John Dees ideas and plans for a national research institute

Nicholas H. Clulee
Frostburg State University, 101 Braddock Road, Frostburg, MD 21532, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Available online 23 December 2011
Keywords:
John Dee
Francis Bacon
St Cross
Research institute
Patronage
a b s t r a c t
John Dees arrangements at his Mortlake house have received some attention as an English academy or
experimental household. His ideas for St Cross, which he requested as a suitable living in 1592, have
received less detailed attention. This paper examines Mortlake and his St Cross plans in detail and argues
that, at their core, they shared an aspiration to create a national research institute. These plans are related
to the context of Dees pursuit of royal patronage and his idea of the social and intellectual role of the
natural philosopher. His ideas for a research institute are also placed in the context of alternatives to tra-
ditional sites of learning, including contemporary academies, princely courts, and independent establish-
ments, indicating that Dees ideas, while part of a Renaissance vogue for such alternatives, were
independent of other models. Discussion includes the historiographic debate regarding openness versus
secrecy in the pursuit of natural knowledge. Finally, Dees ideas are contrasted with Francis Bacons pro-
posal for a research institute, which also originated in the 1590s and culminated in Solomons House.
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1. Introduction
John Dees Compendious rehearsall of 1592 has been a mainstay
for Dees biography, providing the most comprehensive, if not uni-
formly trustworthy, personal account of his life (Dee, 1851b, pp.
145). This was not, however, an autobiography produced in
reective leisure; it was the product of a crisis in Dees campaign
to recover royal patronage that is detailed in Glyn Parrys contribu-
tion to this volume (Parry, 2011). Dees account of his life is fo-
cused on highlighting the very great injuries, damages, and
indignities, which for these last nyne years he hath in England sus-
tained, as well as his scholarly reputation and previous service to
Elizabeth, as justication for compensation and substantial future
support (Dee, 1851b, pp. 2, 623). It is in this context that the cli-
max of Dees appeal comes in the penultimate chapter, where he
outlines why the most suitable position for him would be the Mas-
tership of the Hospital of St Cross, an endowed almshouse outside
of Winchester (ibid., pp. 3941).
What Deepresents hereare rather elaborateplans for what might
be termed a national research institute. These plans never came to
fruition and so might be dismissed as a fantasy on Dees part, but
they had a touchstone in reality as elaborations of actual
arrangements that Dee had previously developed at his Mortlake
house. These practices, andtheir elaborationinhis plans for St Cross,
were a pioneering, if rudimentary, type of research institute, which
are interesting in their own right and for their bearing on issues of
sites of learning and the institutionalization of the pursuit of natural
knowledge in early modern Europe. Use of the term research insti-
tute with its association with modern institutions that have that
designation may seem patently anachronistic. The justication is
that, on the one hand, there is no contemporary term for what Dee
seems to have aspired to, and on the other, Anthony Grafton has re-
ferred to Matthias Flacius Illyricus 1550s InstitutumHistoricum in
Magdeburg as the rst endowed, full-time research institute in the
history of modern Europe (Grafton, 2009, pp. 105107). Following
Grafton, my usage of research institute denotes an organization
withanendowment, a staff, andfacilities engagedinfull-timeinves-
tigation and production of knowledge. Flacius organization also in-
cluded a hierarchical division of labour among teams and
individuals that Grafton sees foreshadowing Francis Bacons Solo-
mons House, but I do not think this feature is anessential or univer-
sal constituent of all research institutes (ibid., pp. 108111). Dees
plans for St Cross map onto key elements that Grafton has identied
in Flacius institute and were the culmination of activities that
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Dee began at Mortlake. While for both Dee and Bacon such institu-
tions were to serve the advancement of natural knowledge in sup-
port of a program of enhanced royal and national power and
prestige, there were fundamental differences between the two.
What I will present on Dee has not gone unnoticed, but I think it
deserves more systematic attention than it has received. In his
1937 Astronomical thought in Renaissance England, Francis Johnson,
commenting on the state of English scientic learning in the six-
teenth century, said in reference to Dees home at Mortlake, where
his library, his laboratory, and his astronomical instruments were
located, that during the third quarter of the century, John Dee
and his friends and pupils constituted the scientic academy of
England (1968, pp. 13738). Johnson did not do more to delve into
the nature of this academy, presumably because the institutional
framework of sites of knowledge was not his main subject, which is
surely the case of the subsequent scholars who Sherman regrets
have been surprisingly slow to answerand in many cases to
ask the many questions Johnsons comment should raise
(Sherman, 1995, pp. 2930). Shermans study of Dees politics of
reading and writing certainly makes a major contribution to
exploring important aspects of Dees institution at Mortlake, but,
given his focus on reading and writing and his agenda to reveal
a Dee other than the magus and natural philosopher, he gives most
attention to Dees library and political consulting.
1
Sherman cer-
tainly contributes much to evoking the concrete social and spatial
circumstances of Dees activities, giving us a substantial picture of
the ways his library functioned also as a museum and academy
where independent scholarship was pursued and circulated among
academic, commercial, and political communities (Sherman, 1995,
pp. 19, 23, 45). While he argues that Dee bridged the poles separat-
ing the secretive occultist and open humanistic styles that Hann-
away associated with the contrasting laboratory designs of Tycho
Brahe and Andreas Libavius, Shermans purpose was not to address
the larger issue of scientic institutions that has developed within
the history of science (ibid., pp. 2122; Hannaway, 1986, pp. 585
610). Deborah Harkness grappled more directly with Mortlake as a
site of natural philosophical knowledge in which the household
bridged the gap between monastery [and university] and laboratory
as a site for the practice of natural philosophy (Harkness, 1997, pp.
24849). But as her title, Managing an experimental household,
suggests, her signicant contribution was to situate Dees activities
in the domestic sphere and to highlight the role of Jane Dee as a part-
ner in running the experimental household, and the tensions created
for both John and Jane by the conict between Johns need for pri-
vacy in his occult pursuits and the semi-public nature of the exper-
imental household.
2. Dee and Mortlake
Despite these previous notices, I think there is more that can be
said about Dees experimental household and the ambitions he
came to entertain. Mortlake in the sixteenth century was a small
village eight miles upstream on the Thames river from London
and on the road to Richmond and other palaces further upstream.
The Dee house was next to the river on the north side of the main
road, almost across from the church of St Mary the Virgin. The
house had an open courtyard and was set in gardens that extended
along the river as well as on the other side of the road next to the
churchyard.
2
Dee settled at the family house with his mother
sometime after he returned in 1564 from travels on the continent.
He was certainly there by 1566, and in 1579 ownership was
transferred to Dee by his mother, Johanna, who died the next year
(Cousins et al., 1986, p. 109).
Over the years Mortlake became much more than a domestic
residence. While Dees reference to his house as a poore cottage
might just be a self-serving plea of poverty, it may also character-
ize the original house, although Dee also acquired adjoining land
with structures in addition to his residence and its outbuildings.
He also seems to have added rooms to the original house to accom-
modate his great and expanding personal library, comprising at
least the 2292 printed books and the 199 manuscripts listed in
the 1583 catalogue (Roberts & Watson, 1990, p. 76). Widow Faldo,
who frequented the house in the 1590s when she was a young girl,
told Elias Ashmole that there were four or ve rooms lled with
books (Cousins et al., 1986, p. 110). At its greatest extent, Dees li-
brary became the largest ever seen in England (Roberts & Watson,
1990, p. 2). This collection had an aspiration similar to Dees 1556
Supplication to Queen Mary for the establishment of a national li-
brary to preserve the riches of the dissolved monasteries, but also
to provide a repository of knowledge for the enhancement of the
kingdom (Dee, 1851c, p. 83; Roberts & Watson, 1990). In addition
to traditional codices, Dees library included a very necessary
appendix, which he describes as a great case or frame of boxes
and other cases containing maps and surveys, ancient charters,
land records, and seals of arms with information about Ireland,
Wales, and England (Dee, 1851b, p. 29).
