Mathematical Worthies

Extract

John Dee, commonly though improperly called Dr. Dee, whose life extended over more than eighty years (1527-1608), was a mathematician and astronomer for more than fifty years, and a magician and raiser of spirits in his old age. It is by these latter practices that he is generally best known, and full accounts of them are given in the Dictionary of National Biography and in the life of Sir Edward Kelley in the recently published book, Twelve Bad Men, edited by Mr. Seccombe.