Introductory bibliography of Enochian and diary MSS of John Dee

[animated Monas glyph]

compiled by Rafal T. Prinke (rafalp@amu.edu.pl)

You may find a mirror copy of this document at the OIT site

(based on Peter French's bibliography, some comments come from the bibliography compiled by R. F. Buchanan (Azoth) 1992, some information, corrections and comments supplied by Adam McLean, Gionni di Gravio and Clay Holden)

[see also the catalogue of Dee's MSS by Elias Ashmole]

I. Libri Mysteriorum

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3188. Dee's 'Spiritual Diaries' from 22 December 1581 to 30 May 1583: 'Libri mysteriorum I-V'. Contains first part of 'Liber Logaeth'.

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3677. Elias Ashmole's copy of Sloane MS 3188 with the addition of some other records of conjurations of spirits, a largely unreadable treatise on invocation of angels, and the transcription of a conjuration using th e Enochian Kings, the Angel Ave, and invoking the Enochian three- four- and five-lettered names of God.

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 422, art. 2. Notes copied by Elias Ashmole from Dee's fifth 'Book of Mysteries'.

Editions:

Peterson, Joseph (ed.), Mysteriorum libri quinti, or, Five books of mystical exercises of Dr. John Dee : an angelic revelation of cabalistic magic and other mysteries occult and divine revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly, A.D. 1581-1583, Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks 20, Felindenys, Silican, Dyfed, Wales 1985, xvi, 293. Transcribed from MS. Sloane 3188; 250 copies; bibliography: p. 286; indexes; includes transcripts of the first 3 tables of Liber Logaeth with index verborum and statist ics of their texts.

[A new edition by Joseph Peterson is forthcoming, incorporating ten years of additional work. No details of publisher or date known.]

Whitby, Christopher, John Dee's Actions with Spirits: 22 December 1581 to 23 May 1583, New York & London: Garland Publishing Co. 1988, 2 Vols ill, 24cm. ISBN 0-8240-6399-6. A reduced facsimile of the authors thesis from the University of Birmin gham, 1981. A complete transcription of Sloane MS. 3188.

[Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, Order Dept. P.O. Box 322 3300, AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Email: services@wkap.nl, is planning yet another edition of the Liber Mysteriorum, under the eye of Dr Stephen Clucas. This will be a new transcription. E nquiry at Kluwer in July revealed that the typescript had not been received by them yet so no date of publication is set.]

[Clay Holden is working on another edition, originally planned to be published in spring 1996 by Phanes Press but now the publlisher not known yet. It follows Dee's manuscript exactly, word for word, line for line, page for page, illustration for illu stration. The only editorial changes are standardization of the use of the letters u and v, and i and j. Latin words abbreviated in the manuscript are being expanded. Tables and illustrations are either scanned and cleaned-up from the manuscript, or recre ated based closely on the originals.]

II. Liber Logaeth

[Clay Holden points out that the correct spelling should be "Loagaeth" as in Dee's hand in Cotton Appendix MS. XLVI:

The TITLE of the Bok:

_________

/________/|

| | |

|- Loa= | |

|- ga= -|/|

|- eth | |

| | |

|_______|/

and that currently used spelling is the result of Casaubon's error. But as this usage became so widespread, I am leaving it here.]

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3189. Dee's 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus' in Edward Kelley's handwriting (1583). The clean copy of 'Liber Logaeth', 65 folios containing 101 complex magic squares, 96 of which comprised of 49 x 49 cells cont aining Latin letters and Arabic numerals, and 4 of 36 x 72 cells containing only Latin letters (these in Dee's hand), plus 2 blank 49 x 49 grids.

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 2599, art. 1. A partial transcription of 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus' in at least two different hands. One of them may be Ashmole's.

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 78, art. 11. An excerpt from Dee's 'Liber mysteriorum sextus et sanctus'. A partial transcription of the first few leaves of MS. 3189 without any tables. The same material is also to be found in 'Mysteriorum Liber Q uintus' in Sloane MS. 3188.

Editions:

[Still unpublished in its entirety. Individual squares reproduced in various books. The one printed in Casaubon's book contains a major error - the original of the same is reproduced in Robert Turner's Elizabethan magic p. 24.]

Hay, George; Wilson, Colin; Turner, Robert; Langford, David The Necronomicon. Neville Spearman: Jersey, 1978.

