DEE, JOHN 2 7-1608) , English mathematician and astrol oger, was born in London, and educated at St. John's college, Cambridge, becoming a fellow of Trinity. He spent two years at Louvain and at Rheims in study and lecturing, returning to England in 1551, when he received a pension from Edward VI., which he exchanged for the living of Upton-on-Severn. Soon after Mary's accession he was imprisoned on a charge of using en chantments against the queen's life, but was released in 1555• Dee enjoyed the favour of Queen Elizabeth. He was asked to name a propitious day for the coronation, gave lessons to the queen in the mystical interpretation of his writings, was sent abroad in 1578 to consult with German physicians and astrologers on the nature of her illness, and was employed by her in establishing the claim of the Crown to the overseas countries discovered by British subjects. In 1581 began his collaboration with Edward Kelly, who professed to have discovered the philosopher's stone and to be able to raise spirits. The two spent the years 1583-89 in Poland and Bohemia under the patronage of Albert Laski, palatine of Siradez. Dee returned to England in 1589. He was helped over his financial difficulties by the queen and his friends. In May he became warden of Manchester college. In Nov. 1604 he re turned to Mortlake, where he died in Dec. i6o8, at the age of 81, in the greatest poverty. Dee's Speculum or mirror, a piece of solid pink-tinted glass about the size of an orange, is preserved in the British Museum.
His principal works are : Propaedeumata aphoristica (1558) ; Monas hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564) ; Epistola ad Fredericum Commandinum (Pesaro, 15 7o) ; Preface Mathematical to the English Euclid (1570) ; Divers Annotations and Inventions added after the tenth book of English Euclid (15 7o) ; .Epistola prae fixa Ephemeridibus Joannis Feldi, a 1557; Parallaticae commenta tionis praxeosque nucleus quidam (15 73) The catalogue of Dee's printed and published works is to be found in his Compendious Rehearsal, as well as in his letter to Archbishop Whitgift. The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, and the Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts, edited by J. O. Halliwell, was published by the Camden Society in 1842. There is a life of Dee in Thomas Smith's Vitae illustrium virorum 07.37) ; Eng. trans. by W. A. Ayton, the Life of John Dee (i9o9) ; M. R. James, "Lists of Manuscripts Formerly owned by Dr. John Dee," Bibliog. Soc. Trans. Sup. no. I. (192I).