Theatre of the World

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The central theme of t presentation of John C Fludd as representativt thought in England. T� reference to the evide of the Renaissance rev classical writer on ard Preface to Euclid, in w c quotations from Vitru connects with the pop ment in late Tudor Lo shown to owe someth g to Vitruvius Dr Yates demonstrates tr... obert Fludd s Utriusque Cos mi Histor, continues the themes of Dee's Preface The El"zabethan Vitruvian movement carrie on to Inigo Jones who, it is here suggested, would have been influenced by the Dee-Fludd tradition. The English public theatre is here studied as an adaptation of the Vitruvian ancient theatre with its cosmological proportions, and as one of the products of the Euclidian and Vitruvian movement amongst the artisan classes, to whom Dee addressed him­ self. Through this entirely new approach it is possible to situate Shakespeare's Globe Theatre within the context of great European movements. Dr Yates shows that it is from within a Renaissance world of thought that the English public theatres made their appearance, as Renaissance phenomena adapted to the English situation, and expressive of a Renaissance, rather than a medieval, outlook on man and the universe. She suggests new approaches to the problems of the ground plan of the Globe Theatre and outlines its stage. Above all, it is the 'Idea of the Globe', the meaning of the theatre, which Dr Yates seeks to interpret through placing it in new contexts.

£2 2s net [£2.1 O]

Theatre of the World

John Dee, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

FRANCES A. YATES

Theatre of the World

ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL LTD

First published in 1969 by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane London, E. C.4 Printed in Great Britain by Westeri1 Printing Services Ltd, Bristol © F. A. Yates 1969 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism SBN 7100 6370 9

Contents Preface I John Dee and the Elizabethan Age II John Dee and Vitruvius Robert Fludd and Vitruvius III Robert Fludd and the Jacobean Age IV v Inigo Jones in a New Perspective VI The London Theatres VII The English Public Theatre as an Adaptation of the Ancient Theatre VIII The Stage of the English Public Theatre: The Stage in Robert Fludd's Memory System IX The Theatre as Moral Emblem x Public Theatre and Masque: Inigo Jones on the Theatre as a Temple Conclusion Appendices : A John Dee on Architecture in his Mathematical Preface to the English Euclid B The Contract for the Building of the Fortune Theatre

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1 20 42 60 80 92 112

136 162 169 186 190

198

C Extracts from L. B. Alberti on the Ancient 201 Theatre, Amphitheatre, and Circus

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CONTENTS

D Robert Fludd against the Use of Fictitious Places in the Art of Memory 207 E Inigo Jones (John Webb) on Stonehenge as a Roman Antiquity 210

Index

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213

Illustrations Frontispiece Portrait of John Dee, by courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford between pages 18-19 1 Page from the Catalogue of John Dee's Library,

British Museum, MS. Harley 1879 2 (a) Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Figure, Drawing, Accademia, Venice (c) (d) Vitruvian Figures in a Cosmic Setting. From H. C. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, ed. of Cologne, 1533, II, xxvii (b) Vitruvian Figure in a Cosmic Setting. From Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619), p. 112 between pages 34-35

3 Robert Fludd, Engraving signed 'Matthieu Merian Basiliensis' (Matthieu Merian of Bale). From Robert Fludd, Philosophia sacra, Frankfort, 1626, by courtesy of the Trustees of the Wellcome Museum 4 Title-page of Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618) 5 (a) (c) Surveying. From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), pp. 261, 281 (b) Surveying. From Leonard and Thomas Digges, Pantometria, 1571, sig. d ii, recto

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ILLUSTRATIONS

6 Optics. From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), p. 293

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8

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between pages 50-51 Optics and Pictorial Art. From Ro_bert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), pp. 308, 331, 336 (a) The use of the Squared Grid for Perspective Drawing (b) Eyes, after Odoardo Fialetti (c) Foot, after Albrecht Diirer Fortification and Military Art. From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), p. 343 (a) Builder's Machine (b) Mechanical Singing Bird (c) Thunder-making Device. From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), pp. 448, 478, 491 (d) Builder's Machine. From Vitruvius, Architectura cum commentariis Danielis Barbari, ed. of Venice, 1567 (a) Pulley (b) Musical Machine From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), pp. 438, 253

between pages 66-67 11 The Temple of Music. From Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, I, II (1618), p. 161 between pages 98-99 12 Sketch of the Swan Theatre, Copy by Arend Van Buchell after Johannes de Witt Vlll

ILLUSTRATIONS

13 'The Bear Garden' (38) and 'The Globe' (37). Detail from the Map of London in J. L. Gottfried, Neuwe Archontologia Cosmica, Frankfort, 1638, engravings by Matthieu Merian between pages 114-115

14 (a) Auditorium of the Roman Theatre (b) Roman Circus From the French translation (1553) by Jean Martin of L. B. Alberti's De re aedificatoria 15 (a) Palladio's Reconstruction of the Roman Theatre. From Vitruvius, De architectura cum commentariis Danielis Barbari, ed. of Venice, 1567 (b) Diagram illustrating the plan of the Roman Theatre. From Vitruvius, Architecture ou Art de bien bastir, French translation by Jean Martin, 1547, 1572 between pages 130-131

16 The Stage in Robert Fludd'.s Ars memoriae. From the Technical History of the Microcosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619), p. 55 17 The Title-page of Robert Fludd's Technical History of the Microcosm, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619) 18 The Title-page of Robert Fludd's Ars memoriae, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619), p. 47 between pages 146-147

19 The Heavens Diagram. From Robert Fludd's Ars memoriae, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619), p. 54 20 The Stage in Robert Fludd's Ars memoriae, whole page showing text, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II (1619), p. 55 lX

ILLUSTRATIONS

21 Suggested Sketch of the Stage of the Globe Theatre, based on Fludd (drawn by R. W. Yates) 22 The Secondary Stages in Robert Fludd's Ars memoriae, Utriusque Cosmi Historia, II, II, (1619), pp. 58, 64 between pages 162-163

23 The Theatre of Human Life. Emblem from J. J. Boissard, Theatrum vitae humanae, engravings by Theodore De Bry, Metz, 1596(?) 24 Inigo Jones. Drawing by Van Dyck, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement between pages 178-179

25 Oberon's Palace. Scene for a Masque designed by Inigo Jones, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement Figures Suggested ground plan of the Globe Theatre Diagram showing arrangement of memory places m Robert Fludd's 'Ars memoriae' Ground plan of Stonehenge according to Inigo Jones

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132 146 179

Preface

I

N my book, The Art of Memory, I devoted one chapter to arguing that the stage illustration in Robert Fludd's art of memory can throw light on Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. That book as a whole was concerned purely with the history of the art of memory. The chapter on Fludd and the Globe had to be included in it because it was only through the history of the art of memory that the evidence in Fludd's memory system about a real 'public theatre' could be understood and interpreted. Much more work needed to be done, and other approaches made to this exciting subject in order to supple .. ment and substantiate the approach through the art of memory. As I there said, 'There is much more actual research to be done, particularly on the German end of the publication of Fludd's work ... and on Vitruvian influences in both Dee and Fludd'. In this book I carry on further research along these lines. The book is primarily centred on John Dee and Robert Fludd as representatives of Renaissance philosophy in England, with particular reference to the evidence in their works of the influence of the Renaissance revival of Vitruvius. It is not generally known that there was a strong influence of the Renaissance Vitruvius in England before Inigo Jones. In this book I put forward a claim for John Dee, magus and mathematician, as a propagator of Vitruvian influences in Tudor England. John Dee's Preface to the English translation of Euclid, published in 1570, contains long quotations from Vitruvius and Alberti in praise of the supremacy of architecture among the mathematical sciences. Dee's Preface connects.with the scientific movement of_late T_ud9r_England-whlch is thus shown to owe ' ----· xi

PREFACE

something to the stimulus of the Renaissance of Vitruvius. Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia, published in Germany in 1617-19, is found to continue the themes of Dee's Preface and to treat of the 'Vitruvian subjects' which Dee had so enthusiastically recommended. And through Fludd, the Elizabethan Vitruvian movement carries on to Inigo Jones, who, it is now suggested, could have derived some ·of his leading ideas from the Dee-Fludd tradition. It is as one of the products of the Vitruvian influences stemming from Dee that I study the English public theatre movement in this book. Through this new approach one is enabled to take a new way through the vexed questions of English theatre history. It is suggested that the London public theatres, including the Globe, were an adaptation of the ancient theatre as described by Vitruvius, made within John Dee's sphere of influence, with its particular appeal to the middle and artisan classes. And since Fludd's interests are in continuity with those of Dee, it is shown that Fludd's works are a likely and natural source of information about the theatre. The engraving I of the stage of a public theatre in Fludd's 'Ars memoriae' thus has a strong validity as deriving from a man who was inside the English theatre movement. Its publication in Germany is also significant when the circumstances of the publication of Fludd's books by the De Bry firm are examined. I would again emphasize, as I did before, that more work and research still needs to be done along the new lines opened up. And I must state clearly that this book makes no attempt at a full reconstruction of the Globe Theatre. It suggests a new approach to the ground plan of the theatre through the history of Vitruvianism in England, and endeavours to use the Fludd engraving to throw light on the stage of the theatre. Both these points were made in The Art of Memory. The present book confirms and expands them. The centre or core of the book is, however, not in theatre history as such but in the history of thought, or more particularly in the Vitruvian influences in Tudor and Jaco bean England in their relation to Renaissance philosophy and the Renaissance outlook. It is from within this world of thought, so it is suggested, that the English public theatres made their appearance, a~. Renaissance phenomena adapted to the English situation, Xll

