Microforms: Major Sets by Subject: European

Microfilm. Series 1: The books and manuscripts of John Dee, 1527-1608

Part 1: Based on the holdings of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and offers 63 manuscripts once in Dee's Library. These include 13 manuscripts of the works of Roger Bacon; Dee's diary, 1586-1601; a copy of Thomas Norton's Ordinall of Alchemy bound in purple velvet and earlier texts of writers such as Alkyndi and Albumazar; works of Terence and Alexander; 3 texts of Euclid's Elements; sanit's lives; and other works by Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, Bede, Boethius, Hermes Trismegistus, Ptolemy, Ramon Lull, Lydgate, George Ripley, and other writers.

Part 2: Based on the holdings of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and offers a further 71 manuscripts from Dee's Library. These include medical texts, works on the spheres and on spirits, romances, saint's lives, commentaries, grammars, alchemical receipts, and texts on astronomy, geometry, music theory, numerology and rhetoric. There is also an almanac by Dee, one of his commonplace books and, 3 letters from Walsingham to Dee. There are works by authors as diverse as Aegidus, Albumazar, Bernard of Clairvaulx, and Albert of Saxony. We also include a printed miscellany owned by Dee that is now held at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Part 3: Based on the holdings of Cambridge University Library and offers 40 printed volumes and one manuscript text. Most of the printed volumes were produced in Basle, Koln, Paris and Venice. None are in EEBO. Authors include Averroes, Georgius Benignus, Diogenes Laertius, Dionysius Areopagita, Hermes, Henricus Herpf, Pomponius Gauricus, Rasis, Johannes Tritheimius, and John of Vienna. Neoplatonism is well represented, and there are three Hebrew texts.

Part 4-6: Parts 4-6 of this project focus on the European printed books which were once part of John Dee’s Library. They are full of interesting annotations and marginalia. The annotations reveal much about Dee's interests, his reading habits and sometimes they even give details of particular events in Dee's life, nativities and other occurrences. They also inform our understanding of general reading practices and the management of knowledge in the Renaissance period. Places of publication include Antwerp, Basel, Brescia, Frankfurt, Ingolstadt, Lyon, Paris, Rome and Venice.

Subjects covered range across many disciplines:

Alchemy
Philosophy and Theology
History of Rome
History of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Africa, and the Holy Roman Empire
The Turks and the Ottoman Empire
Geography and Exploration
Women
Latin and Greek Language, Classical Culture and Literature