When describing what he had invested in learning, Dee men-
tions certaine rare and exquisitely made instruments mathemati-
call, including a quadrant, a radius astronomicus, two globes and
other instruments by Gerard Mercator, sea compasses, and a clock
that measured the seconds of an houre (ibid., pp. 2829). Further,
Dees mention of other rarities, such as one great bladder with
about four pound weight, of a very sweetish thing, like a brownish
gum in it, also evokes features of a museum or cabinet of
curiosities.
3
What Dee called his chiefe and open library or Bibliotheca
Externa in the 1583 catalogue, was not just a passive collection
but a working institution (Dee, 1851b, p. 30; Roberts & Watson,
1990). His papers include references to a number of astronomical
and weather observation programs making use of the various
instruments.
4
He drew on these observations and research materials
to provide expert knowledge for projects at court and in the city,
including his work on calendar reform, that seems to have been re-
quested by Lord Burghley; his consultations on various voyages of
discovery and instruction to seamen on navigation; and the work
he did on Elizabeths titles to overseas territories.
Finally, he says, to my foresaid library and studies. . . my three
laboratories, serving for Pyrotechnia, be justly accounted an appen-
dix practical (ibid., pp. 3031). He claims that he had spent over
twenty years and 200 on the construction and renovation of
buildings for this purpose: presumably some of the outbuildings
of the original property, or structures on the additional property
he acquired. In the light of discussions of openness versus secrecy
in alchemical practice, it is worth noting that while Dees laborato-
ries had their own spaces separate from the residence, they were
not underground, hidden, or explicitly secret.
5
If Widow Faldo,
when she was a young girl, was aware that Dee kept a great many
Stille in which he used an abundance of Eggshells, it is probable
1
Parry (2006, pp. 645, 647) suggests the need to soften Shermans dichotomy between Dee the magus and Dee as purveyor of knowledge for political policy.
2
Singmaster (2003), Woolley (2001, pp. 8085), Harkness (1997, p. 247), Cousins (1986, pp. 10712).
3
Ibid., p. 30; for an evocation of Dees library see Sherman (1995, pp. 2950) & Roberts and Watson (1990, pp. 346).
4
Dee (1851b, pp. 5, 28); records of these are in his diaries, Dee (1570a, 1582a).
5
The scholarly discussion surrounding Libavius contrast of his open Chemical House with Tycho Brahes secret laboratories is discussed below. Cf. Nummedal (2007, pp.
119128).
438 N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448
that his alchemical laboratories were well known in the community,
although what he did in them was not necessarily public or transpar-
ent.
6
He also spent these sums collecting equipment and chemical
stuff from far and wide, and furnishing these buildings with vessells
(some of earth, some of metall, some of glass, and some of mixt stuff)
and with materials to be used or prepared in diverse sorts. He men-
tions a trip to Lorraine in 1571 from which he returned with a great
cart lading of purposely made vessells, etc. (Dee, 1851b, pp. 3031).
To maintain these operations, Dee had several assistants. Roger
Cook, who joined Dee in 1566 or 1567 when he was fourteen, was
still at Mortlake tending Dees stills until 1580, when he left Dees
service amidst disagreements. Yet Dee presented him with some
pretty alchemical experiments: whereupon he might honestly live
(Dee, 1998, pp. 7, 15). In September 1600, Cook was back with
Dee, promising his faithful and diligent care and help, to the best
of his skill and power, in the practice chemical (ibid., pp. 28889).
Dee also mentions a Harry Waters in connection with alchemical
practice, who also went away malcontent (Dee, 1581, fol. 3).
These features of Mortlake that reected Dees scholarly activi-
ties coexisted in the household with domestic functions and family
spaces. This set up a series of tensions between private family life
and Dees professional activities; between the private domestic
sphere and the need to provide hospitality to visitors and potential
patrons; and between Dees active engagement in projects and
business at court and in London, and an inclination to the with-
drawn contemplative life of the scholar, reminiscent of the monas-
tic cloister. These tensions and ambivalences are reected in the
organization of the spaces in the house. There is no record of the
oor plan of the residence, but Dee mentions some of the rooms
in his diaries. There were chambers above the hall on an upper
oor, where not only the family but also guests slept (Dee, 1998,
pp. 12, 15, 36). There was a dining room large enough to entertain
guests (Harkness, 1997, p. 252). A largish library-roome was fur-
nished with tables as well as books, where visitors and students
perhaps consulted Dees collections, and might also have served
as a public meeting space.
7
Dee also had a private study, adjoined
by an oratory where he prayed. The study had both an inner and
an outer door that signalled his desire for privacy when both were
closed. It is in this space that the angel conversations took place in
an aura of religious piety, contemplation, and communion with
God (Harkness, 1999, pp. 2628, 1997, pp. 248, 259). Yet this study
was near enough to public areas that there were frequent interrup-
tions, leading Dee to seek an even more secluded space (Harkness,
1999, p. 27).
The image of Mortlake that emerges is of a domestic dwelling
also serving multiple research functions under Dees direction,
with assistants and students. It functioned as an astronomical
observatory, an alchemical laboratory, and a library and archive,
from whence Dee provided expertise to the court and a range of
visitors, including explorers, merchant companies, other natural
philosophers, and courtiers. This may also be considered a semi-
public institute, since although Dee collected fees for nativities
and other private consults, the two livings he held came through
royal patronage, and he received other patronage from the court
and courtiers. Dee also considered the work he did at Mortlake
more than private study. The Compendious Rehearsall with its ap-
peal for renewed public support retails an extensive list of some
my dutifull services done unto her majestie (Dee, 1851b, pp. 20
23, also 1114, 18). Dees autobiographical writings are notori-
ously self-promotional, serving to support his claims for prefer-
ment. While he was occasionally consulted by the government
and other courtiers, this role was not ofcial or institutionalized,
and many of Dees services were self-initiated.
8
What matters
for my present purpose is Dees conception, rather than the reality,
of his aspiration to contribute a public and specically royal service.
At the height of his activities at Mortlake, in the 1570s and early
1580s, Dee said that his work was vndertaken chiey, for the aduan-
cement of the wonderfull veritie philosophicall: and also, for the
state publik of this Brytish Monarchie, to become ourishing, in Hon-
or, Wealth, and Strength.
9
Dees institute at Mortlake provided the
infrastructure supporting this public service, and thus, he claimed,
should,
receyve great publick thanks, comfort, and ayde of the whole
Brytish state, to the honor, welfare, and preseruation wherof
(next vnto his duty doing vnto God) he hath directed all the
course of his manifold studies, great trauailes, and incredible
costes. (Dee, 1851a, p. 66)
Although not yet sharply in focus, Mortlake was clearly a centre
for research. The problem is that there is no contemporary term for
something Dee was making up as he went along. Harknesss
experimental household, evoking Shapins house of experiment,
points to the domestic residence as a site of natural knowledge
production, intermediate between the universities and monaster-
ies of the past and the independent laboratories and academies
that would eventually absorb the natural philosopher (Harkness,
1997, p. 248). But this does not fully capture all the dimensions
of Mortlake. Nor does the term laboratory, which Dee uses in its
predominant late sixteenth-century sense as a place for alchemical
and chemical operations (Hannaway, 1986, p. 585). As indicated,
Dee referred to these laboratories as an appendix practical. They
joined other appendices: the collection of historic documents, the
scientic instruments and other objects, and the Bibliotheca
Mortlacensis.
The multifarious nature of Mortlake is reected also in other
references. At times Dee signs his writings at my poore house at
Mortlake or in my poore Cottage, at Mortlake, referencing the
physical dwelling; at others he uses ex musaeo nostro Mortlacen-
si, referencing his study or ofce.
10
On another occasion he refers to
Mortlacensi Hospitali Philosophorum peregrinantum, referencing the
hospitality offered to travelling scholars and the attendant collabora-
tion and communication of ideas (Dee, 1851b, p. 40). Mortlake
lacked the permanent public endowment of Flacius Institutum, and
the scholarly and domestic functions of the house were not clearly
distinguished. Nonetheless, research was a prime and full time activ-
ity of Dee and his assistants. Mortlake was not just a physical dwell-
ing, but a combination of facilitieslibrary, archive, museum,
laboratory, and studythat supported a variety of intellectual activ-
itiesresearch, observation, experimentation, teaching, consultation,
and publication. As such it embodied, if only incipiently, many fea-
tures of a research institute.