PREFACE

and expressive of a Renaissance, rather than a medieval, outlook on man and the world. It is the 'Idea of the Globe', the meaning of the theatre, which I have tried above all to interpret through placing it in new contexts. · This book is the third of a series. In Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition I attempted to study the Hermetic influences in Renaissance Neoplatonism; John Dee and Robert Fludd made their appearance there as representatives of the tradition in Tudor and Stuart England. In The Art of Memory, Robert Fludd's theatre memory system took its place as a Renaissance manifestation. Theatre of the World comes out of both the preceding books; it differs from them in being confined to a restricted historical period; and it carries the themes of my Renaissance studies in the direction of the English theatre, and another step towards Shakespeare. On the side of the history of architecture, I am very greatly indebted, as will be evident, to the work of Rudolf Wittkower. It is my hope that, though 'the great Globe itself' vanished so long ago, the 'Idea of the Globe', as I have tried to formulate it, may take its place as belonging into the European tradition, and the study of the Shakespearean theatre may be invigor- ( ated through attracting the interest of historians of archi~_cture. On the side of the history of science, I have been stimulated by the interest in Dee and Fludd shown by the rising schools of young workers in these neglected fields. To them I would suggest that the Vitruvian influences, and the development of theatrical machinery, are subjects very much within their spheres of interest. Bere too: we may expect the history of the Renaissance theatre to be enriched through contact with the history of Renaissance scientific and magical thought. Some of the material in the first five chapters ofthebookhas been included in lectures given at St. Peter's College, Oxford, at the Warburg Institute, at Columbia University under the auspices of the Graduate Art History Association. The influence of Vitruvius on Dee and Fludd was the basis of a lecture on 'Science and the Arts in Renaissance England' which I gave as Senior Fellow for the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University in October 1968. My chief debt to a person is to my sister R. W. Yates, who is herself deeply interested in the subject and with whom every Xll1

PREFACE

point has been discussed. Without the constant stimulus afforded by her help and encouragement the writing of this book would have been impossible. To the Warburg Institute, as of old, my debt is incalculable. I have constantly used its library and photographic collection, and I am particularly grateful to the staff of the photographic collection for advice and help about the illqstrations. I am also indebted for help in this respect to the staff of the Wellcome Museum; and to the Trustees of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and of the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, for permission to reproduce works of art in their collections. I thank the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to photograph and reproduce illustrations in books in the library. I wish especially to thank the staff of the London Library· for their unfailing help and courtesy. This book may arouse some controversy through its unconventional approach to theatre history. It is not the work of a group but of an individual pursuing in isolation certain arguments which run somewhat contrary to the accepted views. The responsibility for it therefore rests upon myself alone. Warburg Institute, University of London

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FRANCES A. YATES

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

necessity be hasty and superficial, to give some impression of Dee's life and work as a whole before coming, in the second chapter, to the particular aspects of it which are vital for this book. I propose to make Dee's library a central theme in the following effort to set this extraordinary man before the reader, and to show him in the light in which I believe that he should be seen, namely as a universal man of the Ren3:issance. John Dee was born in 1527. 4 His father Roland Dee had a minor position at the court of Henry VIII, but had little wealth to leave to his family. The house at Mortlake which played such a large part in· Dee's life, and in which his library was housed, was, however, a family inheritance. Though poor, Dee believed himself to be descended from the ancient British kings and claimed a distant relationship with Queen Elizabeth. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1542, where he passionately acquired all the knowledge there available. Describing his years at college, he says: I was so vehemently bent to studie, that for those yeares I did inviolably keepe this order; only to sleepe four houres every night; to allow to meate and drink (and some refreshing after) two houres every day; and of the other eighteen houres all (except the tyme of going to and being at divine service) was spent in my studies and learning. 5

Dee's bent was towards the mathematical sciences, and though Cambridge did not neglect these the temper of Tudor England as a whole was against them. This was due partly to prejudice against those sciences, which were thought of in some quarters as Popish, and partly to the suspicion of magic attaching to them, a suspicion which Dee's career did not help to dispel. The type of learning which procured advancement and lucrative careers in Elizabethan England was the humanistic type, based 4 For the outlines of Dee's life, see the article in the Dictionary of National Biography; Charlotte Fell Smith, John Dee, London, 1909; G. M. Horst, Dr. John Dee, London, 1922. There is much material in I. R. F. Calder, John Dee Studied as an English Neoplatonist, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1952. No adequate biography

of Dee has as yet been published, still less an adequate study of his work. 11 John Dee, Compendious Rehearsal/, 1592, in Autobiographical Tracts of Dr. John Dee, ed. J. Crossley, Chetham Society, 1851, p. 5.

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JOHN DEE AND. THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

on proficiency in the ancient languages and rhetorical skill. It is well to remind ourselves of the split between science and grammar school and university education in Elizabethan England, and that the way to get on and to make money in those days was not by displaying uncalled for interest in mathematics, mechanics, and magic. Ascham solemnly warned Robert, Earl of Leicester, against indulging his scientific interests in these words: 'I think you did yourself injury in changing Tully's wisdom with Euclid's pricks and lines. ' 6 Dee did himself injury in a worldly sense by his devotion to Euclid's pricks and lines, and though he was a pure mathematician and less interested in the practical application of mathematical magic as mechanics, his technical achievements were also not always to his advantage. The theatrical machine which he made for a performance of a comedy by Aristophanes caused consternation when it flew~ the roof of the hall of Trinity College, Cambridge, carryin~+~ man with a basket of victuals; 7 and it was in connection~ w"t this terrifying manifestation that the dire word 'conjuror' was first attached to the name of John Dee. Dee went abroad to indulge his taste for forbidden knowledge, visiting the Low Countries, France, Italy, his object on these trips being 'to speak and confer with learned men' and to collect books. In the course of these trayels he came to know the leading mathematicians of Europe, and his lectures on Euclid at Paris in 1550 drew crowds. With the accession of Elizabeth,;] De entered upon the most important and influential period of his life, years of a great Renaissance in the mathematical sciences in England fostered by his enthusiasm. According to Dee's own account, it was Robert, Earl of Leicester, who introduced him to Queen Elizabeth, 8 and from the time of the Queen's accession until his departure for the continent in 1583, in the dubious company of Edward Kelly, he enjoyed a period of protection, though not of open acknowledgement or reward. The favour of the Queen and of Leicester protected him; they used his science, and he was probably subsidized in a quiet way. Where did this poor man obtain the money for his travels and for forming an immense library? 6

7 8

Roger Ascham, Works, ed. Giles, 1864, II, p. 103. Dee, Compendious Rehearsal/, ed. cit., pp. 5-6: see below, pp. 31-2. Compendious Rehearsal/, ed. cit., p. 12.

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JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

The Queen visited Dee at Mortlake on more than one occasion, as did also Leicester and his nephew, Philip Sidney. Sidney's biographer states that he studied under Dee. 9 It would surely be important to know something about the library of the man whom Queen Elizabeth respected, whom Leicester protected, who imparted knowledge to Philip Sidney and his circle, the leaders of the Elizabethan Renaissance. Of Dee and his library, F. R. Johnson wrote in 1937 as follows: During the third quarter of the century, John Dee and his friends and pupils constituted the scientific academy of England. Through Dee's intimate acquaintance and correspondence with all the most eminent scientists of the continent, the English group was kept in touch with all the latest ideas and discoveries originating abroad. Dee's unheeded plea to Queen Mary that the ancient books and manuscripts dispersed with the dispersion of the monasteries be recovered, in order to found therewith a great National Library, is well known. When he perceived that nothing was going to come of this suggestion, he set about forming his own library of scientific books and manuscripts, which, by 1583, had grown to over four thousand volumes. It was undoubtedly the greatest scientific library in England, and probably not surpassed in Europe, for Dee had not only collected a vast store of important medieval manuscripts on science (which he could get the more readily because they were little valued by the plunderers of the monastic houses) but he had also seen to it that all the latest printed works on the mathematical sciences should be found on his shelves .... This great library was always at the disposal of Dee's fellow scientists among his friends and pupils. 10

Here is strong support from an eminent historian of science as to the value and importance of Dee's library. Though published thirty years ago, these words have not yet resulted in an urge to make available in published form the catalogue of that library. Moreover, Johnson's words give the impression that it was solely a mathematical and scientific library, whereas the catalogue reveals that it was the library of a universal man. Tho~a~ Moffet, Nobilis, or A View of the Life and D~atlz of a Sidney, ed .. Virgil B. Heltzel and Hoyt H. Hudson, Huntmgton Library, California, 1940, pp. 13, 75. 1 ° F: R. Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, Baltimore, 1937, p. 138. 9

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JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

Dee wrote much but published little; his writings were circulated in manuscript among his friends and pupils. The two best known of his published works are his Preface to Euclid and his spiritual diaries; these two works illustrate thetwo sides of his reputation. In 1~70 was published one of the most important and influential l)ooICs of the Elizabethan period. !P.!~as IJep.ry Billingsley's English transla~ion of Euclid . with a Preface_ hy _pee, . described on the title-page as 'a very fruitfull Praeface made by Master John Dee, specifying the chiefe Mathematicall Sciences, what they are, and whereunto commodious: where also, are disclosed certaine new Secrets Mathematicall and Mechanicall, until these our daies greatly missed.' In this Preface, Dee ranges over all the mathematical sciences and strongly urges their encouragement and improvement. As a manifesto __for the_ advancement of science, Dee's mathematical Preface is of i greater importance than Franc~s Bacon's Advancement of Learn- · Ing, ·published thirty-five years later, for Dee fully understood and emphasized the basic importance of mathematical studies for the advancement of science, whereas, as everyone knows, Bacon underrated mathematics, which was the chief reason why · his methods did not yield results of scientific importance. 11 Dee's mathematical Preface had an immense·influence, and was widely read and admired until well on in the seventeenth century. Through it, and through Dee's teaching and personal influence, a school of mathematicians and scientists arose which made of the later Elizabethan age a period of great importance for scientific advance. The other famous, or infamous, book by Dee is A True and faithful Relation of what passed for many years between Dr. John Dee ... and some spirits, published by Meric Casaubon from a manuscript diary by Dee in 1659, that is half a century after Dee's death. This strange work describes the attempts made by Dee to conjure angels with Cabalistic numerological conjurations, attempts made in association with Edward Kelly. It shows Dee in an extremely superstitious light and as the deluded victim of Kelly's deceptions. It stamped Dee with the reputation

1'

On Dee and Bacon, see further my essay 'The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science', in Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance, ed. Charles S. Singleton, Baltimore, 1968, pp. 255-74. n

