RENAISSANCE MAN:
The Reconstructed Libraries of European Scholars, 1450-1700
Series One: The Books and Manuscripts of John Dee, 1527-1608

Part 4: John Dee's Manuscripts and Annotated Books from the Library of the Royal College of Physicians, London

Renaissance Man: The Reconstructed Libraries of European Scholars, 1450-1700 seeks to bring together on microfilm the surviving volumes and manuscripts of some of the finest libraries in Renaissance England. Series One focuses on the great library of John Dee (1527-1608), philosopher, mathematician, astrologer and theologian. Under the guidance and general editorship of Dr Julian Roberts and Dr Elisabeth Leedham-Green this project aims to reconstruct Dee's Library based on the findings published in John Dee's Library Catalogue, edited by Julian Roberts and Andrew G Watson, (The London Bibliographical Society, 1990).

Parts 1 and 2 focus on manuscript materials from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and Corpus Christ College, Oxford. Parts 3-6 concentrate mainly on Dee's printed books. Part 3 is based on the holdings of Cambridge University Library and Parts 4-6 bring together the largest surviving group of Dee's printed books from the holdings of the Dorchester Library at the Royal College of Physicians, London.

"This great library was always at the disposal of Dee's fellow scientists among his friends and pupils. If one believes that the first essential and the true center of any university is its library, Dee's circle might truly be termed the scientific university of England during the period from about 1560 to 1583." [see F.R. Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England (Baltimore, 1937), p139]. Many of John Dee's books were stolen from him in 1583. The chief thief seems to have been Nicholas Saunder. What happened when Dee left for Poland in September 1583 is set out in pp48-52 of John Dee's Library Catalogue, edited by Julian Roberts and Andrew G Watson, (The London Bibliographical Society, 1990).

Not all the facts are known, but a good number of Dee's books have been traced in the holdings of the Dorchester Library at the Royal College of Physicians. Many of these have the name of "Joannes Dee" bleached out and replaced by the inscription "Nich. Saunder". Dee-Saunder books are found not only in the library which Henry Pierrepont, Marquess of Dorchester (1606-1680) left to the College of Physicians in 1687 or 1688 but also among the books of Archbishop William Wake (1657-1737) at Christ Church, Oxford. Some of the latter had formerly been part of the Dorchester Library as they are listed in the 1664 catalogue of the Dorchester Library. For further details please see John Dee's Library Catalogue, edited by Julian Roberts and Andrew G Watson, (The London Bibliographical Society, 1990).

Information on the acquisition of the Dorchester Library by the College of Physicians is to be found in an article by J Roy entitled The History of the College Library: The Dorchester Library (Royal College of Physicians, Vol.4 No.3 April 1970) and in William Munk, The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Volume I: 1518 to 1700 (Royal College of Physicians, London 1878). Both refer to the Marquess of Dorchester as "Henry Pierrepoint".

Many puzzles still remain. Was the thief Nicholas Saunder originally in Dee's circle ? What were the motives for his action ? It seems that around 500 books were stolen by Saunder or spoiled by John Davis, but this was only a small part of the total library. Many books and manuscripts were dispersed later, some were passed on to Dee's friend, John Pontois, to John Woodall, to Arthur Dee, or to Patrick Saunders, Dee's servant, who was finally elected to the College of Physicians at Michaelmas 1620. (Patrick Saunders is no relation to Nicholas Saunder). Saunders left his books in his will to his son, also Patrick, who like his father went on to practise medicine in London.

The books in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians, clearly identified as belonging to John Dee, carry many of his annotations and marginalia. It is known that Dee annotated more books in the earlier part of his career up to 1583. The annotations are of three kinds. There are signs (the pointing hand and the "flower sign" which both occur in his library catalogue); underlinings of key words or key passages of text; or marginal notes - often the occasional word or phrase penned beside the text. There are also important biographical and bibliographical notes, written for the most part before 1560, either on fly leaves, title pages or at the end of volumes. Many such examples are reproduced in this microfilm edition of Dee volumes from the Dorchester Library. The annotations reveal much about Dee's interests, his reading habits and sometimes they even give details of particular events in Dee's life, nativities and other occurrences.
They also inform our understanding of general reading practices and the management of knowledge in the Renaissance period.

Authors represented in Part 4 of this project include:
Camillo Agrippa, Petrus Apianus, Archimedes, Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Andrea Bacci, Petrus Beausardus, Lucius Bellantius, Johannes Blanchinus, Thomas Boderius, Guido Bonatti, Charles de Bouelles, Martinus Borrhaus, Girolamo Cataneo, Girolamo Cardano, Nicolaus Copernicus, Volcherus Coeiter, Giovanni Andrea dalla Croce, John Dee, Francesco Feretti, Girolamo Fracastoro, Reinerus Gemma Frisius, Lucas Gauricus, Paschasius Hamellius, Cyprianus von Leowitz, Achille Marozzo, Gervasius Marstallerus, Philipp Melanchthon, Antoine Mizauld, Antoine Du Moulin, Sebastian Muenster, Valentinus Nabod, Jordanus Nemorarius, Dominius Marius Niger, Paracelsus, Petrus Pitatus, Guillaume Postel, Proclus, Ptolemy, Heinrich Rantzau, Bernardino Rocca, John of Seville, Johannes Taisnier, Andr Thevet, Hermes Trismegistus and Johann Tritheim.

Subjects covered range across many disciplines:
mathematics, alchemy, astrology, astronomy and navigation
philosophy and theology
history, classics and politics
military and naval arts and science
medicine, anatomy and the para-medical sciences
the study of metals and minerals
mechanics
music

Places of publication include Antwerp, Basel, Brescia, Frankfurt, Ingolstadt, London, Lyon, Noriberg, Paris, Rome and Venice.

Part 4 also provides four manuscripts as well as the significant array of printed books. These manuscripts are John Ashenden's Summa de accidentibus mundi, 1347-1348,; Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon: A chronicle of England beginning with Julius Caesar and ending with the year 1333; a Book of Hours and the Wilton Psalter.

This project will prove of great interest to scholars exploring the history of collecting printed books. It also provides much detail for those interested in Dee's marginalia and annotations; it provides excellent source material for everyone interested in knowing what books were available to Dee, his friends, colleagues and students. Finally, it brings together a wide range of material for students of the Renaissance, both in England and on the continent of Europe.

SUPPORTING COMMENTS

"When it was catalogued in 1583 Dee’s library was Elizabethan England’s largest and - for scientific subjects at least - most valuable collection of books and manuscripts.... The collection was the result of extraordinary commitment and energy in the preservation, collection, and management of textual information and as such it is central to an appreciation of both Dee’s life and the period in which he lived. It is not only a monument to Dee’s scholarly interests and achievements; it is one of the greatest monuments of English Renaissance culture. "
Dr William H Sherman
Department of English, University of Maryland,
writing in John Dee: The Politics of Reading & Writing in the English Renaissance
(University of Massuchusetts Press, 1995)

"Dee stood in the middle of the sixteenth century, at the watershed between magic and science, looking back at one and forward to the other. Central to all these interests was a great library, the largest that had ever been built up by one man in England. Dee’s omnivorous reading and the availability of his library to others fed many of the intellectual streams of Elizabethan England...."
Julian Roberts
Consultant Editor for this microfilm project,
Former Keeper of Printed Books, Bodleian Library, Oxford
and co-editor, with Andrew G Watson, of John Dee's Library Catalogue (The London Bibliographical Society, 1990).