solely because he practised Hermetic arts, but as a deeply religious and learned, trustworthy man.[citation needed]
A revaluation of Dee's character and significance came in the 20th century, largely through the work of the historiansCharlotte Fell Smith andFrances Yates. Both brought into focus the parallel roles of magic, science, and religion in the ElizabethanRenaissance. Fell Smith writes: "There is perhaps no learned author in history who has been so persistently misjudged, nay, even slandered, by his posterity, and not a voice in all the three centuries uplifted even to claim for him a fair hearing. Surely it is time that the cause of all this universal condemnation should be examined in the light of reason and science; and perhaps it will be found to exist mainly in the fact that he was too far advanced in speculative thought for his own age to understand."[17] Through this and subsequent re-evaluation, Dee is now viewed as a serious scholar and book collector, a devoted Christian (albeit at a confusing time for that faith), an able scientist, and one of the most learned men of his day.[51][66] His Mortlake library was the largest in the country before it was vandalised, and created at enormous, sometimes ruinous personal expense; it was seen as one of the finest in Europe, perhaps second only to that ofJacques Auguste de Thou. As well as being an astrological and scientific advisor to Elizabeth and her court, he was an early advocate ofcolonisation of North America, envisioning a British Empire stretching across the North Atlantic.[26]
Dee promoted the sciences of navigation andcartography. He studied closely withGerardus Mercator and owned an important collection of maps,globes, and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments and special navigational techniques for use inpolar regions. Dee served as an advisor to English voyages of discovery, and personally selected pilots and trained them in navigation.[17][26] He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to human learning. The centrality of mathematics to Dee's vision makes him to that extent more modern thanFrancis Bacon, though some scholars believe Bacon purposely downplayed mathematics in the anti-occult atmosphere of the reign of James I.[67] Although Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics differs much from ours,[30][65][68] its promotion outside the universities was an enduring achievement. For most of his writings, Dee chose English, rather than Latin, to make them accessible to the public. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid was meant to promote the study and application of mathematics by those without a university education, and was popular and influential among the "mechanicians": a growing class of technical craftsmen and artisans. Dee's preface includes demonstrations of mathematical principles that readers could perform themselves without special education or training.[30]
In the 20th century, theMunicipal Borough of Richmond (now theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames) honoured John Dee by naming a street near Mortlake "Dee Road".[69]
Dee was a friend ofTycho Brahe and familiar with the work (translated into English by his ward and assistant,Thomas Digges) ofNicolaus Copernicus.[17] Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, although he never openly espoused theheliocentric theory. Dee appliedCopernican theory to the problem ofcalendar reform. In 1583, he was asked to advise the queen on the newGregorian calendar promulgated byPope Gregory XIII from October 1582. He advised that England accept it, albeit with seven specific amendments. The first was that the adjustment should not be the ten days that would restore the calendar to the time of theFirst Council of Nicaea in 325, but rather eleven days, which would restore it to thebirth of Jesus. Another proposal of Dee's was to align the civil and liturgical years and have them both start on 1 January. Perhaps predictably, England chose to spurn suggestions of papist origin, despite any merit they may have had.[9]
Dee has often been associated with theVoynich manuscript.[33][70]Wilfrid Michael Voynich, who bought the manuscript in 1912, suggested that Dee may have owned it and sold it toRudolph II. Dee's contacts with Rudolph were less extensive than had been thought, however, and Dee's diaries show no evidence of a sale. However, he was known to have owned a copy of theBook of Soyga, another enciphered book.[71]
TheBritish Museum holds several items once allegedly owned by Dee and associated with the spiritual conferences:[72]
In December 2004, both ashew stone (used for divining) formerly belonging to Dee and a mid-17th-century explanation of its use written byNicholas Culpeper were stolen from theScience Museum in London, but recovered shortly afterwards.[75]
To 21st-century eyes, Dee's activities straddlemagic and modernscience, but to apply a hard and fast distinction between these two realms orepistemological world views isanachronistic.[76][77] He was invited to lecture onEuclidean geometry at theUniversity of Paris while still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert innavigation, who trained many who would conduct England'svoyages of discovery.[clarification needed]
Meanwhile, he immersed himself insorcery, astrology, andHermetic philosophy. Much effort in his last 30 years went into trying to commune withangels, so as to learn theuniversal language of creation and achieve a pre-apocalyptic unity of humankind.[78] A student of theRenaissance Neo-Platonism ofMarsilio Ficino, he drew no distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations of Hermetic magic, angel summoning and divination: all his activities were part of his quest for a transcendent understanding of divine forms underlying the visible world: Dee's "pure verities".