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JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

which lasted all through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the reputation of a deluded fanatic, an object of scorn and derision. The Dee of the spiritual diaries entirely eclipsed the Dee of the mathematical Preface, which was forgotten together with all Dee's scientific work. Only in the present century has the rehabilitation of Dee been begun by historians of science, who, ignoring the spiritual diaries and their reputation, have rediscovered Dee the scientist, Dee the author of the mathematical Preface. The pioneer in this respect was E. G. R. Taylor who in her book on Tudor geography, published in 1930,1 2 examined Dee's geographical knowledge and his work as adviser to Elizabethan mariners in their voyages of discovery. Her work established beyond question the very great services rendered by the 'conjuror' to the bold mariners of the Eliz.abethan age through his work on scientific instruments and his knowledge of geography. She used the catalogue of the library and printed as an appendix to her book a list of the books on geography in the catalogue, even reproducing the small triangles in the margins with which Dee marked books which he thought particularly important. Next in the field of studies of Dee was F. R. Johnson from whose book (1937) quotation has already been made. Johnson was interested in Dee chiefly as an astronomer. He makes the following statement: 'the credit for spreading a knowledge of the new Copernican astronomy among English scientists is due chiefly to Robert Recorde and John Dee. These two men were the leaders in making sound learning in the mathematical sciences available to a wider group of students in the third quarter of the sixteenth century.' 13 Johnson, of course, knew the catalogue of the library, but unfortunately he did not follow Miss Taylor's example and did not print in an appendix a list of the works on astronomy in Dee's library. This is a pity, for the way to tackle that catalogue would be to have experts in all the fields which the library covered to deal with the books on it in each subject. A team of historians of many different subjects would be needed to co-operate with one another in dealing with the catalogue. In her book, The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and 12 18

6

E. G. R. Taylor, Tudor Geography, 1485-1583, London, 1930. Johnson, Astronomical Thought, p. 120.

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

Stuart England (1954), E. G. R. Taylor was concerned with the host of designers and makers of new and improved scientific instruments who flourished in the later sixteenth century in England and again emphasized the importance of Dee as a leader in this movement. From her brief characterization of Dee in this book I quote the following: The practical applications of astronomy and geometry were foremost in his mind whether for casting nativities or advancing navigation, for reforming the calendar or mapping subterranean mines. His visits to Louvain, Brussels and Paris (1547 to 1550) made him acquainted with the foremost continental mathematicians, among whom the designing, description and use of instruments in the service of geodecy, cartography, dialling, gunnery etc., was taken for granted as part of their work. On Dee's return to London he was introduced to Court circles where preparations for maritime expansion were being set on foot. For the next thirty years he gave advice and instruction to pilots and navigators and collected a great mathematical and scientific library, besides a variety of mathematical instruments. The impact of his Preface to the English Euclid upon young men of the middle class, sons of tradesmen and craftsmen, was very great, setting out as it did the ways in which geometry could advance technique and foster inventions .... Writing in 1574 to the Earl of Leicester, Dr. Richard Foster, his astrologer-physician, described Dee as a very Atlas bearing upon his shoulders the sole weight of the revival in England of the mathematical arts, and in 1590 Tycho Brahe sent greetings to him and to Thomas Digges as 'most noble, excellent and learned mathematicians.' 14

Thus modern historians of science have rehabilitated Dee, have drawn aside the veil of the ridiculous and deluded conjuror of nineteenth-century legend to show behind it the practical scientist fully abreast of the latest scientific thought, translating it into practical use for the service of his countrymen.{Dee comes out now as in the van of Elizabethan movements, the maritime expansion, the scientific activity of all kinds, and moreover as particularly ,glizabethan in spirit in his ap~eal to the rising artisan classes.I/His was a new and modem kmd of learning which included technology as well as abstract speculation, which made an appeal to new social classes, as well as to E. G. R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England, London, 1954, pp. 170-1. u

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JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

the queen and to courtiers. In these most essential and important respects, no more complete mirror of the Elizabethan age could be found than John Dee. The historians of science have made a great step forwards towards the much needed new assessment of Dee but the picture which they have drawn is only a partial one. By concentrating on aspects which interest them, they have given the impression that Dee and his library have nothing to tell the historian of literature and the arts. But Dee's knowledge cannot be canalized into separate disciplines; it must be seen in the religious, philosophical, and magical contexts in which it was generated. The Cabalistic conjuror of the spiritual diaries was not a different man from the practical scientist, adviser of mariners, and life and soul of the movement for encouraging mathematical studies who interests the historian of science. He was the same man operating, or rather somewhat pathetically attempting to operate, on a different level. In an unpublished doctoral thesis of 1953, I. R. F. Calder made an extensive study of Dee's life and work, 15 attempting to cover the mathematics and science, the astrology and alchemy, the spiritualism, the magic and the Neoplatonic philosophy and religion. This thesis is the best effort so far made at dealing with Dee as a whole, though since it was written advances have been made in the understanding of the Renaissance Hermetic tradition to which Dee belonged. And the author omitted a full scale study of Dee's mathematical preface and of the catalogue of his library, since he intended the thesis as a preparation for further studies. The history of thought should not isolate out of the work of a personality those elements which seem of importance in the light of later developments. The history of thought is vitiated and distorted by this process. A man's thought should be seen in the round, including not only those aspects of it which a modern can admire but also those which moderns find difficult. The nineteenth century which excluded Dee from serious consideration because of his 'conjuring' was wrong as the historians of science have discovered. But to include him as a scientist whilst excluding his other sides is also incomplete. We need to see the man as a whole, and it is here, I would suggest, that the catalogue of the library can help. 15

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See above, p. 2, note 4.

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

In what follows I shall omit nearly all mention of the scientific works which have interested the historians of science, the works on geography extracted from the catalogue by Miss Taylor, the works on astronomy which bear on F. R. Johnson's researches on Dee as astronomer, the works on applied mathematics which relate to his importance in the busy development of instrument making in London in the later sixteenth century. I shall select works from the catalogue which seem of significance for Dee's outlook as a whole, to build up from them a picture of the context in which he saw his scientific work as a whole. This attempt to use the catalogue in this way will be but fragmentary and superficial but it may at least serve to draw attention to this absolutely basic document for the understanding, not only of Dee himself, but of the courtiers, noblemen, poets, scholars, scientists of the Elizabethan age for whom this was the best library in the country. I take first the De occulta philosophia of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, copies of which are listed in the catalogue. 16 This book gives the clue as to how the same man could be a· mathematical scientist and at the same time a 'conjuror'. Agrippa divides the universe into the three worlds of the Cabalists, the natural or elemental world, where the Magus operates with natural magic, the middle celestial world where he operates with mathematical magic, and the supercelestial world where he operates with numerical conjurations. This was how Dee thought. His con· centration on mathematics as the key to all sciences included operating with number in genuine science and operating with number to conjure angels. The researches of recent scholarship have brought out that Agrippa's book was the logical, though extreme, outcome of the whole movement which is loosely called Renaissance Neo· platonism. This movement included a Hermetic and magical core to which Ficino gave expression in the Libri de vita and to which Pico della Mirandola added Cabalist magic. Thus from These include the first edition of Antwerp, 1531; the edition of Lyons 1550; and the edition of the spurious fourth book, Marburg, 1559. On these editions, see H. C. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, ed. K. A Nowotny, Graz, 1967, pp. 405, 407. For an outline of Agrippa's thought see my Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, London and Chicago, 1964, pp. 130ff. is

9

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

the Neoplatonic movement there grew as auxiliaries to it a host of writers of occult literature of the most varied kinds. As one would expect, Dee's library was extremely rich in all this literature. It included all the major works of Ficino, both his own works and his translations from Plato and the Neoplatonists, and of Pico della Mirandola. There was a special section devoted to Cabalist books. Another section was devoted to Lullism, rich not only in Lull's own works but in those of later Lullists; this section is representative of the Renaissance revival of Lullism in association with Cabala, and includes the pseudo-Lullian De auditu cabalistico. Trithemius is strongly represented in the library, also Cardanus and Guillaume Postel. Dee did not forget the French Neoplatonists and had a copy of the Mantice of Pontus de Tyard. He had some modern Italian philosophers, Patrizzi, Pomponazzi. And there are of course large collections of works on astrology and alchemy. The arrangement of the catalogue is partially systematic though the system varies. Some groups of books seem arranged according to size, others according to language. There are also subject groupings, Paracelsist books (a large section), Lullist books, historical books, books of travel and discovery. One must therefore read through the whole catalogue in order to collect one author or subject which may appear under different groupings. Nevertheless there is nothing haphazard about the catalogue; the entries are clearly written and usually include date and place of publication as well as author and title. Books of controversial theology are conspicuous by their absence. Dee had bibles in his library, and the psalms; he had some scholastic theology; he had Ficino's Theologia Platonica, and of course he had the Pimander and Asclepius of 'Mercurius Trismegistus', that is to say the Corpus Hermeticum and the Asclepius. He had Lactantius and Pseudo-Dionysius and Augustine's Civitas Dei. On the whole the catalogue gives the impression that Dee, though passionately interested in the supernatural, avoided dogmatic theology. Science is of course dominant, the genuine sciences intermixed with the pseudo sciences. But Dee was also interested in the fine \ arts. The fundamental import3:nce of Dee's knowledge of \ Vitruvius and of the Vitruvian-Renaissance theory of the 10 "

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

supremacy of architecture among the arts and sciences will be /j discussed-iii the next chapter of this book: Here I mention only in passing that Dee had copies of Vitruvius and of Renaissance COill!Jlen,tators on Yitruvius ihnis-library; he had Diirer on prop_ortion; Luca Pacioli on proportion; many books on perspective; and Vasari's lives of the painters. He had Greek and Latin poets, Homer and Hesiod, Pindar, Ovid of course, Catullus, Lucan. An interesting feature is the good representation of ancient dramatists. It is not surprising that he should have had the comedies of Plautus and the tragedies of Seneca, but he also possessed the comedies of Aristophanes and the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides in Greek. These collections should perhaps be connected with an interest in the production of classical plays, of which we know of one certain example-namely that he made a theatrical machine for a production of the Pax of Aristophanes at Trinity College, Cambridge. 17 The library was well equipped with the usua} Renaissance reference books, the Hieroglyphica of Pierio Valeriano, the M ythologia of Natalis Comes, the Emblems of Alciati. It was well stocked with dictionaries and grammars of various languages. Musical theory was represented by Zarlino and other standard works. And the library possessed the leading Renaissance textbook on cosmic harmony, the Harmonia mundi of Francesco Giorgi. If the catalogue were published with a good subject index, scholars would be able to know at a glance what Dee had on subjects which interest them. I, for instance, have been pursuing the art of memory for a good many years. I conjectured in my book that Dee would have been likely to know something about this 18 but omitted to look in the manuscript catalogue of his library, where I now find that he had five books on memory, including L' Idea de/ Theatro of Giulio Camillo, interesting proof that Camillo's Memory Theatre was known in England. History is richly represented in the catalogue, history both ancient and modern. There is a large section on it and historical works appear here and there throughout the catalogue. The historical books reflect an important side of Dee's activities, his 17 18

See below, p. 31. See my The Art of Memory, London and Chicago, 1966, pp. 262-3.