Dee had ambitions beyond what he was able to accomplish at
Mortlake, which he cobbled together from a family house. He
sought and expected the kind of direct government support he
6
Cousins et al. (1986, p. 110); and Dee (1581) are records of some of Dees alchemical work.
7
Dee (1851b, p. 4). This is where Dee met with the two commissioners sent to investigate his supplication for support in 1592.
8
Characterizations of Dees status cover a wide gamut from well accepted and sought after in court circles to minimal and failing to achieve his ambitions, and a variety of
points in between. For his consistent appreciation at court see Sherman (1995) and French (1972). Barone (2009) emphasizes Dees lack of success. Parry (2006) develops the most
contextualized assessment.
9
Dee (1851a, p. 54). This is a self-defense against detractors by a supposedly anonymous friend that precedes the General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of
navigation of 1577.
10
Dee (1978, p. 118, 1975, sig. Aiiij.v, 1851b, p. 44), Dee et al. (1851c, p. 83), Dee (1564, sig. C3v).
N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448 439
had outlined in a letter to Cecil in 1562: sufcient unrestricted sup-
port to give him the leisure to pursue the secrets of science and
philosophy to the glory and benet of England and his patrons
(Dee, 1854, pp. 512). This is the tenor of a further appeal in
1574 to his patron Lord Burghley, asking for 200 yearly for life
for his necessary mayntenance to reward his past efforts and con-
tinued zeal for the best and rarest matters mathematicall and
philosophicall (Dee, 1841, pp. 14, 17). These ambitions were not
fullled, which was one of the inducements for Dee to leave
England in 1583.
When Dee returned in 1589 from his travels and search for
patronage throughout East Central Europe, his preeminent concern
was to acquire the stable support in England that he lost in 1582
when he failed to get his dispensation for pluralism sealed in time,
thus losing the rectories of Upton upon Severn and Long Leaden-
ham.
11
Without the steady 80 from these livings, Dees condition
was precarious. Friends at court did secure for him an offer of some
rectories by Crown patronage, but as W. Gwyn Thomas has shown,
Dee had to wait a long time to receive even a small benet from
any of these (Thomas, 1971, pp. 250256). While he lived from
day to day on fees from astrological consultations, occasional gifts
from people at court, pawning some silver and books, and accumu-
lating debts, his main objective was not just any source of stable in-
come (Dee, 1851b, pp. 3438). Although beggars should not be
choosers, Dee was just that. In his meeting with the two commis-
sioners sent by Elizabeth to review his case in 1592, which he fol-
lowed up with the Compendious rehearsall, Dee indicates that
several possible livings were under consideration. Among these he
very emphatically demonstrates a preference for the Mastership of
St Cross, devoting an entire chapter to the Sundry Good Reasons,
why I rather desire Sainct Crosses, than any other living, fee, or dig-
nity of like value to be had in any other place (ibid., p. 39). While
Dees plans for St Cross might be considered imaginary, they reect
an elaboration of the arrangement that he had built at his Mortlake
house over the previous three decades. What makes these sundry
good reasons interesting is that they reveal rather ambitions plans
for a philosophical study and research establishment that might be
characterized as a publicly supported private research institute.
3. St Cross
Dees appeal in 1592 for renewed support in the form of the
Mastership of St Cross was very much an attempt to reconstitute
and expand the research activities of Mortlake into a more devel-
oped institution. Although he still had Mortlake as a residence, it
had suffered during his six years absence: his household furnish-
ings sold or dispersed, some of the library and instruments missing
or damaged, and the alchemical laboratories and their furnishings
lost or in disrepair (ibid., pp. 3132). As we will see, St Cross had
the facilities and resources not only to replace Dees losses at Mort-
lake, but also to reconstitute his institute on a grander scale. In
fact, he makes explicit mention of the ways in which St Cross
would improve on Mortlake as a research institute in royal
service.
12
Before reviewing Dees sundry good reasons, it would be useful
to describe briey what St Cross was. Founded in 1132 by Henry de
Blois, Bishop of Winchester, the Hospital of Saint Cross, to use its
ofcial designation, was to be an almshouse to relieve the poverty
in the area. Situated just outside of Winchester and well endowed,
it was to house and support thirteen poor men who were physi-
cally unable to support themselves, as well as to provide a daily
meal to one hundred men who lived in the neighbourhood. These
meals were substantial enough that these hundred men could sup-
ply their families with the leftovers. Later, thirteen poor scholars
from the school of St Swithun were also fed. The original founda-
tion indicated a staff of a master, a steward, thirteen clerks, four
chaplains and seven choristers to provide religious services, plus
nineteen others as bakers, brewers, cooks, servers, and grounds-
men. Although a religious foundation, the master was not required
to be of the clergy, as there was no cure of souls as part of his du-
ties. Besides providing revenue to support the extensive staff and
the buildings, the endowment included the farms, orchards, sh
ponds, and so forth that supplied the foodstuffs necessary for its
charitable function. St Cross survived the Reformation and the dis-
solution of the monasteries with its mission intact. Although its
buildings evolved over time, in the sixteenth century they included
the church, the brethrens rooms, a hall, an ambulatory and Beau-
fort tower that contained the masters lodging (Hopewell, 1995, pp.
7179). Presumably there were other structures for housing staff
and storing equipment, supplies, and harvested crops.
St Cross suffered a history of periodic robber masters, who
used its resources for their own personal ends, and as we review
Dees ambitions for this appointment, it seems that he might well
have earned the same description had he gained the appointment
(ibid., p. 83). St Cross would require him to leave London and his
house at Mortlake, which had been his base during the peak of
his career and offered him access to the court as well as the city,
but there were compensating advantages. In a nod to piety, Dee
says that the maintenance of divine service at St Cross provides
an opportunity within my own house to traine up and inure my
owne children and family with that most Christian exercise of
prayer (Dee, 1851b, p. 40). Perhaps more importantly, in place of
the interruptions of visitors from London and the court encouraged
by the accessibility of Mortlake, St Cross would allow Dee to retyre
my selfe for some yeares ensuing from the multitude and haunt of
my common friends, and other, who visit me, without offending
them by refusing their visits (Dee, 1851b, pp. 3940). The with-
drawn contemplative life has taken the upper hand at this point.
Dee still planned to contribute to public projects, but he clearly
has tired of the frequent interruptions at Mortlake that impinged
on his concentration and threatened a too public exposure of his
esoteric pursuits.
Other advantages were the facilities and resources available at
St Cross. The glass works of Sussex for Dees exercises in perspec-
tive and other works philosophicall are nearer, allowing him to
oversee the work and acquire the instruments faster. Also, fuel,
coal, brick, and other resources will be cheaper and more conve-
nient (ibid., p. 40). I suspect that the other works philosophicall
included alchemy, with these supplies serving to replenish Dees
furnaces and stills. Furthermore, St Cross offers rooms and lodgings
that will support his service to Elizabeth and the country through
the establishing of a printing house for publishing rare old Greek
and Latin books, as well as his own writings, under his supervision.
Supporting this endeavour, the proximity of Winchester schoole
will be useful for access to Greek and Latin scholars and scribes
for copying and editing books for her Majesty, and also convenient
for his sons education (ibid., pp. 4041). Dee had previously expe-
rienced the difculty of having his works commercially published
at his own expense.
13
With his own royally subsidized press, this
would no longer be a problem.
Dee also imagines these accommodations lodging several
mechanical servants, and,
11
Dee (1851b, pp. 910, 1213), PRO (1924, 5:199), Parry (2006, p. 671).
12
Sherman (1995, pp. 1718), and Harkness (1997, pp. 259260), briey discuss Dees request for St. Cross.
13
Dee (1851a, pp. 6061, 1851b, p. 25), Dee et al. (1851c, p. 74).