Reprinted: Corgi Books: London, 1980. (The book is an elaborate practical joke, presenting a "translation" of Liber Logaeth. One folio from Sloane MS. 3189 is reproduced. The "translation" part is available on WWW.)

[Clay Holden is preparing a full transcription for future publication. No date or publisher known yet.]
III. True & Faithful Relation

London, British Library: Appendix MS. XVLI, parts 1 and 2. Manuscript of Dee's 'Spiritual Diaries' published by Meric Casaubon.

London, British Library: Cotton Appendix MS. XLVI. Elias Ashmole's copy of Dee's 'Spiritual Diaries'.

Oxford, Bodleian: MS. Ashmole 1790, fols. 1-19v. Dee's Latin copy of additional Spirit Actions.

Oxford, Bodleian: MS. Ashmole 1788, fols. 37-64. Ashmole's copy of MS. Ashmole 1790.

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3645. A 17th century English translation of MS. Ashmole 1790.

Editions:

A True & Faithful Relation of what passed for many Years Between Dr: John Dee... and Some Spirits, ed. Meric Casaubon. London, 1659. Casaubon's own copy with his handwritten correction is in the Bodleian Library, shelf mark D. 8. 14. art. A cop y in the British Museum contains revealing marginal notes by contemporaries of Casaubon's, shelf mark 719. m. 12. I know of three copies in Poland: National Library in Warsaw (with copious marginal notes), University Library in Poznan (with many underlini ngs, especially in the Calls but no notes), University Library in Wroclaw (clean copy).

Reprinted: Askin Publishers: London 1974;

Magickal Childe: New York 1992. This edition prepared by Clay Holden includes additional Spirit Actions from Sloane MS. 3645, a new introduction, and descriptions of a number of Dee's works and related materials as part of a catalog for "The John Dee Society".

'An Unknown Chapter in the Life of John Dee', ed. C. H. Josten, JWCI, XVIII (1965), 223-57. Translation of MS. Ashmole 1790.

Related MSS:

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 580. Elias Ashmole's copy of Meric Casaubon's edition of A True & Faithful Relation of what passed for many Years Between Dr: John Dee... and Some Spirits which contains copious notes by Ashmole.

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 1788, arts. 1-18. Among other items: copy of Dee's Compendious Rehearsal; John Dee's 'Praefatio Latina in actionem in Latinam primum ex 7 (habitam 10 die Aprilis Pragae) etiam in Latinam conversam semonem, an[no] 1 586'; letter from Dr N. Bernard to Meric Casaubon concerning his book of Dee's actions with spirits and Archbishop Usher's opinion of it, as well as Sir Robert Cotton's note concerning that statementt of opinion, and a letter by Casaubon concerning his bo ok about Dee's angelic conferences. Much of it is transcribed by Ashmole.

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 1790, I-IV. 'Praefatio Latina in actionem'; papers relating to Dee's actions with the spirits; Elias Ashmole's observations and collections concerning Dee's religious magic; Elias Ashmole's correspondence relating to Dee.

Oxford, Bodleian: Rawlison MS. 923, art. B. 10. Various notes on Meric Casaubon's edition of the 'Spiritual Diaries'.

IV. Enochian Treatises

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3191, arts. 1-4. Four treatises by John Dee:

1. 'Claves Angelicae' (Cracow, 13 April - 13 July 1584);

2. 'Liber scientia auxilii et victoria terrestis' (Cracow, 2 May 1585);

3. 'De heptarchia mystica';

4. 'Tabula bonorum angelorum invocationes'.

London, British Library: Sloane MS. 3678, art. 1. Elias Ashmole's copy of Sloane MS. 3191.

London, British Library: Additional MS. 36674. Magical treatises by Caius, Forman, Dee and Kelley, including 'Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae' with some differences, notably a table attributing planets to the Filii Filiarum.

Editions:

1. 'The Enochian Calls', ed. Donald C. Laycock, The complete Enochian dictionary, Askin Publishers: London, 1978, p. 247-267. "This edited version [...] follows closely Dee's fair copy in the manuscript of the 48 Claves Angelicae".

Reprinted: Weiser: York Beach, 1994 (with a new introduction by Stephen Skinner).