11

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

love of semi-mystical antiquarian scholarship and the passion for ancient British history used in compiling his genealogy of Queen Elizabeth. The list of books in English in the library contains many chronicles. The following is a selection from the list of English books: Holinshed's Chronicles; Thomas Cooper's Chronicles; Leonard and Thomas Digges's Geometrical Practice; John Bale's Pageant ofPopes; William Bourne's Art of Shooting; Littlewood's Tenures; Robert Recorde's Urinal of Physic; Stowe's Chronicles; Grafton's Abridgement of Chronicles. A reader who knew no Greek and not much Latin could use Dee's library. He could browse to his heart's content in English chronicle history and study technical works in English written by members of Dee's scientific school-Leonard and Thomas Digges, Robert Recorde, William Bourne-and the English Euclid with Dee's famous preface to it. Poets like Sidney and Dyer would find in the library not only all the books needed for their philosophical and scientific studies under Dee, but might glance in passing at his copy of Petrarch's sonnets, at Dante's Inferno with Giambullari's commentary, at Joachim Du Bellay's Defense et illustration de la langue franraise. The historians of science have done well by Dee but they have put other people off by giving the impression that his library was purely scientific in the modern sense of the word. The whole Renaiss.a_l!~e j~_in ~hj-~ !ib~a!-y..Qr -~~~her it is the Renaissance as interpreted by Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, with- its slant towards philosophy, science, and magic, rather than towards purely grammarian humanist studies. It is a Renaissance without doctrinal ferocity, either Reformation or Counter Reformation, but with very strong mystical and magical leanings, a Renaissance which prefers to read of the hierarchies of angels with Pseudo-Dionysius (well represented in the library) rather than the works of Calvin. And it is a Renaissance situated in England, with its characteristic development of popular-science with a'"strong practical bent, with an outlook towards navigation and the sea, and new lands beyond the sea, a Renaissance which includes in its historical studies the British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth (represented in the library) and the chronicles of England, a Renaissance which values poetry, ancient and modern, Greek and Latin, Italian 12

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

and French. Though there are no English poets in the list of English books, one wonders whether the major Elizabethan poets may not all have used this library. It is natural to compare the catalogue of Dee's library with the catalogue of another great library, drawn up in 1609, and which, unlike Dee's catalogue, has achieved the honour of learned publication. The catalogue of the Lumley Library, edited by Sears Jayne and F. R. Johnson, was published by the British Museum in 1956. 19 The Lumley library possessed the works of Ficino and of Henry Cornelius Agrippa and a fair sprinkling of works containing Hermetic influences of various kinds. But that library has nothing like the scientific importance of Dee's library with its wealth of works of genuine scientific value. And the Lumley catalogue begins with theology, with an array of Fathers, commentaries on the Scriptures, works of controversial theology of a type which are conspicuously absent from Dee's library. The Lumley catalogue suggests a more conventional mind than the mind behind the Dee catalogue, yet the Lumley catalogue is published and available whilst the Dee catalogue is not. One asks oneself whether, in spite of the useful efforts of the historians of science, the ancient prejudice still operates, and Meric Casaubon's publication of the spiritual diaries 20 still stands in the way of a proper historical and critical approach to one of the most important figures of the Elizabethan age. It is surely time that Dee should be judged objectively and without prejudice, and that critical historical enquiry should be made, not only into the nature of his science and its place in the history of thought, but also into the nature of his religion and its place in the history of religion. What was Dee's religion? He certainly had one and a very strong one. He defined it in 1592, in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he says that from his youth up it has pleased the Almighty ... to insinuate into my hart, an insatiable zeale, & desire to The Lumley Library, The Catalogue of 1609, edited by Sears Jayne and F. R. Johnson, British Museum, 1956. 20 It would seem from Casaubon's preface to the spiritual diaries that his purpose in publishing t~em was ~eliberat~ly to discredit Dee, an~, by implication, the enthusiasts of his own time. See P. M. Rattansi, 'Paracelsus and the Puritan Revolution', Ambix, XI (1963), p. 31. 19

13

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

knowe his truth: and in him and by him, incessantly to seeke, and listen after the same; by the true philosophicall method and harmony: proceeding and ascending (as it were) gradatim, from things visible to consider of thinges inuisible: from thinges bodily to conceiue of thinges spirituall: from things transitorie & momentarie, to meditate of things permanent: by thinges mortall (visible and inuisible) to haue some perceiuerance of immortality. And to conclude, most briefely: by the most meruailous frame of the whole world, philosophically viewed, and circumspectly wayed, numbred, and measured (according to the talent, & gift of God, from abque alotted, for his diuine purposes effecting) most faithfully to loue, honor, and glorifie alwaies, the framer and Creator thereof. In whose workmanship, his infinite goodnesse, insearchable wisdome, and Almightie power, yea his everlasting power, and diuinity, may (by innumerable meanes) be manifested and demonstrated. 21

It was the religion of a mathematician who believed that the divine creation was held together by magical forces. If we substitute mechanics for magic as the operative force used by the Creator, Dee's religion was perhaps not altogether unlike that of Isaac Newton.

The most fruitful and influential period of Dee's life, from the accession of Elizabeth until his departure from England in 1583, ended with the visit in May of that year of the Polish Prince Alasco, or Laski, who persuaded Dee to go with him to Poland. The Queen commanded that Laski should be received with honour on his visit to Oxford. In spite of the profusion of Latin plays, dinners, fireworks, and disputations which the university strained every nerve to provide, one has the impression-not only from Giordano Bruno's satires but from the subsequent sharp reproof of the Queen and the chancellor's harassed efforts at reform-that this public occasion focused attention upon certain weaknesses in post-Reformation Oxford. Laski's subsequent action is significant. For on the return journey from Oxford to London by river in the royal barge lent for the occasion, and on which he was accompanied by Philip Sidney and other distinguished people, he stopped at Mortlake in order John Dee, A Letter, Containing a ... Discourse Apologeticall, London, 1592, in Autobiographical Tracts, ed. Crossley, p. 72.

21

14

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

to call upon Doctor Dee. Here is the entry in Dee's diary which records the event: June 15th. abowt 5 of the clok cam the Polonian Prince Lord Albert Lasky down from Bissham, where he had lodged the night before, being returned from Oxford whither he had gon of purpose to see the univerityes, wher he was very honorably used and enterteyned. He had in his company Lord Russell, Sir Philip Sydney, and other gentlemen: he was rowed by the Quene's men, he had the barge covered with the Quene's cloth, the Quene's trumpeters, &c. He cam of purpose to do me honor, for which God be praysed. 22

Surely it is of interest that we might now reconstruct the library in which Dee probably received these splendid guests. The divisions in the catalogue into books of different sizes, its partial subject divisions, books on history, books on geography, the Lullist section, the Paracelsist section, and so on, may actually represent the arrangement of the books on Dee's shelves. Around these shelves we may imagine Philip Sidney strolling, displaying the best library in England and one worthy to rank with some of the best in Europe. Oxford had nothing to show like this; the Reformers had turned out its scientific works 23-manuscripts of a type which Dee had taken the opportunity of rescuing-so that the Oxford of Roger Bacon and of the medieval Merton school was represented in his collection, which was also kept up to date by the acquisition of modern books. Lasky was so much impressed by Dee that he invited him to join him abroad. Feeling that there was little future for him in John Dee, Private Diary, ed. Halliwell, p. 20. Describing the havoc wrought in the Oxford libraries in 1550 by the government commissioners, Anthony a Wood says that they regarded any books or manuscripts containing mathematical diagrams with peculiar suspicion: 'From Merton Coll. Library a cart load of mss. and above were taken away, such that contained the Lucubrations (chiefly of controversial Divinity, Astr?nom¥ and ~athem~ticks) of divers of the learned Fellows thereof, m which Studies they m the last centuries obtained great renown .... Sure I am that such books wherein appeared Angles or Mathematical Dia&1"ams, w.ere t~ought sufficient to be destroyed because accounted Pop1sh, or d1abohcal, or both' (Anthony a Wood, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, ed. J. Gutch, Vol. II, part I, pp. 107-8). 22 23

15

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

England, Dee accepted the invitation, and early in the autumn of 1583 he and Kelly left for Lascoe, the prince's seat near Cracow. The brains drain really began in 1583 when this most eminent mathematician, technologist, and magician was tempted to leave his native country. Before he left, Dee made the catalogue of his library, which is dated September 6th, 1583. Shortly after he left, an angry crowd broke into his house at Mortlake, smashed his scientific instruments, and damaged the library. The lamentable story of these events is told by Dee himself in the Comperzdious Rehearsal!, under the heading 'A briefe note and some remembrance of my late spoiled Mortlake library.' He estimates the value of the books and manuscripts in it at £2,000, and says that it had taken him about forty years to collect them 'from divers places beyond the seas, and some by my great search and labour here in England.' He complains that he has had no compensation for the loss of his books and manuscripts, but it would seem that he did not lose them all. He speaks of there being above five hundred missing 'I mean of such as may be gotten for money, and so their value known; for some wanting are not to be gotten for money in any mart.' It would thus seem that only a part of his total collection had disappeared. But his other treasures were irrevocably destroyed or had disappeared, his quadrant made by Richard Chancellor, his great cross staff, the two globes of Gerard Mercator's best making. The cases containing documents were rifled, only the chalk marks on their exteriors remaining to give note of their former contents. This was 'a loss of great value in sundry respects as Antiquarians can testify', also the loss of a box containing a collection of seals. 'Clerks of the Records of the Tower', says Dee, 'satt whole dayes at my house in Mortlake gathering raritys to their liking out of them', 24 an interesting glimpse of the use of Dee's house as a kind of combined British Museum and Public Record Office. The period of the greatest splendour and usefulness of Dee's library was from about 1570 to 1583, a very important decade in English history. Nevertheless he was evidently able to rescue a considerable proportion of his books on his return to England in 1589 and perhaps to acquire more-he could not live without books. All the more lamentable therefore is the report trans2"'

16

John Dee, Compendious Rehears'all, ed. Crossley, p. 30.

