Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 530–538 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Studies in History and Philosophy of Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsa Elias Ashmole’s collections and views about John Dee Vittoria Feola Department and Collections, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringerstrasse 25, 1090 Vienna, Austria article info abstract Article history: In this paper I discuss Elias Ashmole’s collections and views about John Dee. I consider Dee as an object of Available online 20 January 2012 collection against the broader background of Ashmole’s collecting practices. I also look at the uses to which Ashmole put some of his collections relating to Dee, as well as those which he envisaged for pos- Keywords: terity. I argue that Ashmole’s interest in Dee stemmed from his ideas about the uses of antiquity in the Elias Ashmole reconstruction and transmission of knowledge. They partly reflected Ashmole’s interpretation of Francis Collections Bacon’s Advancement of learning as well as the influence of William Backhouse and William Oughtred’s Antiquarianism ideas about publishing natural philosophy in English. Natural history Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Ashmolean Museum Baconianism When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 1. Introduction to which Ashmole put his Dee-related collections reflected his be- lief that English should replace Latin as a scholarly language. Ash- In 1692, the Ashmolean Museum in the University of Oxford ac- mole viewed his collections of Dee material as useful sources for quired an oil portrait and forty-two volumes of material by and the pursuit of three projects to be carried out, either by himself about John Dee, which Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) had spent his or by posterity, in the vernacular. These were, first, the production life collecting.1 It was the largest collection of ‘Dee-ana’ since the of lives of English worthies; second, data for the history of the Eng- dispersal of the mathematician’s library following his death in lish weather; and third, magical experiments. Dee’s angelic manu- 1609. Of Ashmole’s original Dee collections, thirty-four volumes scripts had special significance for Ashmole because he regarded are kept today in the Bodleian Library.2 Eight volumes have mysteri- them both as evidence of the possibility for the elect to communi- ously found their way into the British Library: seven into the collec- cate with angels, and as sources for the history of magic. tions of Sir Hans Sloane and one among the Additional manuscripts.3 This article supports Mordechai Feingold’s observation (2005, pp. Even if more Dee material has resurfaced since the seventeenth cen- 555–558) that seventeenth-century antiquaries such as Ashmole, as tury, Ashmole’s collections continue to provide the basis for any re- well as his friends John Aubrey and Anthony Wood, were interested search into Dee to this day. Yet neither Ashmole’s collections nor his in Dee for his universal learning and not only for his ‘occult’ leanings. views about Dee have been properly assessed. Conversely, Dee as an Further, this article complements past scholarship on Dee’s library object of seventeenth-century collecting has not been considered. by considering him as the object of collecting practices (Roberts & This article aims to fill such gaps. Watson, 1990). Elias Ashmole’s collections and views about John I will argue that Ashmole’s interest in Dee stemmed from his Dee offer a window into the mind of a seventeenth-century English ideas about antiquity and natural philosophy, which in turn re- antiquary, and thereby concern historians of science as well as flected his reading of Francis Bacon. Moreover, the printed uses intellectual historians, and historians of the book. E-mail address: [email protected] 1 In 1687 Ashmole wrote a catalogue of 23 of Dee’s manuscripts which he had collected thus far, now Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 1790, Part III, item 13, fols. 52–53. 2 They are MSS Ashmole 1819, 1459, 424, 1486, 487, 423, 1423, 1442, 1492, 972, 356, 1788, 1789, 1440, 1488, 204, 1506, 488, 422, 1131, 242, 1790, 1446, 1451, 1457, 1142, 174, 440, 369, 1426, 580, 1492, 1471430–432. For full descriptions, see Black, 1845; also MSS Ashmole 133, 153, 580 (for full descriptions, there is an anonymous handlist of Ashmole’s printed books in the Bodleian Library). 3 They are London, British Library MSS Sloane 3822, 3188, 3189, 3191, 78, 2599, 3678; Add. MS 36674. 