Dee amassed one of England's biggest libraries.[79] His scholarly status also took him intoElizabethan politics as an adviser and tutor to Elizabeth I and through relations with her ministersFrancis Walsingham andWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. He tutored and patronised SirPhilip Sidney; his uncleRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester;Edward Dyer; and SirChristopher Hatton.
Dee was a popular figure in literary works by his contemporaries and he has continued to feature in popular culture, particularly in fiction or fantasy set during his lifetime or dealing with magic or the occult.
Edmund Spenser may be referring to Dee inThe Faerie Queene (1596).[3]William Shakespeare may have modelled the character ofProspero inThe Tempest (1610–1611) on Dee.[33]
Dee is the subject ofHenry Gillard Glindoni's paintingJohn Dee Performing an Experiment Before Queen Elizabeth I.[80]
Dee is a major character inJohn Crowley's four-volume novelÆgypt, the first volume of which,The Solitudes, was published in 1987.[81]
Donald McCormick claimed Dee wasIan Fleming's inspiration for hisJames Bond character.[82] He also claimed that the "007" moniker originated as a symbol used by Dee. Although there is evidence that Fleming read a memoir of Dee's about the time that he created the Bond character, scholarTeresa Burns has cast doubt on the claim that "007" originates from any symbol used by Dee.[83]
Dee is portrayed as a magician inDerek Jarman's filmJubilee, who transports QueenElizabeth I from the 16th century to the 20th.
John Dee is one of the main antagonists in the book seriesThe Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel byMichael Scott. In the series, John Dee has gainedimmortality from the Dark Elders, his mentors.
The filmElizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) has two scenes in which Queen Elizabeth consults Dr. Dee, played byDavid Threlfall.[citation needed]
Phil Rickman casts Dee as the main detective, investigating the disappearance of the bones ofKing Arthur during the reign ofElizabeth I in the historical mysteryThe Bones of Avalon (2010).[84] The playBurn Your Bookes (2010) by Richard Byrne examines the relations between Dee, Edward Kelley and Edward Dyer.[85]
The operaDr Dee: An English Opera (2011) byDamon Albarn, explores Dee's life and work.[86][87][88]
The book:Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness was published July 10, 2012.[89] Being a respected historian of science and an expert in Elizabethan history, Harkness used her dissertation on John Dee as background for the book and as a minor character, his library being a focus of action taking place in the story.[89]
John Zorn's string quartetThe Alchemist (2014) was inspired by the alchemical work of Dee and Kelley.[90]
TheIron Maiden song "The Alchemist" from the albumThe Final Frontier (2010) is written about John Dee.[91]
American rapperGhostemane has a track entitled "John Dee", with occult-themed lyrics.[citation needed]
Robert Eggers 2024 filmNosferatu makes reference to theMysteriorum Libri Quinque (John Dee's Five Books of Mysteries), as being read by the character of Professor Albin Everhart Von Franz, played byWillem Defoe, when the character is introduced.
Dee (or a character based on him) appears in a number of video games, includingUncharted 3: Drake's Deception,[citation needed]Call of Duty: Black Ops III,[citation needed] andZombiU.[citation needed]
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