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

mitted by Anthony aWood that Dee in his extremely penurious old age was forced to sell his books one by one to buy dinners. 25 He died in 1608 at the age of eighty-one at his house at Mortlake, apparently a complete failure, but a tradition gathered about his name and his influence survived. Dee comes straight out of a main Renaissance Hermetic st7ea~ which ~as reached him. at rathe~ a late date and bearing wit~ 1~ accret10ns gathered. m the sixteenth century during which 1t had developed, both m more extremely occult directions and in more precisely scientific directions. The two aspects cannot be separated; they belong together at that date. In no way could this be demonstrated more clearly than by study of the catalogue of Dee's library in which books on his genuine scientific interests are inseparably mixed up with the pseudoscientific literature. As an example of this it is interesting to look at a page of the catalogue (folio 6 in the Harley manuscript) on which appears a book entered as: Copernici Revolutiones Nuremberg 1543. This is Copernicus's epoch-making work in the original edition. It is marked in the margin with a triangle, denoting that Dee considers this an important book. It is immediately followed by Francesco Giorgi's Harmonia mundi, the Hermetic-Cabalist work of the Franciscan friar of Venic.e, also marked with a triangle as important. It is preceded a little way up the page by the Polygraphia of Trithemius, also marked with a triangle, the abstruse work on ciphers by one of the most intensely and abstrusely magical of Renaissance writers. And at the bottom of the same page, also marked with a triangle, is a work on chiromancy or palmistry. To Dee all is science, all is important, and this mysterious world of magic and science in which he moves is the world of the Elizabethan Renaissance. Dee, however, might have looked less eccentric had he not lived in Elizabethan England where the mystico-magicoscientific movement ran counter to the official surface of learning, to the Protestant humanism of normal education. In Venice, as a member of some esoteric academy, he would have seemed more natural. But the esoteric academic movement had not developed in England. Dee's circle may have been something of the kind but it did not have the protection of some Cabalistic 2s

Anthony

a Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, 1815, III, 292. 17

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

cardinal, such as Cardinal Egidius of Viterbo who patronized Francesco Giorgi. 26 In the landscape of Elizabethan London Dee looked peculiar, and might have been suspected of being a Papist as well as a conjuror. On the other hand this lack of security in his background, this sense of belonging nowhere which he must have had, the lack of any public recognition-for the support of Leicester and the Queen was clandestine, not official-in itself made for greater freedom than he might have found elsewhere, freedom both to indulge in more outrageously magical practices, such as the angel-conjuring, and in more intensive 'mathematical magic', that is in applied science and technology. All his activities illustrate Dee's practical bent, his desire to get results. He set about conjuring in a most serious way, filling up innumerable squares with tiny numbers; anyone who has looked at the angel-conjuring manuscripts in the British Museum will be impressed by the detailed labour involved. He would spare no pains to get hold of an angel by correct use of number in the supercelestial sphere because from no one but an angel could he better learn the secrets of nature. Similarly, he meant to perfect the mathematical instruments, using number in lower spheres, which would enable mariners to voyage over unknown seas. In his intense sense of nature as a hierarchy completed at the top by omniscient unseen beings, and in his intense desire to explore also every aspect of the visible world, Dee is the perfect Elizabethan. In him Prospero and Sir Francis Drake meet and are one. He illustrates also the peculiar social conditions of the Elizabethan age. His contacts with the rising artisan and middle classes, the practice of himself and his school of writing scientific works in English to spread knowledge among those not learned in the ancient tongues, are sides of Dee which differentiate him most strikingly from the learned Renaissance scholar of Italy, France, or Spain, Yet there is also an aristocratic side; there are mysterious noblemen behind him. There is a secret or courtly sphere for his activities as well as the popular side. He is both extremely exoteric and practical, and at the same time esoteric among some vaguely defined inner circle. It is this type 26 See The Art of Memory, p. 149, note 55, and the references there given.

18

Plate 1 Page fram J O h n Dee's catalogue of his Library.

a

b

C

d

Plate 2

(a) Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian figure. (c) (d) Vitruvian figures in a cosmic setting. From H. C. Agrippa. (b) Vitruvian figure in a cosmic setting. From Fludd.

JOHN DEE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

of situation which makes the Elizabethan Renaissance so peculiar, as compared with Renaissances in other countries, where there is neither this new social situation with rising new classes who participate in the Renaissance, nor this .mystery about patrons and inner groups of cognoscenti. I do not think that it is sufficiently realized how very peculiar the Elizabethan Renaissance was, both socially and intellectually. John Dee is the perfect exemplar of its peculiarities, perhaps even one of their chief sources. To solve Dee would go far towards solving, not only the Elizabethan age itself but also its place in the history of thought. Its 'world picture' was not medieval but Renaissance; it was the world picture of John Dee, the half magical world which is moving, not backwards into the Middle Ages, but onwards towards the seventeenth century. Scholars are becoming aware of the importance of Dee and the long neglect of this amazing figure will soon be at an end. It may be fairly confidently predicted that we shall not have long to wait for the appearance of modern editions of his Preface to Euclid and of the catalogue of his library. The outline sketch which I have tried to present in this chapter will soon be filled in by more detailed work. My purpose has been to present this brief impression of Dee as a whole as the prelude to the part which he plays in the main theme of this book which opens in the next chapter.

19

(

CHAPTER II

John Dee and Vitruvius

I

N the countries of Europe, the progress of the Renaissance was accompanied by intensive building in the new neoclassical style of architecture, stemming ultimately from the revival and study of the work on architecture by the Roman writer Vitruvius, who was contemporary with Augustus. By 1570, the date of the publication of Dee's preface to Euclid, the Vitruvian revival had given birth in Italy to a wealth of works on classical architectural theory, such as Leone Baptista Alberti's De re aedificatoria or Daniele Barbaro's commentary on Vitruvius. The year 1570 was actually the year of the publication of Palladio's great work, which was to be the bible of the neoclassical architect throughout Europe for many generations. 1 In all the countries of Europe, palaces and mansions were arising and churches and public buildings were being erected in the new style which, p~rhaps more than anything else, characterizes the Renaissance and marks its break with the Middle Ages. In England no such development had taken place. 2 In 1570, Elizabethan London still presented a medieval aspect; Queen Elizabeth was not building a Louvre; no neoclassical churches were being built or planned; Old St. Paul's still dominated a city 'All over the western world, hundreds of thousands of houses, churches and public buildings with symmetrical fronts and applied half columns topped by a pediment descend from the designs of Andrea Palladio' (Jam?s S. Ackerman, Palladio, Penguin Books, 1966, p. 19). 2 See Marc Grrouard, Robert Smythson and the Architecture of the Elizabethan Era, London, 1966, pp. 15ff. 1

20

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

which would have to wait for Sir Christopher Wren to give it a Renaissance cathedral. It is true that many new manor houses were built but these, although they may be decorated with classical ornament, show no understanding in their basic design of the classical principles of proportion. England was a provincial backwater so far as the new architecture was concerned, and the English literary Renaissance was not matched by an architectural Renaissance. Not only was there no new building on the European monumental scale, but the whole theory of proportion and symmetry as underlying all the arts and sciences which is so marked a feature of Renaissance thought, is assumed to have been relatively unknown in Elizabethan England. It has been said in a recent book on Elizabethan architecture that the Renaissance idea of the architect, based on Vitruvius, as the universal man, had not reached Tudor England where the very word 'architect' was unfamiliar and seldom used. 3 No more striking illustration of the extraordinary neglect by modern scholars of the work of John Dee could- be found than this widespread conviction that the Renaissance 'idea of the architect' must be discounted in studies of Elizabethan England as likely to have been unfamiliar to the general public. For in his Preface to Euclid, Dee expounds the ·Renaissance 1Clea of-the arcb.I'tect;-with~loiig quotatfons from.···vitruvius and Alberti. 4 1 Moreover the whole Preface is really based on Vitruvius; the, mathematical subjects which Dee wishes.to encourage are those ' which Vitruvius states that an architect should know. Nearly fifty years before Inigo Jones;~the 'Vitruvius Britannicus', began belatedly to initiate neoclassical building. in England, John Dee was ·teaching the middle-class Eliza_bethan public, through his popular Preface, the basic principles of proportion and design, \ and ~~demonstrating that all the mathematical arts SUbServe I Architectur~ as their queen. 1

I' l

3. Girouard, pp. 20-21. John Shute's book, The First and Chief Groundes of Architecture, London, 1563, which describes the classical orders, is thought to have attracted l~ttle ~ttention. .. . 4 Dee's quotations from V1truvms and Alberti m his Preface to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid are given in full in Appendix A, pp. 190-7. The edition used is the first edition of 1570, on which all the references to it in this chapter are also based. The references are to the signatures, since the Preface is unpaged.