[also in various other Enochian magic books]

2. 'Sloane MS. 3191. John Dee: Liber Scientiae Auxily et Victoriae Terrestis", Sothis, Vol. II, No. II (1977), p. 57-62. ISSN 0307-5370

3. Turner, Robert (ed.): The heptarchia mystica of John Dee, Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks 17: Edinburgh 1983, 81 p. Collation of two MS copies in: Sloane 3191 and Additional MS. 36,674; 250 copies, bibliography: p. 81

Turner, Robert (ed.): The heptarchia mystica of John Dee, with a contributory article by Robin E. Cousins; Latin translations by Christopher Upton; illustrated by Charles H. Cattell; Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press 1986, biblio graphy: p. [125]-126. ISBN: 0-85030-470-9 (pbk). 2nd enlarged edition of: Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks No. 17. With many errors from the first edition corrected but still inaccurate as far as the original spelling, punctuation, word order, and use of capitalization is concerned.

1-4. Turner, Robert, Elizabethan magic: the art and the magus, foreword by Colin Wilson; with contributory material by Patricia Shore Turner and Robin E. Cousins; illustrated by Charles H. Cattell and Jane O'Reilly; translations from the Latin by Christopher Upton, Shaftesbury: Element, 1989, xvii, 190 p., ill., maps, bibliography: p. 181-185. Contains a transcription of three of the four books of angelic magic, Sloane MS 3191 (without 'De heptarchia mystica') with some errors, alterations and omissions. In "Claves Angelicae' #5 and #10 some Enochian words are added and the order of others rearranged. Accent marks used in Enochian words are not included.

V. Miscellanea

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 174, arts. 74, 77. A table of longitude; 'De temporibus opportunis ad magicas artes operandas'. [is it Enochian?]

Oxford, Bodleian: Ashmole MS. 487-8. Two volumes in quarto, containing the Ephemerides of Stadius for 1554-1600 (Cologne, 1570), and of Maginus for 1581-1620 (Venice, 1582); on the margins of these, respectively, are written short memoranda, or The Private Diary of Dee from January 1577 to December 1600, and from September 1586 to April 1601.

Editions:

[I believe these were published as:]

Diary for the years 1595-1601, ed. John E. Bailey. Privately printed, 1880.

The Private Diary, ed. James O. Halliwell. Camden Society Publications, Vol. XIX. London, 1842.

Reprinted: New York: AMS Press [1968], viii, 102, 35.

[Bill Sherman, who has just released a book on Dee entitled John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the Renaissance is actually planning to do a definitive edition of the Dee diaries, the Camden ones...written in the margins of almanac s.]

[maybe also:]

The Predicted Plague...Queen Elizabeth in Richmond. Her Majesty's Book of Astrology and the Diary of her astrologer Dr John Dee...By Hippocrates Junior, London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., 1899).

VI. Compilations from various MSS

James, Geoffrey: The Enochian evocation of Dr. John Dee, Gillette, N.J.: Heptangle Books 1984, xxvii, 204, bibliography: p. 198-204. ISBN: 0-935214-06-2. An Heptarchic/Enochian grimoire, with bad Latin but excellent Enochian grammar. Probably t he best Keys available.

Reprinted: St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications 1994, as The Enochian magick of Dr John Dee: the most powerful system of magick in its original, unexpurgated form. ISBN: 1-56718-367-0

Suster, Gerald: John Dee: essential readings, [Wellingborough, U.K.:] Crucible, 1986, 157 p., bibliography: p. [155]-157. ISBN: 0-85030-417-2 (pbk)

VII. Non-Enochian magical works by Dee

A magical work of Dee which is not strictly Enochian in nature is the Tuba Veneris. The Warburg Institute in London has a copy of it at FBH 510. The work is an invocation to Venus. An edition in german has been prepared by a Dr Joerg M.Meier. There ar e two entries in the German books in print:

Dee, John, Das Buchlein der der Venus (Libellus Veneris Nigro Sacer). Eine magische Handschrift des 16 Jahrhunderts. Hrsg. Komment Uubers v. Meier, Jorg, 1990. ISBN 3-926216-84-0

Dee, John, Das Venus buchlein zur Beschworung boser Geister auf eine gottseliget weise. Bearb. u. krbec Horst, Ubers v. Leopold. F. 1991 160p. 12 Abb 30x21cm ISBN 3-929312-11-5