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ARCHIVE READING ROOM · 1581–1659

John Dee and Edward Kelley: A Dated Reading Room

Diaries and letters track Mortlake, Kraków, and Bohemia before the later 1659 edition reframed the journey.

STAR & SIGIL

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The surviving record is a sequence of books and correspondence made at different times. This timeline puts dated evidence ahead of a single, undifferentiated story about “Enochian magic.”

Chronology and evidence

  1. 1581–83
    First recorded conferences

    The five early books now in Sloane MS 3188 span 22 December 1581 to 30 May 1583.

  2. Sep 1583
    A household leaves Mortlake

    Dee, Kelley, Jane Dee, the children, and Albert Łaski travel toward the continent.

  3. 1584–85
    Kraków entries

    Sloane MS 3191 dates the forty-eight Keys and the Book of Earthly Knowledge.

  4. 1583–87
    The later conference books

    Cotton MS Appendix XLVI preserves a separate, layered manuscript witness.

  5. 1588–89
    Bohemia and the return

    Two Harley records and a court chronology locate the late journey and Dee’s return.

  6. 1659
    The printed Relation

    Casaubon publishes an edition with its own preface, title, plates, and page order.

Read the documents in context

1583–1585 · Folger court calendar · Sloane MS 3191From Mortlake to Kraków: Dee and Kelley’s 1583–85 JourneyHow questions, reported visions, tables, and fair-copy books changed as Dee and Kelley carried their work from Mortlake to Kraków.Read article →1583–1659 transmission · British Library · Cotton MS Appendix XLVICotton MS Appendix XLVI: The Later Angelic DiariesThe 1583–87 conference witness, its later additions, and its relationship to Casaubon’s 1659 printing.Read article →1588–1589 · British Library · Harley MSS 6986 and 6994Dee and Kelley in Bohemia: The 1588–89 LettersA close comparison of Dee’s royal petition and Kelley’s political report shows a joint household becoming two separate bids for credit.Read article →
About the evidence

Dates of reports, dates of writing, and dates of publication are separate. The pages cite catalogued shelfmarks and folios where possible. Descriptions of spirits are attributed to the historical participants.