21

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

~

Some analysis of Dee's Preface must now be made in order to demonstrate the truth of the above statement which must come as a great surprise to historians of architectural theory and to all those interested in the general culture of Elizabethan England. The Preface opens with general Pythagoro-Platonic mystical discussion of number. 5 Then he enumerates the sciences dealing with number, which are arithmetic, algebra, geometry 6 and goes through other sciences showing their dependence on number. Military art uses number in the science of tactics ; 7 law uses it in its study' of just distribution. 8 Geometry is essential to the 'mechanician' in his sciences of measuring. 9 Here Dee lists as among the geometrical arts, geodesy, or surveying, geography, or the study of the earth, hydrography, or the study of the ocean, 'Stratarithmetrie' which is again military art or the disposal of armies in geometrical figures. Next he comes to perspective, 10 a science in which he was particularly interested; then to astronomy, then to music. 11 Astrology12 is also an 'art mathematical' and one which particularly shows forth the glory of God who made the heavens in his wisdom. Next comes 'statike' an art mathematical which demonstrates the causes of the lightness and the heaviness of things. 13 With 'anthropographie' 14 he comes to number in relation to man. He has been speaking of 'number, measure, and weight' in the universe at large, and of how the mathematical sciences explore this. The same 'numbering', the same principles of number, measure, and weight are to be found in man, for man is a Microcosmus or 'Lesse World'. He SReaks of the noble position of man in the universe, the being fo-r whom all else was made, who 'participates with spirits and angels' and is made 'in the image and__ similitude of God.' The Macrocosm-Microcosm analogy, the world harmony in its relation to the harmonious For an outline of Dee's Pythagaro-Platonic position in the Preface and the influence on it of Cornelius Agrippa on the three worlds of the Cabalists, see my Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, pp. 148-9. 6 Preface, sig. *i recto-*iiii verso. 7 Ibid., sig. a i recto-verso. 8 Ibid., sig. a ii recto-a iv verso. 9 Ibid., sig. a iv verso-b i recto. 10 Ibid., sig. bi verso-b ii verso. 11 Ibid., sig. b iii recto. 12 Ibid., sig. b iii recto-b iv recto. 13 Ibid., sig. b iv recto-c iii verso. 14 Ibid., sig. c iv recto. See Appendix A, below pp. 190-1. 6

22

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

constitution of man, brings Dee now to the fine arts, and he mentions 'the excellent Albert Diirer', alluding to Diirer's work on proportion. To this 'Harmonious and Microcosmical' constitution of man all the arts are related, the art of 'Zographie', or painting, of sculpture, and, above all, architecture. And here he refers his readers to Vitruvius. 'Looke in Vitruuius, whether I deal sincerely for your behoufe, or no.' The reference in the margin is to 'Lib. 3. Cap. l ', that is to the first chapter of the third book of Vitruvius's De architectura. That chapter is on the design of temples, which, says Vitruviu_s, depends on the symmetrY. and proportion of th~ hu:J)lan / body which are to be reflected in the symmetry and proportion of the temple. Vitruvius states that a man's body with arms and legs fully extended fits into a square and a circle. This figure of a man in a square and a circle was the subject of a famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (Pl. 2(a)) and was illustrated in some editions of Vitruvius, for example in that by Cesare Cesariano. The geometry of the square and the circle, with the analogies implied by Vitruvius, became the guiding principle in the construction of Renaissance round churches. 15 John Dee, writing in Eliz.abeth~ England in 1570, a time and place where no churches of any kind were being built, let alone Renaissance churches, and little interest in neoclassical theory has been assumed, confidently expects his readers to be able to 'look in Vitruvius' and there find Vitruvius's application of the geometry of the square and the circle to man and to the building of temples which shall reflect the cosmic and human proportions in basic geometrical terms. Dee gives two other references for the geometry of the square and the circle as basic for the theory of proportion. The reader is not only to look in Vitruvius; he is also to 'looke in Albertus Durerus, De symmetria humani corporis' 18 where he would find these principles applied to art. And there is the further significant direction that he is to 'Looke in the 27 and 28 Chapters of the second book, De occulta philosophia'. This is of course a 1 5 See R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, London, 1949, pp. 13ff. ls The Latin version of Dilrer's Vier Bucher von Menschlicher Proportion, on which see E. Panofsky, The Codex Huyghens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory, London, 1940, pp. 11 lff.

23

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

reference to Agrippa's textbook on magic. The 27th chapter of the second book of Agrippa's work is on the proportions of the human body; it quotes Vitruvius (though not by name) on man's body and the square and the circle, and illustrates the extended body of man within a square and a circle, these figures now being marked with the characters of the signs of the zodiac and of the planets (Pl. 2(c)(d). The following (28th) chapter in on the composition and harmony of the soul of man and on the effects of music in harmonizing it with the universe. That is to say, Dee ref~rs his readers not only to Vitruvius on man and the square and the circle, but also to Agrippa where this conception is given an astrological and magical interpretation. Continuing with the mathematical arts, 17 Dee next speaks of 'Trochlike' which studies the properties of circular motions, and is of value for making wheels, mills, and in mines where wheel work is used. Then comes 'Helicosophie', an art mathematical dealing with spirals, cylinders, cones, of use in architecture and for many instruments and engines such as the screw. 'Pneumatithmie' discusses pneumatics, mechanical devices using air or water, such as the water organ. 'Menadrie' is a mathematical art used in devices for moving weights, such as cranes and pulleys; useful also in engines of war. 'Hypogeiodie' demonstrates how to make underground measurements and surveys; 'Hydragogie' teaches how to lead water from springs and rivers; 'Horometrie' is the art of measuring time by clocks and dials. With 'Zographie' 18 he is again among the fine arts. This is the skill in geometry, arithmetic, perspective, and anthropography which underlies the work of an artist, the basic understanding of number on which all true works of art are built. The painter is called by Dee a 'Mechanical Zographer'; he is marvellous in his skill and seems to have a certain divine power. Sculpture is a sister art to painting, and of both excellent artificers have written great books; here he cites Pomponius Gauricus and Giorgio Vasari. And now comes the main section on architecture. Since this is given in full in an appendix, 19 I draw out from it here only the general drift with some verbal quotations. 17 Preface, sigs. c iv verso-d ii verso. 19 See Appendix A, below, pp. 190-7.

24

18

lb"d . d 11 .. verso. z ., s1g.

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

Dismissing the crude idea that because buildings are made of materials whereas 'arts mathematical' do not deal with material and corruptible things he points out that architecture, above all other arts, is based on the abstract sciences of number~ making use of all of them, and indeed of all the arts and sciences. And here he quotes 'Vitruvius the Roman' who wrote ten books of architecture addressed to the Emperor Augustus 'in whose daies our Heauenly Archemaster [Christ] was borne'. After invoking this Christian blessing on Vitruvius he embarks on an English translation of selected portions of the first book of the De architectura. This is the book in which Vitruvius sings the praises of architecture as the queen of all the arts and sciences and the one which• includes them all, for the education of.. a•ii--·.... true ..•.archi• "'· tect must mclude some acquamtanc_e \Ylth every branch of the whol~~ encyclopaediaof knowledge. ~---.

~---~

An Architect (sayth he) ought to understand languages, to be ) skilfull of Painting, well instructed in Geometrie, not ignorant of Perspective, furnished with Arithmetike, haue knowledge of ) many histories, and diligently haue heard the Philosophers, haue skill of Musike, not ignorant of Physike, know the answers of . Lawyers, and haue Astronomie, and the courses Celestiall, in " good knowledge. He geueth reason, orderly, wherefore all these Artes, Doctrines, and Instructions, are requisite in an excellent Architecte. 20 .I

Dee then translates the reasons which Vitruvius gives as to why an architect must know so much. Geometry is basic, which teaches first 'the use of the Rule and the Compasse', how to make plans, and 'the hard questions of Symmetrie, are by Geometricall Meanes and Methods discoursed on'. Music is essential for the architect, and here the English reader heard, in English, about those mysterious amplifiers or 'sounding vessels' in the ancient theatres, for Dee translates the whole of the passage about them in the first chapter of Vitruvius's first book. Moreouer, the Brasen Vessels, which in Theatres, are placed in Mathematicll order, in ambries, under the steppes: and the diuersities of the soundes ... are ordred according to Musicall Symphonies & Harmonies: being distributed in ye Circuites, by 20

See below, pp. 192-3.

25

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

Diatessaron, Diapente, and Diapason. That the conuenient voyce, of the players sound, when it came to these preparations, made in order, there being increased; with ye increasing, might come more cleare & pleasant, to ye eares of the lokers on. 21

Thus the Elizabethan reader of Dee's preface, which was to be the inspiration of artisans and was to foster all that burgeoning movement of new endeavour in so many different spheres of activity, was introduced to the ancient theatre in its aural, acoustic, and musical aspects. These words about the voices of the players coming clear and pleasant to the ears of the lookers on may bring us close to the genesis of the Shakespearean type of theatre. Struck, as everyone must be, by the vast scope of the architect's education as defined by Vitruvius at the beginning of his work, Dee cries excitedly that all these subjects are actually treated by Vitruvius in the De architectura. And if you should, but take his boke in your hand, and slightly loke through it, you would say straight way: this is Geometrie, Arithmetike, Astronomie, Musike, Anthropographie, Hydragogie, Horometrie and (to conclude) the Storehouse of all workmanship.22

If, following Dee's advice, we take Vitruvius's book in hand and slightly look through it, we find that these words are true. Here, in Vitruvius, are discussions of geometry and arithmetic and their applications in military art, missiles, water supply, geography, dials, fortifications. Here are very long chapters on astrology, on the signs of the zodiac, the planets, the northern and southern constellations, all needful for the architect to know. And Vitruvius's tenth and last book on motion is entirely on mechanical contrivances, which he says are fundamentally the business of the architect, both in building and for public spectacles and plays with a theatrical setting which also come within the purview of the architect. Here he discusses machinery of all kinds, whether for military uses or for peaceful use, pulleys, wheels, pumps, screws, water organs, engines for military defence and attack, as well as pleasing mechanical toys worked by pneumatic devices and devices for theatrical effects. Vitruvius was undoubtedly the storehouse of all workmanship. 21

26

See Appendix A, below, pp. 193--4.

22

See below, p. 194.

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

And if we reflect on the subjects of Dee's Preface to Euclid which we have just been slightly looking through, we realize that they are the Vitruvian subjects. The link between the subjects in the Preface is not only that they are all mathematical arts but also that they are all in Vitruvius. Dee is following Vitruvius throughout. Thus, though the actual quotation from Vitruvius in the section on architecture consists only of the first chapter on the education of an architect, Vitruvius was clearly one of the main inspirations of the Preface as a whole. That busy movement among the Elizabethan artisan classes which the Preface did so much to stimulate was indebted to the revival of Vitruvius, popularized in England by John Dee long before the appearance of Inigo Jones. Vitruvius is not the only authority whom Dee cites in the section on architecture in the Preface. He states at the beginning of the section that he is going to use the judgement of 'two most perfect Architectes', one being 'Vitruuius, the Romaine' and the other 'Leo Baptista Albertus, a Florentine'. When he has finished his long quotation and discussion of Vitruvius on the education of the architect, he says-'now, let us listen to our other Judge, our Florentine, Leo Baptista: and narrowly consider, how he dothe determine of architecture'. There follow long quotations, translated into English, from the preface and the first chapter of the first book of Alberti's De re aedificatoria, 23 a book which was not translated into English until the eighteenth century. The gist of the argument which Dee is reproducing from Alberti is that the function of the architect is to produce the design of the building, and that this is not material but exists in the mind of the architect and is based on abstract considerations of mathematics and proportion. Hence architecture is supremely a mathematical art, the 'lineaments and framing', or the design, of the building being prior to, and superior to, its execution in 'material stuff'. I ought to expresse, what man I would haue to bee allowed to be an Architect. For, I will not bring in place a Carpenter asthoughyou might Compare him to the Chief Masters of other Artes. For the hand of the Carpenter is the Architectes Instrument. But I will 23 See below, pp. 194-6.

