Schultheisz Emil: Traditio Renovata. Tanulmányok a középkor és a reneszánsz orvostudományáról / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 21. (Budapest, 1997)

20. The contacts of the two Dees and Sir Philip Sidney with Hungarian physicians

Z^oo¡ the King asked him for the formula of the philosophers stone he, of course, was unable to produce it to him and was put into prison. According to certain Hungarian sources he tried to escape but the rope did not hold; Kelley suffered serious injuries and died within a few days. According to others he got mixed up in a duel and was mortally wounded. The truth is that he returned to England and continued his adventurous life there.

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2 A Hungarian alchemist, Ferenc Lukasovszky

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3 saved for posterity the recipe what Kelley had used. The recipe—as claimed by Kelley—was found in the tomb of bishop St. Dunstan and came into the hands of an innkeeper by theft. It was there that Kelley caught a glance of the text which was written in Welsh, and acquired it for an insignificant sou. According to Lukasovszky the bishop's writing was forwarded to King Rudolf by Kelley and it was copied in the court at Prague by transcriber on 17 July 1604.

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4 John Dee's fate was different. After he had left Prague for the court of the Polish king István Báthory and performed there experiments of transmutation successfully,

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5 the fame of his activity spread all over Eastern Europe and he was invited in 1586 by Tsar Fiodor lvanovitsh, that is by Boris Godunov who ruled instead of him, to carry on his experiments in Russia

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6 for the huge annual salary of 2000 pounds, since alchemy had been unknown in Russia up to that time. However, Dee, after his six-year stay abroad, mainly in Hungary, returned to England in 1589.

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7 By that time his son Arthur Dee was 10 years old. As Figurovski writes relying on British sources, Arthur, though still a child, got an inside view of the world of experiments.

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8 As is to be read in the work of Wilhelm D. Richter,

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9 Dee the elder provided excellent opportunities for his son to study. He had been a student at Westminster school as early as in 1592; later he continued his studies at the medical schools of Oxford and Cambridge. He is supposed to have earned his medical diploma in Manchester; at any rate he is mentioned on a certificate of merit of the university of Basle as doctor medicinae.

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0 He started his medical practice in London and continued there until 1621. Though his father John Dee had brought upon himself the grudge of King James I. which disfavour accompanied him until the last days of his life, his son enjoyed the full confidence of the same king, so much so that he rose among the ranks of the courtphysicians. In 1621 two envoys of Tsar Mihail Fiodorovitsh, Yurij Rodionov and Andreÿ Kerkerĥn, appeared at the English court and asked the king to send along an experienced and excellent 1

2 The Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, vol. X., pp. 1230—1232. 1

3 Cfr. Ms. Quart. Germ. 239 Budapest, Széchényi National Library; furthermore Szinnyei J.: Magyar írók élete és munkái (Life and Work of Hungarian Writers). Vol. 8. Budapest, 1902. Column 128. 1

4 Sza márÿ L. op. cit. 205—212. 1

5 Hubicki, W.

: Chemie und Alchemie des 16. Jahrhunderts in Polen. Annales Universitatis Mariae CurieSklodowska. Vol. X. 7, Lublin, 1955, 66-67. 1

6 Figurovski, N. A.: The Alchemist and Physician Arthur Dee. Ambix, Vol. XIII., 1965, No. 1, February, 40—41. 1

7 In the above mentioned work of his, R. Deacon points out that John Dee used to send cryptogram reports on these journeys to Queen Elisabeth. He liked to interfere in the machinations of diplomacy which is also proved by his strictly confidential letter to Don Guillén San Clemente, ambassador of Philip II and afterwards Philip III Spanish kings in Prague, written in Prague on 28. September 1584. Correspondencia inédita de Don Guillén de San Clemente. Zaragoza, 1892, 215—218. 1

8 Figurovski, N. A. op. cit. 42. 1

9 Istorya meditsiny v Rossii. Vol. II. Moscow, 1820, 24—34. 2

0 For the biography of Arthur Dee see the Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, Vol. V., pp. 719—720. and Figurovski, N. A. op. cit. 42.