Dee has been the subject of greatly increased scholarly attention during the last half century. Many view him as an Elizabethan "magus," a philosopher-magician who embraced within himself the realms of natural and supernatural studies; others see him foremost as a scientist who collaborated with the leading minds of his time in a variety of fields to accomplish significant scientific, cultural, and even political ends.
While the estimate of Dee's real accomplishments is still evolving, there is general agreement that Dee formed the largest and most significant private library in Renaissance England. He ranks as one of the great book collectors in bibliophilic history, and he pursued his collecting in a time when the collection and maintenance of books and manuscripts attracted relatively little interest or concern. Dee's library provided not only a repository for many books and manuscripts that might otherwise have been lost but also a valuable intellectual resource for fellow scholars in their researches.
By his own account, John Dee was born in London on 13 July 1527 (although others have placed his birth in Radnoshire). He was the son of Johanna Wild and Rowland Dee, a gentleman server to Henry VIII.