27

JOHN DEE AND VITR UVIUS

appoint the Architect to be that man, who hath the skill, (by a certaine meruailous meanes and way), both in minde and Imagination to determine and also in worke to finish: what workes so euer ... may most aptly be Commodious for the worthiest Uses of Man .... The whole feate of Architecture in buildyng, consisteth in Lineaments 24 and in Framying... And it is the property of Lineaments, to prescribe unto Buildynges, and euery part of them, an apt place, & certaine number:· a worthy maner, and a semely order: that, so, ye whole frame and figure of the buildying, may rest in the very Lineamentes &c. And we may prescribe in mynde ~nd imagination the whole frame, all materiall stuffe beyng secluded. 25

Dee has made available in his quaint English a basic pronouncement from the Florentine Renaissance, Alberti's definition of the primacy of abstract design in true architecture. And it is interesting that he has chosen the passage in which Alberti speaks of 'the hand of the carpenter as the architect's instrument' as though recognizing that wooden buildings might form the 'material stuff' which could be the vehicle in which true designs or 'lineaments' might be executed. We thanke you, Master Baptist, that you haue so aptly brought your Arte, and phrase thereof, to haue some Mathematicall perfection by certaine order, number, forme, figure, and Symmetrie mentall: all naturall sensible stuffe set apart. 26

Thus politely does Dee end his quotation from Alberti, thanking him for his definition of design, of the abstract mathematical forms which lie behind the material stuff of the truly designed building. Hence it is, so he runs on, that architecture may be called the peerless princess 'Mathematica', and that Plato 24 For a discussion of Alberti's use of this word, see S. Lang, 'De /ineamentis: L. B. Alberti's use of a technical term', Journal of the Warburg and Courtau/d Institutes, XXVIII (1965), pp. 331-5. After

examination of Alberti's use of the word in different contexts, it is suggested that lineamenti may denote for Alberti the ground plan of a building. 'Architecture for Alberti consisted of the ground plan and the construction, because in the plan the essential features of a building, especially the proportions, were laid down' (ibid., p. 335). Possibly therefore the phrase translated by Dee as 'Lineaments and Framyng' may mean the ground plan and the construction, in which consist 'the whole fea te of Architecture'. 25 See below, pp. 194-5. 26 See below, pp. 195-6.

28

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

affirms the architect to be the master over all workmen. Yet few 'in our days' attain to the excellence of a true architect, though we may not, for that reason, 'pinch in', or narrow down, the definition of architecture any more than we may diminish the definitions of wisdom, honesty, friendship, and justice. 27 By adding Alberti to Vitruvius, Dee shows knowledge of the Italian Renaissance neoclassical movement. And there is I think evidence in the Preface that Dee was thinking of another Italian commentator on Vitruvius, namely Daniele Barbaro. This is suggested in the phrase used by Dee when speaking of Vitruvius's dedication of his work to Augustus 'in whose daies our Heauenly Archemaster was borne'. 28 Barbaro, at the beginning of his commentary, dwells on the universal peace of the Augustan age 'in which time Our Lord Jesus Christ was born.' 29 This christianizing of Vitruvius by the learned and revered Patriarch of Acquileia, Daniele Barbaro, is a point which Dee has picked up. And of course the adoption of Vitruvius by the Church was resulting all over Europe in the new-style neoclassical ecclesiastical architecture. At the end of the architecture section, Dee is seized with nervous hurry, and with an anxious sense of adverse criticism awaiting him. Some, he fears ... will nycely nip up my grosse and homely discoursing with you: made in post haste: for feare you should want this tme and frendly warning, and tast giuyng, of the Power Mathematicall. Lyfe is short, and uncertaine: Tymes are perilous &c. And still the Printer awayting, for my pen staying: All these thinges, with farder matter of Ingratefulnes, giue me occasion to passe away, to other Artes remainyng, with all spede possible. 30

He then hurriedly runs on to treat of navigation, of 'Thaumaturgike,' and of some all-inclusive art or 'Archmastrie' about which he is not clear. With 'thaumaturgike' 31 we are very much in the presence of Dee, the magician, and yet the wonder-causing marvels which he here discusses can also be classed as in a sense a 'Vitruvian subject', belonging into Vitruvius's treatment of mechanical 28 See below, p. 192. See below, p. 196. Vitruvius, Architectura cum commentariis Danielis Barbari, ed. of Venice, 1567, p. 2. 31 Preface, sig. A i recto-verso. 3o See below, pp. 196-7. 27

2e

29

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

toys and strange theatrical effects as part of the architect's business. 'Thaumaturgike', states Dee, 'is that Art Methematicall, which giueth certaine order to make straunge workes, of the sense to be perceiued, and of men greatly to be wondered at.' This art thus consists in mechanical devices which produce effects which seem magical or supernatural. By various ways, he continues, are these wonder works performed; some by pneumatics, and here he cites Hero of Alexandria; some by strings strained, or· secret springs or wheels. But some are done by 'other meanes', and here he cites 'the images of Mercurie: and the brazen head, made by Albertus, which dyd seme to speake.' Here he refers to the speaking images of the kind generally supposed in the Renaissance to be magical, the brazen head made by Albertus Magnus (and/or Roger Bacon) and the images described by 'Mercurius Trismegistus' in the Asclepius which the Egyptian priests were supposed to animate by their religious magic. Among other marvels mentioned by Dee is 'a strange self moving' which he and his friend Oronce Fine, the French mathematician, saw at Saint Denis near Paris in 1551, perhaps a religious image worked by secret mechanisms. Then there was that famous revolving model of the heavens made by Archimedes, a supreme example of a mechanical marvel. Architas made a wooden dove which could fly, and the mechanical fly made at Nuremberg flew about the guests at a banquet. An artificial eagle, made in the same town, flew to meet the emperor. Marvellous effects can also be produced by devices such as cunning uses of perspective. Dee's collection of marvels wrought by 'thaumaturgike' is based, though with some additions of his own, on a similar list in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia, where it illustrates his statement that a magician must be versed in mathematics for this teaches how to produce by mechanical means wonderful operations, s1:1ch as Architas's dove, the Nuremberg fly, and so on. 32 There 1s the same combination of a scientific with a magical outlook in both Agrippa's and Dee's list of marvels. Although Dee knows that the pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria and other mechanisms, or cunning uses of perspective can 32 See Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, pp. 147-9. 30

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

~ccount for the marvels produced by this 'mathematical art', he includes among them the revered magic statues of the Hermetic Asclepius, supposed to have been activated by priestly thaumaturgy. Although he knows that the 'strange self moving' which he saw at Saint Denis was probably worked by secret wheels, yet it filled him with a kind of awe. The Renaissance borderland country, half magic, half emerging science, is illustrated by this passage, and its close relation to the similar passage in Agrippa shows how closely Dee's conception of mathematics is here related to Agrippa's conception of 'mathematical magic'. Since even a Magus, who knew the. mechanical. explanations of the-marvels he performed, could feel a ki!lcJ_of awe about them, it is not surprising tha! the)gnorant multitude might see them as diabolical magic. It is with a strong sense of injury that Dee protests, immediately after the passage on 'Thaumaturgike', at the persecution of him as a conjuror.

And for these, and such like marueilous Actes and Feates, Naturally, Mathematically, and Mechanically, wro_ught and contriued: ought any honest Student, and Modest Christian Philosopher, be counted, & called a Coniuror? Shall the folly of Idiotes, and the Mallice of the Scornfull, so much preuaile, that he, who seeketh no worldly gaine or glory at their hands: But onely, of God, the threasor of heauenly ·wisedome, & knowledge of pure veritie: Shall he (I say) in the meane space, be robbed and spoiled of his honest name and fame ?33 Wh~m~_chanical marvels w~re in_dema_ng ~wasJor_t]l.eatrical shows, as Vitruvius knew and deemed it part of the architect's business to concern himself with these.~.And it was actually through a mechanical marvel which he designed for a theatrical performance that Dee's skill in 'thaumaturgike' first aroused both general wonderment and sinister rumours. The scene at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1547 on the occasion of Dee~s production of the Pax of Aristophanes has already been referred to.

Hereupon I did sett forth (and it was seene of the University) a Greeke comedy of Aristophanes, named in Greek 'Etp~vTJ, in Latin, Pax; with the performance of the Scarabaeus, his flying up to Jupiter's pallace, with a man and his basket of victuales on her 33

Preface, sig. A i verso-A ii recto.

31

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

back· whereat was great wondring, and many vaine reportes ' &r: d .34 spread abroad of the meanes how that was e11ecte

. Dee's flying _§~rabaeus _II_lay __hav~~ be~n the first ex~m:pJe_in 1/England of a stage machine of a Renaissance type, that 1s _one followiiigclassical rather than medieval tradition. 35 He ment10ns iiagain when describingnow he showed dia~a;ms to. t~e audience in his highly successful lectures on Euclid m Pans m 1550. I

And by the first foure principale definitions representing to the eyes, (which by imagination onely are exactly to be conceived) a greater. wonder arose among the beholders, than my Aristophanes Scarabaeus mounting up to the top of Trinity-hall in Cambridge. 36

Dee thus really first attracted attention in the character of the producer of a play, a very up-to-date producer whose skill in 'thaumaturgike' aroused wonder and alarm among the natives of a country not yet familiar with the continental developments of stagecraft. The story of the flying Scarabaeus is important for its indication that Dee was interested in the theatre. But it also reminds us in a general way that the kind of tradition which Dee represents-a tradition both mystical, magical, and Hermetic, and also .scfonfi:fic, techno!ogica_l,'"and Vitruvian-is the tradition to which a growing interest in stagecraft would have looked for advice and assistance. Machines, pulleys, cunning perspectives, models of the heavens, mechanical flights-such things as these would be more and more in demand as stagecraft developed. And where would expert advice and help on such matters be found in England? Certainly not in the universities which ·eschewed such subjects in their pursuit of a type of humanistic education which did not include Vitruvius, nor the mathematical and mechanical sciences connected with architecture. It would be among the Hermetic philosophers, a persecuted sect, that the theatrical producer would look for help, for the Hermetic philosophers were the technicians in an age in which science was emerging from magic. Dee, Compendious Rehearsal/, in Autobiographical Tracts, ed. Crossley, pp. 5-6.

