John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance

by William H. Sherman

This book challenges the conventional image of John Dee (1527–1609) as an isolated, eccentric philosopher. Instead, William H. Sherman presents Dee in a fresh context, revealing that he was a well-connected adviser to the academic, courtly, and commercial circles of his day.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Elizabethan Period

291 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

William H. Sherman is Professor of Early Modern Studies in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. He is the author of John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance and of many articles on Renaissance literature, travel writing, and the history of the book. He has also edited The Tempest and Its Travels with Peter Hulme, and the new Cambridge edition of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist with Peter Holland.

Reviews

[Trista · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to get a decent picture of who/what Dr. John Dee was outside of his occultic activity/contributions, this is a place to start. I'm not sure it's the best place however. Peter French's biography is looked down on in this one, primarily for focusing on the occult more than anything else. I read most of that one and loved it. It was a much more interesting read than this one, but then again, besides the subject of John Dee, it's a different read entirely.

As well as breaking down who and what the reader and reading was during the English Renaissance, Sherman's book also seeks to reveal the evidence of Dee's but few significant suggestions and contributions for the development and expansion of the British Empire (a term Dee is credited with having coined) while lightly touching upon his ties and influence on royal personages.

Dee's occult works are not considered whatsoever but the description of his house and library was magic in itself. His house served as his library and it is noted that a daughter of so and so said he had 5 rooms filled with books. They were stored the most economically friendly way- by size and because of this it is said that his books that had bindings showed little wear. Dee was also essential to his library because of the way he stored the books it meant that only he would know how to find what anyone required. Though Dee may not have had the greatest influence with his own writings, the notes he made in the margins are of significance (I was fortunate enough to see some in London at the Royal College of Physicians in 2016). It turns out that much of what was written then and many works before and after were not as important as the notes that were made in the margins over the decades/centuries.

This book has an excellent bibliography, as it should, and if you're doing research on reading in the Renaissance, it should probably be consulted. But for me it felt like reading a scholar who is for one reason or another bent out of shape by the occult perhaps especially as it pertains to Dee, so he set out to write the most boring work on Dee that he could conjure. If this was the goal, well done, Sherman! Any poor soul who picks up this book as the first one on Dee will most likely not look any further into him.

[Owen Thaxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the complexity of deep reading. This is a very interesting primer for understanding the Renaissance. It paints a very thorough picture of what it means to read Renaissance literature in terms of the reading practices, how readers in the middle ages were often dictated entire books during a university course, the intended audience of their works, and the politics of the times. It's also a really interesting look at the purely academic life of John Dee and it gives a level of reality to why and how he was able to do such incredible things.

[Brad Needham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sherman accomplishes two things in this book: 1) he successfully presents Dee as a scholar and civil servant rather than a magician, and 2) he describes in detail what the work of a renaissance scholar involved.
I found the book a bit slow going, but thorough, so I can hardly complain. I enjoyed learning about this side of Dee and about the acts of compilation and commentary that a renaissance scholar was expected to perform. It gave me a clearer picture both of Dee and of the renaissance.

(update) Now that it's been a few weeks since I read the book, I've been surprised several times how relevant it is today: That style of digesting a book into useful pieces - the commonplace book - is becoming popular again, and pops up in so many contexts.