Dr Kat and John Dee's Scientific Magic

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome my name is dr. cat and this is reading the past today's video is a follow on from the video that I made about the four humans that I'm going to link up here because one thing that I've always been fascinated with is the way in which in early modern Europe the things that we now recognize as science were indivisible in many ways from things that we would call magic or trickery an example of this is chemistry now for us this is a recognized science the study of the elements and the way in which they interact with each other but that science in early modern Europe was indivisible from alchemy the search for the Philosopher's Stone an item that could turn base metals such as lead into gold that could create the elixir of eternal life and a panacea that could cure all ills similarly we see astronomy and astrology astronomy being the study and mapping of the stars and celestial bodies and astrology the practice of looking at star signs and trying to decipher the way in which they affect you and potentially your future we see those as completely divided one is a science while the other sits in the back pages of magazines and newspapers but in the early modern world these were equal sciences they were valued in similar ways and they had similar weight within the communities that were investigating them in early modern and Renaissance Europe it was something to aspire to to be deemed Polymathic an expert in a variety of disciplines the ideal Renaissance prince would be wonderful on horseback an excellent tennis player a musician a philosopher and expert in the legalities of his kingdom similarly they were be experts in military strategy the list goes on so these scientific disciplines those which we now deem a science and viewers magic or trickery were equally forums in which these individuals would attempt to practice for me the career and life of one person in particular I think lays out most clearly the ways in which the science and magic worlds interact and are seen as complementary during this period and that man is John Dee he is perhaps best known as Elizabeth the first skort magician but he was also a mathematician and astronomer an astrologer a navigator and expert in law an alchemist and antiquarian and a historian Dee was born in London on the 13th of July 15:27 he attended Cambridge University for his principal education in 1555 he was accepted into the company of Mercer's these are the merchants of the day and they were particularly concerned during this period with foraging out new and more profitable trade links overseas these particular skills as a mathematician and navigator were the things that particularly interested the Mercer's company indi and in furthering his career however in that same year of 1555-d also found himself in quite hot water he was arrested by the Privy Council he was accused of casting the horoscopes of the vehm Queen Mary the first her husband Philip and her half-sister the future Elizabeth the first the idea was that this prognostication this casting of horoscopes was an attempt by Dee to find out if and when Mary the first might meet her death and Elizabeth could take her throne now prognosticating on the death of a monarch in early modern England is of course treason subsequently he was also so charged with conjuring and witchcraft and he found himself in the clasps of the resolute Bishop Bonner whose job it was to discover DS orthodoxy in religion or otherwise now evidently Dean managed to convince Bonner because as John Fox points out in his book of martyrs also known as acts and monuments D became Boehner's chaplain so what we see in this one year of 1555 is that these twinned interests in science and as we would deem it magic are having a profound effect on his life on the one hand his recognizable scientific endeavors as a navigator and mathematician are making him ripe for preferment with the Mercer's company meanwhile he's dabbling with what we would see is magic or trickery in the horoscope casting if landing him in hot water with the monarchy and their Privy Council around two years later in 1556 D is back under taking what we would see as a scientific endeavor he is supporting Copernicus his assertion that the Sun sits at the center of the universe and not the earth yet two years after that in 1558 when Elizabeth the first ascends to the throne her favorite Robert Dudley approaches D for the most auspicious date for Elizabeth's coronation he maps this out using Elizabeth's horoscope and it would seem that his assertion of the ideal date was the one that was chosen by Elizabeth and her counselors and supporters for the most appropriate date for her to be crowned similarly in 1570 Dee writes the preface reintroduction to Billingsley translation of Euclid's elements of geometry in this preface Dee asserts his interest in magic and scrying scrying is the practice of using mirrors to communicate with spirits in Dee's case these seem to have been both angels and demons we believe that it was in the following year 1571 that D acquired from the Duchy of Lorraine the equipment necessary for conducting his own alchemical experiments we think that this occurred because he finally had the space with which to set up such a laboratory having moved 2 mortlake in 1565 however later in that decade in 1577 d is back on a track that we would recognize as being more empirically scientific he writes the general and rare memorials pertaining to the perfect art of navigation in this text with an amazing frontispiece that i'm going to show now you see Elizabeth sat on the helm of a boat above her the Son of God shines down guiding her path on top of her masts the Cairo of Christ sits Elizabeth's Divine Commonwealth is being protected by God and indeed with Indies book he argues not only for the foundation of a British Navy but he also we believe for the first time coins the term of an empire of Britain or a British Empire around this time he is also involved in other navigational exploits he advises Martin Frobisher on his failed search for the Northwest Passage and indeed takes part in a saying some of that black or that came back from these failed voyages the ones that were discovered to not be the gold that it was claimed to be I have a video on that which I'm going to link up here these privileged position as an adviser to his community is evidenced by the fact that he was consulted about a potential change to the calendar a move from the Julian model to the Gregorian one which would bring us back in line with the rest of Europe and D was for the most part in agreement that such a shift should happen he did differ on how many days should be removed from the calendar they currently had in order to shift but ultimately he thought that we should be in line with Europe unfortunately it seems that he was rather ahead of his time because this change didn't actually occur in England and 17:52 in 1582 d was able to more fully engage with his interest in scrying he meets a man Edward Kelly and the two of them travel the courts of Europe attempting to speak to angels they use mirrors and communicate in the Enochian language now the Enochian language is trixie to understand because many linguists have looked at it and attempted to unpack it and explore it and nobody can quite understand how this language that everybody assumes is the invention of D or Kelly was created certain linguists have asserted that in order for this language to be created in the way that it is described they would have had to be working backwards and upside down and it would have had to have come from the mind of the most gifted linguist ever known so I'm not quite sure what these angelic conversations are Edward Kelly is most commonly viewed as a complete charlatan who led D astray and somehow managed to convince him to engage in wife-swapping but I'm very interested to hear what you think of these angelic conversations and the Enochian language perhaps you'd like me to explore it further and make another video do let me know in the comment section down below bye 1603 however despite these clear fascination in his magical pursuits he is quite keen to have the title of conjurer removed from him he describes it as a slanderous accusation of course 1603 is the year that James the sixth of Scotland becomes James the first of England and D is very keen to name himself as a dutiful servant of the new king however as I discussed in my background study of Macbeth reading with Beth in context I'm going to link that up here James had a very particular view when it came to witchcraft in that he wasn't very happy about it so Haddy knew that his interests could land him in a very very difficult position so what I think these elements and moments from Dee's life and career show is the way in which an incredibly educated man a man of science and mathematics would quite quickly deviate down the path as we would see it of magic and superstition and witchcraft but of course to the early modern mind these things alchemy scrying fortune-telling horoscopes are the realm of science while they may be superstition and magic and witchcraft and trickery to us they weren't to our early modern counterparts and I hope that that perhaps offers another window into our early modern ancestors I do hope you found this video interesting and useful if you've enjoyed it please give it a like please subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon next to it so that you know what I'm next uploading I'm also going to leave the links to my social media in the description box below I hope you have a great day whatever you're doing and I look forward to seeing you all next time take care bye bye for now [Music] [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 6,769

Rating: 4.9931154 out of 5

Keywords: Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance, John Dee, Elizabeth I, James I, James VI, Magic, Science, British Empire

Id: qWbMUzwHU2A

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 05 2018