440 N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448
for our learned men to be entertained and lodged in, in far bet-
ter manner, than I could doe in Mortlacensi Hospitali Philosopho-
rum peregrinantium in tymes past; and so for me to have
conference with them and their helpe. (Dee, 1851b, p. 40)
And for all these people St Cross offers a sufciency of vict-
uals. . . . for such a company (ibid.). The extensive accommodations
at St Cross would certainly be attractive for Dees household, which
numbered seventeen in 1592: nine members of the immediate fam-
ily plus eight servants (ibid., p. 38). His plans to expand this number
with several mechanical servants, as well as learned men as guests,
extend what was possible within the connes of Mortlake, while
formal provision for lodging scholarly colleagues gives this a clearer
character of a sixteenth-century research institute. It also certainly
makes one wonder whether Dee planned to turn out the indigent
brethren and discontinue feeding the hundred men.
Besides entertaining and lodging our learned men, presumably
Englishmen, having this facility will also enable Dee to become of
better ability and credit, and so be better able to allure and win
unto me rare and excellent men from all parts of Christendom
(and perhaps some out of farder regions) (ibid., p. 41). In this
way, Dee would be in a position to pursue his own studies, but also
to serve as a patron of other scholars. As a particular draw to these
rare and excellent men, with me now and in such a solitary and
commodious place, they may dwell in freedom, security, and qui-
etness, under her Majesties unviolable protection: Dee referring
here to a supposed royal grant in 1577 of security against any of
her kingdome, that would, by reason of any my rare studies and
philosophicall exercises, unduly seeke my overthrow, which he
claims extends to himself and my assistants and servants, during
my life, and a year and a day after (ibid., pp. 21, 41).
Dees emphasis on the freedom, security, and quiet afforded by
the solitary location of St Cross is worth noting. Throughout his life,
Dees reputation was clouded by allegations of illicit activities, to
such an extent that he was considered,
not onely, a Coniurer, or caller of diuels; but, a great doer
therein: yea, the great coniurer: and so (as some would say)
the arche coniurer, of this whole kingdom.
14
The solitary and perhaps cloistered character of St Cross would offer
Dee and his associates protection from too public scrutiny, and here
we may detect Dees concern with the public perception of some of
his activities. Not only will this isolation allow for secreting some
rarities therein from vulgar sophisters eyes or tongues (Dee,
1851b, p. 40), but its proximity to the south coast of England (12
miles from Southampton and 30 miles from Portsmouth) would al-
low the commodious sending over into divers places beyond the
seas for things and men very necessary; and for to have the more
commodious place for the secret arrival of special men to come
unto me there at St. Crosses: some of which men would be loath
to be seene or heard of publickly in court or city (Dee, 1851b, p. 41).
Dee does not specify further who these men would be, who
would be shy of being seen or heard of by the court or in London,
but it seems odd to include such a reference in an appeal for crown
patronage. This aura of secrecy deserves some further discussion,
since it seems to align Dees institute with the secretiveness and
aloofness that Hannaway associated with the occultist, pre-mod-
ern contemplative conception of science embodied in Tycho Bra-
hes remote and secluded Uraniborg, in contrast to the humanist
civic openness of Andreas Libavius Chemical House that pro-
jected a contrasting activist and practical style of science based
on open access and shared information (Hannaway, 1986). This
would suggest that Dees conception of his institute equally fails
to look forward to the transition from secrecy to openness thought
to characterize the new science.
15
Recent studies, however, have
softened the dichotomy that Hannaway draws. Jole Shackelford
has presented a different reading of Brahes laboratory plans that
reveals Brahes science as not exclusively secret, occultist, and con-
templative, but also as an activist observational program producing
public knowledge (Shackelford, 1993, pp. 22930). For Libavius part,
William Newman has shown that despite its apparent openness and
integration with civic space, the design of the Chemical House
incorporated a hierarchy of spaces that segregated the casual visitor
from the laboratory, and more importantly, sequestered the master
alchemists transmutational work space from that of his less worthy
technicians (Newman, 1999, p. 59). In preserving elements of tradi-
tional alchemical concealment, not to mention embodying Dees eso-
teric symbol of the hieroglyphic monad in the very design of his
laboratory, Libavius, like Brahe, subverts any easy divide separating
secretiveness and openness that would relegate Dee to the pre-mod-
ern side. Shackelford also reminds us that all of the progressive insti-
tutions of seventeenth-century new science included limitations on
access and restriction on public dissemination (1993, p. 227). Thus,
the Royal Society limited attendance to those with appropriate cre-
dentials, access to the experimental space in houses of experiment
was restricted, and Bacons leaders of Solomons House take an oath
of secrecy and determine what discoveries may or may not be
published.
16
Dee spanned the same gamut, from the pursuit of a contempla-
tive insight into cosmic verities to an active engagement with pub-
lic, practical issues (Sherman, 1995, pp. 2122). His valuation of
the seclusion offered by St Cross was not based in some absolute
ideological preference for preserving secrets over transparency.
He did call for publication of and sharing with the crown some of
his work at St Cross. But he also embraced the idea that some
knowledge was t only for qualied individuals, and he knew from
personal experience that not all of his activities would be perceived
benignly if opened to public scrutiny. The seclusion of St Cross gave
Dee the autonomy to pursue his plans and to control what was dis-
seminated to whom. Dees claim to special and esoteric knowledge
was an important component of staking his claim to patronage;
preserving his command of secrets was critical to maintaining
the value of a currency that he alone could bestow on his patrons.
17
With Dees plans for St Cross we move from an experimental
household to a more elaborate and structured scholarly research
institute. Dees household and lodgings become only one part of
an establishment of multiple buildings, housing resident scholars
and assistants, with facilities for optical, astronomical, and alchem-
ical experiments and observations, a library and archive, and a
publication ofce, although Dee gives no explicit indication of
how he would organize the facilities or the work at St Cross.
18
Gi-
ven the resources of St Cross, this institute would be publicly sup-
ported and substantially endowed. Yet, since Dee mentions no
oversight or accountability, it would be very much under his auton-
omous direction and leadership, providing him with the freedom to
pursue his own projects and to dispense patronage to the other
scholars he could attract. Clearly, Dee intended to be independent
14
Dee (1975, sig. A2r, in 1570) and Dee (1851a, p. 53), in 1577.
15
Ibid., Eamon (1990, pp. 33365), Dobbs (1990, pp. 7594).
16
Bacon (1996d, p. 487), Shapin (1988, pp. 3789, 38390).
17
Nummedal (2007, pp. 14146) has a ne discussion of the currency of secrets.
18
Recent research on the organization and operation of actual alchemical laboratories does not indicate an obvious correspondence between a specically alchemical or
chemical laboratory and Dees multidisciplinary institution. See Starkey (2004) and Nummedal (2007, pp. 12233).
N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448 441
of the kind of patron oversight and control characteristic of princely
alchemical laboratories and courtly science.
19
It is likely that the
agenda of this institution would have been closely in line with Mort-
lake at its height: a multidisciplinary approach to knowledge with a
focus on natural knowledge, alchemy, mathematics, geography,
claims of British sovereignty, and spiritual exercises. While publicly
supported, the activities of this institute, under the claim of Eliza-
beths grant of royal protection, were clearly private and secret, with
publication of its work under the control of its own printing house.
4. Dees inspiration: possible models
Dees groping toward an idea of a research institute was similar
to other Renaissance initiatives to develop alternative sites of
learning to the traditional sites: the universities and religious or-
ders. The old stereotype of the universities, as ossied and back-
ward descendants of the medieval period, is no longer tenable.
Recent studies have revealed the vigour of new teaching and
new subjects in private tutorials and new colleges that supple-
mented the traditionalism of statutory curricular provisions. Cam-
bridge and Oxford, during Dees time and later, exemplied such
innovations that included mathematics and scientic subjects.
20
Padua, in particular, was an exemplar of innovation.
21
Despite these
progressive impulses within the universities and other academic set-
tings, notably the Jesuit schools, intellectual endeavours, including
the pursuit of natural knowledge, also moved into new settings.