0039-3681/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.011 V. Feola / Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43 (2012) 530–538 531 2. Ashmole’s milieu of vernacular natural philosophy pursued experimental knowledge in all fields, putting their pride in being English to the service of vernacular scientific translations. Elias Ashmole was born on 23 May 1617 in Lichfield, Stafford- By entering Backhouse’s circle, Ashmole found himself among con- shire, the only son of an impoverished saddler.4 His mother became genial colleagues who gave him his first manuscripts to collect, a widower when Elias was just a child, and it was only thanks to the and stimulated him to cultivate, among other subjects, mathematics, help of a wealthy relative that Ashmole was able to study law at the astrology, alchemical medicine and natural magic. It was in this mili- Temple and become a barrister. His legal career was soon inter- eu of vernacular editions of natural philosophical texts that Ashmole rupted when the Civil War broke out. Ashmole fought for Charles I became a collector and an editor himself. at Worcester and Oxford, where he also began to study mathematics, astrology, botany, medicine and English history. 3. Early collections and views about Dee: the Fasciculus In the early 1640s, Ashmole began to attend public lectures at chemicus Gresham College, following the advice of his tutor William Ough- tred (1674–1660).5 It was through Oughtred’s contacts at the College Ashmole became interested in Dee at the end of the 1640s, that Ashmole become a member of the Society of Astrologers of Lon- while he was beginning to collect manuscripts about alchemy don by the end of the 1640s.6 Two of the Fellows of the College were and heraldry, and studying mathematics and alchemy with Ough- Oughtred’s former pupils: the mathematician Jonas Moore (1617– tred and Backhouse. During this period Ashmole acquired all the 1679) and Charles Scarborough (1616–1694), editor of Oughtred’s papers that now comprise MS Ashmole 1459. This manuscript con- Opuscula mathematica (London, 1634). Ashmole, Moore and Scarbor- tains his earliest alchemical collections, including Thomas Tym- ough participated in the meetings at Wadham College, Oxford, to- me’s preface to his English translation of John Dee’s Monas gether with Seth Ward (1617–1689), John Wallis (1616–1703), and hieroglyphica, which Ashmole used to extract information about several other former students of Oughtred’s, that eventually led to the alchemist Geber (MS Ashmole 1440, fols. 170–171). Ashmole the foundation of the Royal Society (Hunter, 1995, passim). acquired it in 1648 from a ‘chirurgeon from Reading’, probably The late 1640s marked a significant period in Ashmole’s life. 8 an acquaintance of Oughtred’s. In 1649, Ashmole came across an July 1648 marks his earliest recorded acquisition of an alchemi- anonymous Latin collection of alchemical aphorisms entitled Fas- co-medical manuscript (MS Ashmole 1459, fols. 3v–26v). His first ciculus chemicus, and the Latin text of the anonymous Arcanum Her- recorded attendance at the annual dinner of the Society of Astrol- meticae philosophiae (actually written by the French lawyer and ogers was on 1 August 1649, and he attended his first anatomical amateur natural philosopher, Jean d’Espagnet).10 He translated dissection later in the same year (MS Ashmole 1136, fol. 22). It ap- both into English, and was about to publish them when he learned pears that Ashmole’s mathematical and medical interests were that the author of the Fasciculus was Arthur Dee, the son of John developing in a congenial milieu. Dee. Hastily Ashmole wrote to him to ask for permission to print Around this time Ashmole also acquired Francis Bacon’s his work, adding: Advancement of learning in the Oxford English translation of My search into the Mathematicks first brought me to vnder- 1640, which would shape much of his thinking, as well as his col- stand, the worth of Doctor John Dee, by his Preface to Euclid, lecting practices. In 1649 he married the wealthy Lady Mary For- &c; & you would much pleasure me, might I also know what ster, twenty years his senior. The marriage granted Ashmole the relation you had to him, or what else you think fitt for me to leisure to pursue his two main interests: English antiquity and nat- say. (MS Ashmole 1790, fol. 68r) ural philosophy. Following his move to Swallowfield, Berkshire, in 1650, he joined the circle of his new neighbour, the Oxford-edu- Arthur Dee obliged Ashmole with a polite letter full of biographical cated antiquary and natural philosopher, William Backhouse information about his father, in addition to a (1593–1662).7 Backhouse organised a workshop in his house, where Ashmole Catalogue of the bookes he wrot, I have sent you herein and other members of the Society of Astrologers, including Nicho- enclosed, whereof I was totally depriued hee dying at his house las Fiske, Richard Saunders and George Wharton, translated Latin at Mortlak when I was beyond sea Ao. 1609.11 and French texts into English, and then published them in London.8 Backhouse’s circle was also linked to Gresham College and Samuel This is the earliest evidence of Ashmole’s interest in Dee, though at Hartlib’s network, and shared their goal of propagating useful exper- this stage he had not yet conceived of actively researching him.