Books like John Dee's conversations with angels by Deborah Harkness

John Dee (1527‑1608/9) was a Cambridge‑educated natural philosopher who served Queen Elizabeth I as court astrologer and authored treatises on mathematics, alchemy, and astronomy. His most remarkable intellectual undertaking was the series of angelic conversations recorded in his marginal notes and manuscript diaries, conducted with a crystal ball and assistants possessing visionary abilities. Harkness explores these conversations through Dee’s notes, the angelic discourse he conveyed to audiences from London to Prague, and medieval and early‑modern treatises on nature and the apocalypse. She argues that the dialogues represent a continuation of Dee’s natural philosophy and illuminate how early modern scholars integrated religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas in a period when many believed the natural world was nearing its end.

First publish date: 1999