The traditional sites were losing their intellectual monopoly as
these pursuits, in Luce Giards evocative characterization,
quit the cloistered world of academic debate and the religious
orders, returning to civil society and developing in a variety of
situations which together formed a disparate, ever-changing
mosaic of micro-contexts. (Giard, 1991, p. 19)
Renaissance academies and princely courts were among the sites
that adapted to this variety of situations, but Dees Mortlake and Ty-
chos Uraniborg equally t this process. Some studies of scientic
societies have posited their roots in the adaptation of well estab-
lished organizations, such as academies, learned societies, and
courts, by individuals concerned with natural knowledge.
22
While
there are notable examples of this process, Tycho, Dee, and Libavius,
in their actual and projected institutions, indicate that the pursuit of
natural knowledge could also create its own institutions indepen-
dent of existing models.
Dee is a good case study in fashioning alternatives to the clois-
tered world of academic debate and the religious orders (Giard,
1991, p. 19). He seems to have intentionally eschewed university
appointments, turning down the offers of a mathematical lecture-
ship in Paris in 1550, and an annual stipend to read the mathemat-
icall sciences at Oxford in 1554 (Dee, 1851b, pp. 8, 10). Dees
Catholic associations during Marys reign, and his marriage after
1565, were impediments during Elizabeths reign, but his choice
probably had the positive aim of establishing his independence
and autonomy (Parry, 2006, p. 645). This autonomy encompassed
the freedom to pursue my whole system of philosophizing in the
foreign manner, suggesting something different from his experi-
ence at Cambridge: the ability to cross disciplinary boundaries that
his various activities at Mortlake required; the aim of reaching the
broader, non-university, audience addressed in the Mathematicall
praeface and elsewhere; and his pursuit of the self-aggrandizement
of courtly patronage (Dee et al., 1978). The other traditional sites of
learning, the religious orders, were not available to Dee in England
following the dissolution of the monasteries in the Reformation,
although he had a powerful sense of the loss that this entailed.
He opens his Supplication to Queen Mary of 1556 for the estab-
lishment of a national library with a reference to,
the exceeding many most lamentable displeasures, that have of
late happened unto this realm, through the subverting of Reli-
gious houses, [and the dissolution of] other assemblies of godly
and learned men, it hath been, and for ever, among all learned
students, shall be judged, not for the least Calamity, [the spoile]
and destruction of so many and so notable Libraries, wherein
lay the treasure of all Antiquity, and the everlasting [seeds of
continual] excellency within your Graces realm. (Dee, 1990, p.
194)
Dees lament was echoed by the alchemist Thomas Charnock, who
considered monasteries to have nurtured English alchemy (in the
persons of Roger Bacon and George Ripley, among others), and
viewed their dissolution as the most traumatic and disruptive
event of the times (Hughes, 2007, pp. 1314). This nostalgia for
the rich libraries and detached, cloistered intellectual life of the
monastery may have contributed to Dees inclinations to privacy
and the appeal of the quasi-cloistered setting of St Cross.
It is worth asking whether Dees ideas were inspired by the
example of other alternative organizations. There were some ear-
lier and roughly contemporary establishments and proposals that
bear some resemblance to what Dee developed at Mortlake and
imagined for St Cross. In most cases, there is no evidence that
Dee knew about these other models until Mortlake had taken
shape, thus making any clear imitation unlikely. Close to home,
Humphrey Gilberts proposal for an academy in 1572, and the
plans underway from the late 1570s for what became Gresham
College, are notable examples of alternative institutions, but these
were more similar to the educational situations Dee eschewed
than to research institutions (Gilbert, 1869, pp. 112; Feingold,
1984, Ch. 5).
Tycho Brahes establishment of Uraniborg on the isolated is-
land of Hven is the most striking possible model. Here in an ac-
tual institution were key elements of Dees aspiration: an
architecturally suitable structure housing an astronomical obser-
vatory, an alchemical laboratory, a paper mill and a printing
press, and lodging for Tycho and his various assistants and stu-
dentswho, as Tychos clients, were an expression of his power
as a patron-practitioner and who worked under his direction on
sustained research programs.
23
Dee, however, was well established
at Mortlake before Tychos plans for Uraniborg took shape between
1576 and 1579, and he is unlikely to have known anything in detail
about Uraniborg prior to his plans for St Cross. Despite some con-
tacts between Dee and Tycho, the key difculty with Uraniborg as a
model for Dee is that Tychos descriptions of the building and its
instruments all come too late to have been available to Dee. The
Astronomia instauratae mechanica was not published until 1598,
although some of the plans appeared in 1596 and had been pri-
vately shared with Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel in 1591.
24
19
Cf. Nummedal (2007, pp. 128140).
20
Feingold (1984b, pp. 2529, 3141), Giard (1991, pp. 2224), Cormack (1997, pp. 1819, 2325, 2734). New subjects included occult materials: see Feingold (1984a, pp. 73
94).
21
Giard (1991, p. 21), Randall (1961, pp. 1568).
22
The literature on scientic societies and the social settings of the pursuit of natural knowledge is extensive. For discussion of sixteenth-century developments, see Chambers
(1995, pp. 213), Eamon (1991, pp. 2538, 4246), Lux (1991, pp. 189190), McClellan (1985, pp. xix, 4245).
23
On Tycho and Uraniborg, see Thoren (1990, pp. 105191), Christianson (2000, pp. 35), Shackelford (1993, pp. 211230), and Hannaway (1986, pp. 589599).
24
Shackelford (1993, pp. 221222). For Dees contacts with Tycho, see Brahe (1841, pp. 3233).
442 N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448
Dee was acquainted with Landgrave Wilhelm, but his most recent
visit to Hesse-Kassel was in 1589, so the chance of his learning
much about Uraniborg before his plans for St Cross is very slight
(Moran, 1985, n. 58). While Dee was also familiar with some of An-
dreas Libavius writings, the Commentariorum alchymiae containing
the Chemical House description was not published until 1606,
much too late to have inuenced Dee, besides being purely imagi-
nary and devoted exclusively to chemistry rather than Dees multi-
disciplinary project.
25
In existence earlier than Tychos or Libavius plans were some
sixteenth-century Italian academies that represent somewhat dif-
ferent models. Girolamo Ruscelli described an Accademia Segreta
in Naples in the 1540s that practised a crude form of experimen-
tation in a dedicated building, the Filosophia, that could also
accommodate guests (Eamon & Paheau, 1984, pp. 327342). A sim-
ilar, but somewhat more informal Accademia de secreti existed in
the 1560s as a group of friends who met at the house of Giambat-
tista della Porta, where they all had access to a library and an an-
nexed workshop and contributed to the expenses (Gliozzi, 1950,
pp. 536541). Both of these were more horizontally organized
membership groups on the model of Renaissance academies, dif-
fering from Dees hierarchical organization under a patron-practi-
tioner. Further, it is likely that neither was known to Dee. He did
not own Ruscellis 1567 work, Secreti nuovi, describing his acad-
emy, while della Portas academy was only described in his 1589
Magia naturalis, which Dee may not have known.
26
Amore probable model that may have hadsome inuence onDee
were the courts of the German prince-practitioners, especially that
of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel with which Dee had some famil-
iarity. Dee correspondedwith WilhelmIV, who commissioned some
nautical charts from him in 1587, and visited Kassel briey in 1586
and 1589.
27
Wilhelmwas himself an avid astronomical observer, and
his court can be considered a type of scientic research institute that
assembledthe best instruments available, andorganizedthe activities
of client artisans and mathematical practitioners in the pursuit of sys-
tematic and precise collections of observations that also served en-
hanced political control and economic development.
28
It is unclear
what Dee would have observed on his brief visits to Kassel, and cer-
tainly Dees Mortlake establishment pre-dated his awareness of this
as well as any of the other previously discussed models. Unless other
possible models come to light, I think Dees initiatives toward the idea
of a research institute and early laboratory were sui generis. It is most
likely that Mortlake evolved through improvisation and adaptation,
without any precise plan, and that the St Cross plans represented an
idealization of what Dee had come to aspire to in the course of his
experience at Mortlake.
