How I dislike that title. It relegates the principal author of the spirit actions – I mean of course Edward Kelly – to the role of a ventriloquist’s dummy.
I am in the middle of one of my periodic reviews of Dee and Kelly. I do this every decade or so. The two principal subjects (plus the revolving cast of spirits) become more and more interesting with the passage of time … as I bring a wizened experience, failing memory, and robust common sense to bear on the raw matter. Expect more posts.
The raw matter is spread across various manuscripts in the Sloane Collection of the British Library, and the Cotton manuscripts in the British Museum. It is tempting to seek access the originals, but Dee’s handwriting was famously crabbed, and they have been exhaustively studied by people like Christopher Whitby, Meric Causabon, Donald Tyson, Joseph Peterson, Deborah Harkness, Aaron Leitch, and a host of others who will probably not forgive me for not including them in this list. There is an abundance of quality secondary material to work with.
There are two principal sources. The largest was compiled by Meric Casaubon and published in 1659 as A True and Faithful Relation … I am fortunate to own a facsimile copy. It is available online in several forms, but I would recommend the original at archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/truefaithfulrela00deej/mode/2up
The second portion was relatively unknown for many centuries. This was the portion rescued and copied by Elias Ashmole after adventures involving a secret compartment and pies – proper Enid Blyton stuff. There are two important transcriptions by Christopher Whitby and Joseph Peterson. I was curious to know about the differences and asked Gemini:
Yes, the transcription of Dr. John Dee’s angelic diaries edited by Joseph Peterson (published as Mysteriorum Libri Quinque / John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery) heavily overlaps with the transcription published by Christopher Whitby in his work John Dee’s Actions with Spirits: 22 December 1581 to 23 May 1583.
Source Material Overlap
- The Same Manuscript: Both Peterson and Whitby based their transcriptions directly on the same primary source document: British Library, MS Sloane 3188, which contains Dee’s original handwritten records of his spiritual conferences and angelic scrying sessions with Edward Kelley and Barnabas Saul.
- Chronological Scope: Both works cover the crucial early period of Dee’s angelic workings from December 22, 1581, to May 23, 1583, capturing the foundational material for what is modernly known as Enochian magic.
Differences in Presentation and Focus
Joseph Peterson’s Edition: First published in 2003 (and expanded later), Peterson’s edition aims to make the material accessible as a practical and historical sourcebook, building upon earlier independent transcriptions (such as Adam McLean’s 1985 formatting of Peterson’s work) while incorporating fresh translations of Latin passages, footnotes, and annotations.
Christopher Whitby’s Edition: Originally a 1981 PhD thesis and published in two volumes in 1988, Whitby’s work provides a comprehensive, literal academic transcription of the entire Sloane MS 3188 manuscript alongside extensive historical and textual commentary.
A copy of Whitby’s original thesis can be found online. Peterson’s Misteriorum Liber Quinque is currently available on archive.org.
