“LIGHT AGREETH NOT WITH DARKNESSE, NOR VERTUE WITH VICE”: FIRST EDITION OF CASAUBON’S TRUE AND FAITHFUL RELATION OF JOHN DEE, 1659

CASAUBON, Meric. A True and Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James and their Regnes) and Some Spirits… London: T. Garthwait, 1659. Folio (9 by 13-1/2 inches), contemporary full dark brown calf rebacked in period-style, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, renewed endpapers. $18,500.

First edition of this notorious record of mathematician—and tutor and astronomer to Elizabeth I—John Dee’s conversations with angels, complete with engraved frontispiece portraits, three engraved plates (one folding) and in-text woodcut diagrams.

A 1545 graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, Dee studied on the continent with some of the best scientists of his day, including Gemma Frisius and Gerhardus Mercator. He edited the first edition in English of Euclid (1570), providing most of the annotations and footnotes, additionally, "for more than 25 years Dee acted as adviser to various English voyages of discovery. His treatises on navigation and navigational instruments were deliberately kept in manuscript; most have not survived" (DSB). What Dee is most remembered for today, however, are his occult interests, which, combined with his undoubted scientific ability, gave him access to the highest levels of European royalty. Elizabeth I consulted him; much of his time in Europe was spent in consultation with kings and emperors, and he declined numerous lucrative appointments. Conjurer Edward Kelley would act as a "scryer" with Dee's crystal balls, communicating messages from angelic beings to Dee; to this day, it is unclear to what extent either of them were consciously deceptive, although it now seems evident that the pious Dee was, if anything, being duped by Kelley. (Kelley would end his days as a prisoner of Emperor Rudolf II, infuriated at Kelley's refusal to turn base metals into gold as he had promised.) The source for the material in A True and Faithful Relation comes from manuscripts unearthed from the ground around Dee's house by antiquarian Robert Cotton that purport to give transcriptions of Dee and Kelley's angelic communications. Cotton gave the manuscripts to historian Meric Casaubon; 50 years after Dee's death, Casaubon's 1659 publication of True and Faithful Relation proved surprisingly popular: Lowndes notes that "this work made a great noise on its publication." Leaves [cc]1-[cc]4 bound out of order; text complete. Wing D811. Lowndes, 611. A few minor marginal penciled markings and annotations.

Paper repair to lower margin of frontispiece, just touching border only; occasional light foxing and soiling to text. Expert restoration to corners and edges of contemporary calf covers. An extremely good copy in contemporary calf covers, handsomely and expertly restored and rebacked.