5. Dees inspiration: the role of the sage
As the culmination of Dees appeal for royal support in 1594, he
emphasized the benets that would accrue to Elizabeth. Among
the good fruite likely to ensue from Elizabeths support for his
plans for St Cross, Dee promises that,
diverse antient, rare, and excellent good monumentes, histori-
call and philosophicall, and also late invented and written boo-
kes, of no vulgar argument, may come to be either faire written
for her Majesties use, and her libraries, or else to be published
by print. (Dee, 1851b, p. 42)
The most signicant result of this will be that,
her Majesties most renowned and incomparable monarchicall
diadem of fame shall throughout all Christendome and further
receive, if it be possible, some new reverence, and have many
new devout vowes and hearty good wishes unto it yielded,
among the nobly and vertuously disposed of all degrees. (Ibid.,
pp. 4243)
The intellectual ground for these claims was a conception of the
relation of the philosopher to the monarch, and of the importance
of supporting the pursuit of knowledge to the very stature and
authority of the monarch. This ideology was not new in 1592,
but was operative during the high point of Dees activities at Mort-
lake. Perhaps most revealing of Dees conception of himself and of
his role in England is his claim in 1577, at the conclusion of another
long recitation of his neglect, that,
yf in the foresaid whole course of his tyme, he had found a con-
stant and assistant Christian Alexander, Brytan should not haue
bin now destitute of a Christian Aristotle. (Dee, 1851a, p. 63)
Coming in the introduction to the General and rare memorials per-
tayning to the perfect art of navigation, a work supporting Dees polit-
ical advocacy for an expansive British Empire, addressed to
Elizabeth among others, this suggests that Dee was thinking of his
role as Aristotle in terms of the Secretum secretorum, in which the
secret knowledge of the imperial philosopher is the key to Alexan-
ders political power and the source of public benets.
The Secretum secretorum appeared in Europe in the early 1200s
as a Latin translation of an Arabic work. It is in the genre of mirrors
of princes, in this case framed as a compilation of advice fromAris-
totle to Alexander the Great. The wisdom and success of Alexander,
the perfect prince, are imputed to his following the advice of Aris-
totle, the perfect sage. This work encompassed more than just
political advice and had a signicant occult dimension. Aristotles
wisdom is presented as divinely inspired and in accord with earlier
ancient and prophetic sources. Besides covering the theory and
practice of government, the selection of counselors, secretaries,
and ambassadors, the practice of warfare, and moral and practical
advice, the Secretum also has sections on philosophy, the theory of
the occult, medicine, alchemy, astrology, divination and physiog-
nomy.
29
The sections on medicine and alchemy, which include a ver-
sion of the Emerald Tablet ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, elicited
much interest during the medieval period. The work was particularly
useful as an alchemical authority to stand against those who thought
Aristotle rejected transmutation (Williams, 2003, pp. 227241). As
its title implies, the Secretum emphasizes that the most important
knowledge and wisdom were privileged and not to be revealed to
the unworthy.
Despite the numerous copies of the Secretum circulating in Eur-
ope, Steven Williams judges that it was not signicant to medieval
scholarship. Most copies, with the exception of Roger Bacons, have
little or no annotation, and the text was subject to criticism for
containing material of questionable legitimacy, or not genuine
(ibid., pp. 271, 298311). Citations to the Secretum decline in the
fteenth century, and by the middle of the sixteenth century vir-
tually all scholars had pushed the Secretum secretorum aside as a
spurious, worthless text (ibid., pp. 334343). This assessment is,
however, too sweeping. The Secretum was commonly cited in
25
Newman (1999, pp. 6264). For Dees familiarity with Libavius, see Dee et al. (1851c, pp. 7778) and Clulee (1998, pp. 117119).
26
This is Ruscellis Secreti nuovi di maravigliosa virt (Venice, 1567). Dee had the 1560 edition of Portas work, but there is no record of his having the 1589 edition. For Dees
library, see Roberts & Watson (1990).
27
Dee (1998, pp. 19697, 239), Clulee (1988, p. 227). Dee also wrote to Moritz, Wilhelms successor, in 1595 but never visited his court; see Moran (1985, n. 58).
28
Moran (1991, p. 170), Moran (1981, p. 260), Moran (1980, pp. 6768, 7085, 9192).
29
Williams (2003) provides basic information on the text and its themes.
N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448 443
alchemical literature during this period of supposed decline, and
Aristotle/Alexander, along with other philosopher/prince pairs,
was a common trope in alchemical patronage proposals.
30
Samuel
Norton (15481621), in dedicating an alchemical treatise to Eliza-
beth, explains:
Morien the Romane mooved with the vertues and earnest sutes
of kinge Kalid of Egipe instructed him in the science: Aristotle
stired by good will he bare to Alexander imparted the same
vnto him, Of latter years Raymond taught it to kinge Robert of
Cicill, neare it was to your hignes great grandfather of famous
memorie kinge Edward the 4: in whose tyme ther were seven
whome I can right well prove that had the art, of which three
of them were favored with the kinge. . . .
31
This trope is echoed in Dees Memorials, when he calls for the public
treasury to support four
Christian philosophers Skilfull, or to become Skilfull, and also
Excellent: both in Speculation, and also Practice, of the best
Manner of the Ancient and Secret Philosophy: which is not vul-
gar: but undowtedly, which may be most Comfortable, and
Protable, to some, of Courteous KALID, his disposition, etc.
32
Glyn Parry has argued that Dee proposed this alchemical research
institute because producing the philosophers stone to perfect
the British Empire as the universal empire epitomized the political
application of Dees magus powers (Parry, 2006, p. 663). John Dee
was one sixteenth-century scholar who did not push the Secretum
aside, because it was more than the locus of a rhetorical trope; it
resonated with the intellectual core of his conception of himself
and his role.
The Secretum was clearly of interest to Deehis 1555 copy of
John Bales Illustrium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum summarium in-
cludes a note highlighting a reference to it: Nota Aristotle Secre-
tum secretorum (Bale, 1548, fol. 64r). He eventually collected
several manuscripts of the text, the most inuential being Roger
Bacons edition, with annotations and introductory treatise, which
Dee annotated in turn.
33
What Bacon found in the Secretum was the
vision of a unied knowledge that reected the unity of the created
world.
34
Bacon associates Aristotle with a tradition of ancient theol-
ogy revealed by God to Enoch, whom Bacon identies with the Egyp-
tian Hermes, and passed to Aristotle from the Hebrews through the
Egyptians and the Chaldeans.
35
In Aristotles revelation of the secrets
of this knowledge to Alexander, Bacon found an idea of knowledge
that opened the way to the control and manipulation of nature,
and a role for the philosopher as an advisor to rulers and benefactor
of mankind.
36
These themes from the Secretum and Bacons vision powerfully
shaped Dees sense of his role as a philosopher and his claim to the
mantle of Aristotle in advising his monarch. His claim to special
knowledge was based on his sense of having rediscovered the an-
cient wisdom of Enoch and the Adamic language that Roger Bacon
associated with Aristotles wisdom (Bacon et al., 1920, pp. 3637,
63). This was, moreover, a peculiarly British wisdom. Dee traced
his descent from Roderick the Great, the legendary Prince of Wales,
a descent he believed he shared with Roger Bacon.
37
Having inher-
ited the mantle of British philosophy, and claiming a distant rela-
tionship to Elizabeth, Dee was endowed with the intellectual
authority to pronounce on matters of political policy.
38
Thus, if Eliz-
abeth supported his studies and consulted his philosophical and
political learning, as Alexander did with Aristotle, she could succeed
to the imperial stature of Alexander, and Britain could reclaim its
imperial inheritance.
Beside the particular claim to royal service in Dees mission for
his research institute, his plans are notable for their multidiscipli-
narity. I have also mentioned his collection of historical monu-
ments, but he also proffered expertise on navigation and
geography, and mobilized legal and political arguments regarding
British sovereign rights and imperial claims.
