John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature

by Deborah E. Harkness

• ISBN13: 9780521622288
• ISBN10: 052162228X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

John Dee’s angel conversations have been an enigmatic facet of Elizabethan England’s most famous natural philosopher’s life and work. Professor Harkness contextualizes Dee’s angel conversations within the natural philosophical, religious and social contexts of his time. She argues that they represent a continuing development of John Dee’s earlier concerns and interests. These conversations include discussions of the natural world, the practice of natural philosophy, and the apocalypse.

Author Biography

Deborah E. Harkness is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Davis. She is the recipient of the Renaissance Society of America's Nelson Prize and the History of Science Society's Derek Price Award. Professor Harkness has also received fellowships from Fulbright, the National Science Foundation, ACLS, and the Huntington Library/NEH. Her articles have been published in journals such as Renaissance Quarterly and Isis.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	viii
Acknowledgments	ix
List of Abbreviations and Conventions	xii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part I Genesis
The Colloquium of Angels: Prague, 1586	9	(51)
Building Jacob's Ladder: The Genesis of the Angel Conversations	60	(38)
Climbing Jacob's Ladder: Angelology as Natural Philosophy	98	(35)
Part II Revelations
``Then Commeth the Ende'': Apocalypse, Natural Philosophy, and the Angel Conversations	133	(24)
``The True Cabala'': Reading the Book of Nature	157	(38)
Adam's Alchemy: The Medicine of God and the Restitution of Nature	195	(20)
Epilogue	215	(12)
Select Bibliography	227	(20)
Index	247