39
The combination of
an operative knowledge, and the broad range of subjects presented
in the Secretum secretorum as essential to the success of the prince
and the welfare of the principality, provides a sense of what ani-
mated Dees idea for a research institutea conception substantially
broader than many contemporary models.
Those familiar with Dee will know the disappointing result of
his appeals for adequate long term support: he was nally granted
the Wardenship of the Collegiate Chapter at Manchester in 1595.
This offered none of the advantages and facilities of St Cross, except
for its remoteness from London and the court, and it proved inad-
equate in its rewards and an administrative tribulation.
40
Dees
failure to secure St Cross was not because his potential patrons were
inimical to his occult interests. William Cecil had an enduring inter-
est in alchemical patronage throughout his career, as did Elizabeth
and others at court (Campbell, 2009, p. 154). But the projects that
found favour were those of utilitarian value, such as Cornelius de
Lannoys efforts at transmutation in the 1560s, and the efforts to per-
suade Edward Kelley to return to England in the early 1590s after his
apparent success at transmutation in Prague.
41
Dees plans, however,
did not promise to supplement royal revenues, nor did they con-
cretely relate to promoting Englands economic prosperity as Cecils
other alchemically based industrial projects sought to do.
42
Besides
30
Linden (1996, pp. 5961), Lydgate (1967 [1652], pp. 397403). Jennifer Rampling called my attention to the role of the Secretum and the Aristotle/Alexander trope in alchemy.
31
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole (1421, fol. 171r); reference courtesy of Jennifer Rampling.
32
Dee (1577, sig. H3
v
). For Dees copies of Khalid: Roberts & Watson (1990), M35, M131, M196, DM1a, DM2, DM6.
33
Roberts & Watson (1990), M35, M56, M38, DM3, DM16, DM137.
34
Bacon (1920, pp. 124) (Bacons commentary), and 25172 (text and Bacons notes), Easton (1952, pp. 7886), Williams (1994, pp. 5773), suggests a very different place for
the Secretum in Bacons career and work than the previous consensus. Dee had a manuscript of Bacons edition of the Secretum acquired in 1561 (Oxford, Corpus Christi College
Library MS 149) and a printed edition acquired in 1563 (Cambridge University Library, shelf mark N. 13. 6.). On Dees manuscript as a copy of Bacons edition, see Bacon et al.
(1920, p. vii).
35
Bacon et al. (1920, pp. 3637, 6263) (Bacons notes), cf. Bacon (1897, pp. 1:412, 4556) and Bacon (1859, pp. 7983). It is interesting to nd an expression of the idea of an
ancient theology in the Middle Ages used in much the same way as it was in the Renaissance; see Molland (1993, pp. 140160). There were precedents among some of the
patristic writers, so Bacon is not novel, and the Renaissance vogue of the ancient theology beginning with Ficino seems to be independent of medieval inuence; see Walker
(1972, pp. 13, 1012).
36
Bacon et al. (1920, pp. 3642, 157172), Easton (1952, p. 114), Manzalaoui (1961, pp. 9697). Bacon was one of the earliest in the Latin West to use the Secretum, and he was
noteworthy in attending more to the occult sections than to those concerned with political advice.
37
On Dees ancestry: Dee (1574, 1570b), Sherman (1995, pp. 10, 87, 106108). Roger Bacon as David Dee: Dee (1582b, p. 55).
38
On Dees and Elizabeths shared ancestry: Dee (1570c). See also Sherman (1995, pp. 10, 87, 106107, 108), Williams (1980), Ashworth (1975, pp. 8792).
39
Cormack (1997, pp. 14, 12526), Sherman (1995, pp. 115200); see also Parry (2006), Dee (2004), MacMillan (2001b, 2001a)).
40
Dee (1998, pp. 273275, 277), and passim; Dee (1597, fols. 1213). Addressed to Edward Dyer, this is a reiteration of Dees ideas on the British Empire but also contains
complaints about his situation in Manchester. Thomas (1971, pp. 250256), has documented the provision to Dr. Aubry of several rectories in St. Davids diocese, Wales, for Dees
use, but he only received one, Tenby, in 1601, and that was only worth about 26.
41
Ibid., pp. 7885, 87107; Harkness (2007, pp. 170172).
42
Campbell (2009, pp. 118127, 128152), Harkness (2007, pp. 145153) characterizes Cecil as the key agent in English Big Science.
444 N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448
representing ostentatious rather than utilitarian natural knowl-
edge, and not being particularly adept at patronage, Dee also seems
to have been caught in various crosscurrents between gures at
court.
43
The fact of the matter is that Robert Bennet, the incumbent
of St Cross, was not about to relinquish that post unless provided
with something bettera bishopric was mentionedin time for
Dee to benet (Dee, 1851b, p. 44). This does not, however, mean that
Dees plans had no impact.
6. Dee and Francis Bacon
Referring to Bacons earliest proposal for an institution to sup-
port the pursuit of knowledge in the 1594/5 Gesta Grayorum, Wil-
liam Sherman has observed that at Mortlake, during the previous
decades, Dee had created just such an institution (Sherman, 1995,
p. 37). Anthony Grafton has seconded Sherman by placing the Eng-
lish research institute that, as William Sherman has shown, grew
up around John Dees famous library at Mortlake in the rich tap-
estry of sixteenth-century scientic life that offer many striking
parallels to Solomons House (Grafton, 2009, p. 111). Although
clearly secondary in Graftons view to the exemplar of Flacius
ecclesiastical history, Shermans brief reference to Dee as a prece-
dent to Bacon deserves further discussion (ibid., 101111).
Bacons Gesta Grayorum proposals were the culmination of a
growing interest in natural knowledge that emerged in the
1590s. In a 1592 letter written to William Cecil at a time when Ba-
con was without occupation and, like Dee, seeking patronage, he
announced that the contemplative planet [Saturn] carrieth me
away wholly, and that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have
moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my prov-
ince (Bacon, 1996a, p. 21). That this included natural knowledge is
made apparent by his stated ambition to replace the faults of re-
ceived knowledge with industrious observations, grounded con-
clusions, and protable inventions and discoveries. . . . (ibid.).
Bacons contemplative bent thus entailed active investigation with
practical benets. In a celebration of the Queens accession that
same year, Bacon praised knowledge, of the virtues and accom-
plishments most worthy of esteem, as the worthiest power for
its ability to improve human life. Although knowledge may con-
template the order of nature and the errors of men, he asks,
is this but a view only of delight, and not of discovery? of con-
tentment, and not of benet? Shall he not as well discern the
riches of natures warehouse, as the beauty of her shop?. . . .
Shall he not be able thereby to produce worthy effects, and to
endow the life of man with innite new commodities. (Bacon,
1996b, p. 34)
Two years later, Bacon suggested an institutional implementa-
tion of this agenda in A Device for the Grays Inn Revels of
1594/95, known as the Gesta Grayorum (Bacon, 1996c, p. 52). This
presented six advises on the goals of government, clearly directed
to Elizabeth through a number of her counsellors who were in
attendance. Among these goals should be the promotion of the
study of philosophy, to include the conquest of the works of nat-
ure through the searching out, inventing, and discovering of all
whatsoever is hid and secret in the world (ibid., p. 54). In support
of the English government committing to this goal, Bacon invokes a
common list of ancient governments that encouraged and de-
pended on learning, culminating with Alexander the Great and
Aristotle (ibid.). To this end, he proposed the establishment of four
related institutions: rst, a library collecting together ancient and
modern works in all languages from all countries; second, a botan-
ical and zoological garden, so you may have in small compass a
model of universal nature made private; third, a huge cabinet
to display all the non-living products of man and nature; and nal-
ly, a still-house, so furnished with mills, instruments, furnaces,
and vessels, as may be a place t for a philosophers stone (ibid.,
pp. 5455). Bacons agenda was that the pursuit of such knowledge
should be a department of state, centrally governed and organized.
This pursuit would benet more than just the commonwealththe
power and reputation of the monarch would be the principal ben-
eciary. So, Bacon concludes that when Elizabeth has added depth
of knowledge to her ne spirit and great power, the Queen will
then be a Trismegistus, and then all other wonders will cease,
by reason that you shall have discovered their natural causes,
and yourself shall be left the only miracle and wonder of the world
(ibid., p. 55).
Supercially, there are clear parallels between Dees Mortlake
and ideas for St Cross, and what Bacon advocates. Bacons proposed
library evokes Dees 1556 Supplication to Queen Mary and the li-
brary he built at Mortlake. Although less systematic than Bacons
plan, Dee collected instruments, inventions and curiosities, and
had his alchemical laboratories. Only Bacons botanical and zoolog-
ical parks, requiring considerable resources and patronage, have no
reection in Dees interests (Findlen, 1994, Ch. 8). And, like Dee,
Bacon associates the enhancement of Elizabeths reputation with
the promotion of knowledge.
Bacon was probably aware of Dee, although evidence for his
familiarity with Mortlake and Dees ideas for St Cross is limited
and circumstantial. We might suppose Dee to have been known
by reputation to an aspiring statesman, who had connections with
some of the same courtiers with whom Dee was connected. Beyond
this, Bacon actually visited Dee at Mortlake. For 11 August 1582,
Dees diary records, Mr Bacon, Mr Phillips of the custom house
(Dee, 1998, p. 46). Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart identify this Mr.
Bacon with Francis, since William Philippes worked in Londons
Custom House and was part of a network, with Francis and An-
thony Bacon, providing trade routes for books, a courier service
for goods and money, a reliable-letter carrying facility and a con-
duit for intelligencewhich, because it owed through Englands
ports, had to pass through the customs houses (Jardine & Stewart,
1998, p. 84). The business that brought Dee and his visitors to-
gether is not specied, but Bacon would have seen Mortlake at
its height: the library at its greatest extent, the cabinet of curiosi-
ties and instruments, and distillations in progress in the outbuild-
ings in the park.
Bacons rst signs of an interest in natural knowledge are
contemporaneous with Dees collaboration with William Cecil
and his proposal for St Cross in an effort to regain support.
44
Ba-
con likewise looked to Cecil, his uncle, in his 1592 letter. During
the Parliament of 1593, he also had business with the Privy Coun-
cillor, Sir John Wolley, one of the commissioners who examined
Dees case in 1592 and for whom Dee composed the Compendious
Rehearsall (Jardine & Stewart, 1998, pp. 14143; Dee, 1851b, p. 4).
There is, however, no specic evidence that Bacon knew of Dees
ideas for St Cross. And, in addition to Dee, Bacon had available
many other possible sources in the rich tapestry of sixteenth-cen-
tury scientic life (Grafton, 2009, p. 111). To mention only English
examples, these included Sir Humphrey Gilberts proposal for
Queene Elizabethes Academy, and the plans underway for Gre-
shams college, which opened in 1597 (Gilbert, 1869, pp. 112;
Feingold, 1984, Ch. 5).
Yet, if Dees example might have given an early impetus to Ba-
cons institutional vision, Bacon eventually went far beyond the
43
Pumfrey & Dawbarn (2004, pp. 140141, 143); and the papers in this volume by Stephen Pumfrey and Glyn Parry.
44
See Parrys paper in this volume.
N.H. Clulee / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 437448 445
exemplar. Bacons Solomons House is more elaborate than any-
thing Dee reected: it is an ofcially state organization, a govern-
ment supported, multidisciplinary institute, investigating all of
nature, from heavens to earth, including medicine, agriculture,
navigation, metallurgy, and so forth, all to serve the power and
security of the state (Sargent, 1996, pp. 146171). Although Dee
was a something of a polymath, his agenda at Mortlake and St
Cross were more limited than Bacons Solomons House, focusing
on his personal interests of mathematics; astronomy/astrology; al-
chemy; antiquarian, historical and legal research on Elizabeths ti-
tles and British imperial claims; and spiritual exercises and
revelations. While he certainly saw some of his work as having
practical public benets and serving the security and strength of
Britain, his was an autocratic institution serving his own priorities
and personal ambitions. There is also no clear provision for Dees
institution outlasting his personal vision and leadership. Besides
being a permanent corporate institution, Solomons House replaces
the inspired individual scholar with a larger staff and a division of
labour among a highly bureaucratized succession of teams. Results
are passed on to the next higher committee for scrutiny, validation,
and abstraction, culminating in a privileged social caste of thirty-
six fellows, who collectively oversee the work and determine
what ndings may be published (Bacon, 1996d, pp. 486487; Sar-
gent, 1996). From one perspective, this is the imposition on natural
investigation of Bacons idea of a committee structure for the re-
form of English law. From another, it is a guard against the threats
that Dees model represented.
In his 1590s pieces, Bacon indicates the need to purge two
types of rovers (privateers or pirates): one, the scholastics, who
have their foundations in words, in ostentation, in confutation,
in sects, in schools, in disputations, that produce nothing; the
other, the alchemists (encompassing Hermeticists, magicians and
Paracelsians), whose foundation is in imposture, in auricular tradi-
tions and obscurity, and resembles religion (Bacon, 1996a, p. 20,
1996b, p. 35). Bacons overall concern seems to have been to rein
in the zealots (rovers) of natural philosophy, just as he was critical
of the Godly radical Puritans in religion; that is, advocates of indi-
vidual inspiration who might challenge the state.
45
While Bacon
never rejected the core ideas of alchemy, and held a semi-Paracel-
sian cosmology, he was dubious of the blending of alchemy and reli-
gion among the Paracelsians, with whom Dee had afliations (Rees,
1975a, 1975b). Stephen Gaukroger has suggested that Dee and Ed-
ward Kelley represented to Bacon the natural magic of his second
type of rover (Gaukroger, 2001, p. 70). Bacon would certainly have
been aware of what Parry shows was Dees considerable reputation
as a conjuror, his consultation by gures in the government on the
basis of his occult philosophy, and his claims to prophecy from his
experience in magic, including spiritual magic.
46
Bacon may well
have found Dees insistence on his personal contributions to the
state, his appeal to individual spiritual insights and revelations,
and his abandonment, for a time, of his service to Elizabeth and
the English state to the pursuit of personal advantage in Eastern Eur-
ope, to epitomise the rover, or privateer. So, more than a precursor to
Bacon, Dee is one possible provocation for Bacons transformation of
the role of the natural philosopher from personal mentor to the ruler,
in the tradition of the Secretus secretorum, to team player in a collab-
orative institute. This is consistent with Pumfrey & Dawbarns char-
acterization of Bacon as a codier of utilitarian courtly patronage
values, as opposed to Dees ostentatious natural philosophy, despite
Dees claims to serve public welfare (2004, pp. 17274).
7. Conclusion
This essay has attempted to put Dees idea of an institutional
place for the philosopher at the head of a research institute into
central focus and high relief. More than a domestic residence that
encompassed the pursuit of natural knowledge, an experimental
household, the wide variety of pursuits carried out at Mortlake
gave it the character of a multidisciplinary research centre serving
a number of different constituents. These ideas came into clearer
focus as an endowed, full time research institute in Dees more
elaborate plans for St Cross. Dees practice at Mortlake, as well as
his more elaborate aspirations, required an establishment in which
he could serve both as a practising philosopher and as a patron and
organizer of other practitioners, students, assistants, and
philosophers.
This suggests another dimension to Dees relevance for early
modern science, moving beyond the realm of ideas to that of insti-
tutions. Dees ideas, regarding both institutional function and the
balance between openness and secrecy, bear some similarities to
various aspects of other contemporary and later institutions of nat-
ural knowledge, but he seems to have developed his ideas and
practice independently of any direct inuence. He shaped an insti-
tutional model with a distinctive mix of aims and methods, from
historical research and publication, astronomy, astrology, alchemy,
mathematics and navigation, to natural and spiritual magic. Be-
yond the prestige that would accrue to his patrons, particularly
the monarch, from the learning produced by his institute, Dee of-
fered the prospect of power through spiritual revelations and the
mastery and exploitation of natures secret powers.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my interlocutors at the John Dee Quatercente-
nary Conference and two anonymous reviewers for comments
and suggestions that have improved this essay in important ways.
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