34

See Lily B. Cambell, Scenes and Machines of the English Stage during the Renaissance, Cambridge, 1923, p. 87. 36 Dee, Compendious Rehearsal/, ed. cit., pp. 7-8.

35

32

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

The catalogue of Dee's library shows that he collected classical dramatic texts. 37 This may have some bearing on his interest as a producer of plays. A striking fact about Dee's Preface is that, although it is in a sense a treatise on Vitruvius, it never mentions the main subject of Vitruvius's book which, as everyone knows, describes how to design and build classical temples, villas, basilicas and other buildings, and pays particular attention to the orders of ancient architecture, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian. Dee never once mentions the orders, nor does he ever mention any ancient building, with the sole exception of the ancient theatre to whose musical and acoustic properties he refers in the passage quoted above. It is possibly for this reason-the total omission of material to be expected in a treatise on classical architecture-that historians of architecture have missed the fact that Dee's work is really based on Vitruvius. Dee's approach to Vitruvius is, as it were, basic. He goes for the fact of the geometrical and mathematical basis of classical theory of architectural proportion, and he sees this mathematical basis as extended to all the 'Vitruvian subjects', the subjects which Vitruvius treats as necessary for the architect to know. The omission of any description of actual buildings in Dee's Preface, which concentrates on the 'Vitruvian subjects' rather than on the buildings of classical architecture which form the main Vitruvian subject, corresponds in a way to the situation in Eliz.abethan England. Here the Vitruvian revival, encouraged by Dee in his popular Preface, led to a popular scientific movement stimulated by the Vitruvian technology, but with, apparently, ii"Ocorresponding appearance _,. in the world of an Elizabethan version of neoclassical architec- ..._.

tuie. Yet Dee fully understood the basic Renaissance principle of 'design', that it is the presence in the mind of an architect of a plan expressive in mathematical and geometrical terms of the principles of proportion which constitutes the true beauty of a building, quite apart from the 'material stuff' of which the building is composed. Dee's architectural theory moves in an exactly opposite direction from the contemporary Tudor mansions, encumbered with classical decorative detail but with no understanding of proportionate design. a7 See above,

p. 11.

33

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

The catalogue of Dee's library can tell us more about Dee's architectural knowledge. That catalogue is extremely important for the student of the Preface, for it probably lists most of the works which Dee was using in writing it. My modest digging here in its immensely rich soil is for the limited purpose of discovering what books on architecture Dee possessed as the background to the passage on architecture in the Preface. Near the beginning of the catalogue (Pl. I) there is this entry: Vitruvii Architectura cum commentariis Danielis Barbari 1° Ven. 1567. 38 This is proof of what we have already suspected from a passage in the Preface, that Dee knew Daniele Barbara's commentary on Vitruvius. Here is the 1567 (Latin) edition of that work in his library. It contained the best text of Vitruvius available; the best and most learned commentary available; and Palladio's plan of the ancient theatre. Dee and any others who used his library would thus have seen that plan. The other editions of Vitruvius in the catalogue are as follows: Vitruvius de architectura . .. S° Flor. 1522. 39 Vitruvius de architectura . .. 4° Arg. 1543. 40 Philander in Vitruvius S 0 Paris. 1545. 41 Architecture de Vitruve Pollion en lranfois par Jan Martin 1° Paris Marnel 1572. 42 The first of these is an edition at Florence in 1522 of the Jocundus edition of Vitruvius, first published in 1511. The second and third items are both editions of Vitruvius with commentaries by Philander, a French scholar and architect, one at Strasburg in 1543, the other at Paris in 1545. The last item is the second edition (1572) of Jean Martin's French translation of Vitruvius, first published in 1547. Concerning Alberti's De re aedifi.catoria (first edition, 14S5) there are the following two entries in the catalogue: Leonis Baptista Alberti de architectura libri decem, absque figuris 4° Paris 1523. 43 Architecture de Leon Baptiste Albert en lranfois par Jan Martin!° Paris, 1553. 44 38 40

42 44

34

MS. Harley, 1879, folio I verso. Ibid., folio 17 verso. Ibid., folio 69 recto. Ibid., folio 69 recto.

39 41 43

Ibid., folio 22 recto. Ibid., folio 24 recto. Ibid., folio 16 recto.

Plate 3

Robert Fludd. Engraved portrait signed by Matthieu Merian.

Plate 4 Title-page of Fludd's Technical History of the Macrocosm, showing the Subjects. Engraved by Matthieu Merian.

---===---_,

··-

-·

__.,. ____ ... - ...... � - .....

Plate 5 Surveying. (a) (c) from Fludd. Leonard (b) From Thomas Digges.

and C

Plate 6 Optics. From Fludd.

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

The first is a late edition of the Latin version of Alberti's work; the second is Jean Martin's French translation. The significant aspects of this list are, first of all that Dee possessed the Daniele Barbaro which would be his main source both for text and commentary on Vitruvius, and which was the best and most up-to-date book to use. Apart from the copy of the Jocundus edition, he might also use Philander's commentaries, which might have appealed to him for their mingling of mystical elements, such as references to Hermes Trismegistus or to Reuchlin on the Cabala, with commentary on Vitruvius. Significant too is his possession of Jean Martin's French translations of both Vitruvius and Alberti. These French translations thus become important as possibly available in Dee's library to readers for whom French was easier than Latin. Martin's translations were popular in French poetic circles; the translation of Alberti, which was published after Martin's death, contains an epitaph on him by Ronsard. The list is also significant for its omissions. There is no copy in the catalogue of Serlio's book, with its emphasis on perspective scenes in the theatre; though Serlio's tragic, comic, and satiric scenes are reproduced in Martin's French translation of Vitruvius, which is in the catalogue. Nor does the catalogue contain Palladio's epoch-making book, the Quattro libri dell' architettura, which was published in 1570, the same year as that in which Dee's Preface was published. Yet the catalogue does contain two small works which belonged very closely into the sphere of Palladio's thought and influence. These are: Martino Bassi, Dispareri in materia d'architettura e perspettiva, Brescia. 1572. Silvio Belli, Della proportione e proportionalita, 1573. 45 These books belong into a controversy in which Palladio was interested and in which Belli seems to have represented his point of view. Of Belli's little book, Wittkower says, 'the lucidity and simplicity of Belli's presentation is congenial to Palladio's conception of architecture'. 46 Belli was one of the founders of the Olympic Academy of Vicenza, the academy which was responsible for the building of the Teatro Olimpico, Ibid., folio 68 recto (both these entries are on this folio). Wittkower, Architectural Principles, p. 125; Ackermann, Palladio, pp. 161-3.

45

46

35

JOHN DEE AND VITR UVIUS

and he must have been in close touch with Palladio, its designer. Thus although Palladio's book is not in the catalogue of Dee's library, his possession of Bassi's and Belli's books might indicate that he continued to follow, after the publication of the Preface in 1570, the latest Italian architectural theories, in so far as these were available to him. As we have seen, judging by the Preface, .what interested Dee in architectural theory was the basic theory of proportion in its mathematical and symbolic aspects. He was not interested in classical motifs merely as decoration and would not have fallen into the trap· of applying the classical orders decoratively to buildings without understanding the relation of their proportions to the basic proportions of the building as a whole. In what he says of 'Anthropographie' in the Preface he shows that he had firmly grasped the principles of proportion underlying classical architecture, their relationship to human proportions, and the geometrical terms through which these could be expressed. And his other main interest, in the Preface, is in the relationship of arts and sciences to one another as all 'mathematical arts' following basic mathematical rules. Profoundly important for Dee's main themes are the following two books which the catalogue shows that he possessed: Giorgii Veneti Harmonia mundif0 Parisiis 1545. 47 This is Francesco Giorgi's Harmonia mundi (first edition, 1525), the very influential work by a Franciscan friar of Venice which sets out the 'world music' of the Macrocosm and its echoes or parallels in the harmonious composition of the Microcosm. Influenced by Pico della Mirandola and by Reuchlin, the Cabalist, this work is the Renaissance expansion of the medieval theme of musica mundana and musica humana. The book was important for architecture which incorporated these themes in terms of harmonious proportion and the Vitruvian image of man within the square and the circle is illustrated in it. 48 The other book in the catalogue to which attention must be drawn is: Lucas Paciolus de divina proportione italice f 0 Ven. 1509.4 9 47 48

0

36

MS. Harley, 1879, folio 6 recto. Wittkower, Architectural Principles, pp. 90ff. MS. Harley, 1879, folio 8 recto.

JOHN DEE AND VITR UVIUS

Thus does the catalogue record Dee's possession of a beautiful book (in Italian, as the catalogue states), Luca Pacioli's De divina proportione, the diagrammatic illustrations for which were drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. 50 Even if one had not known from th~ catalogue that Dee possessed it, one might have guessed that this book could have been one of the inspirations for his Preface. For Pacioli's theme is that the mathematical disciplines are the foundations for all sciences in proof of which he goes through :What we have come to think of as the 'Vitruvian subjects' pointmg out that they all depend on number. Military exercises need geometry, arithmetic, proportion; so does the making of walls, fortifications, bridges, military machines. There is a lack of good astrologers because mathematics are defective (Dee would have approved of this). The main mathematical disciplines are arithmetic, geometry, astrology, music, perspective, architecture, cosmography. This plea for the mathematical disciplines, or the 'Vitruvian subjects', leads up to Pacioli's treatise on 'divine proportion', a fundamental work for Renaissance art theory as understood in the circle of Leonardo da Vinci, to which Pacioli belonged. John Dee's mathematical Preface, in which he grasps the kernel of Renaissance theory of proportion, its mathematical basis, and its relation to the 'Vitruvian subjects' which he treats, thus belongs into one of the most powerful and profound of Renaissance movements. It contained in potentiality those developments in art, architecture, and science to which a universal man, like Leonardo, had given expression in Italy. A question which scholars will have to explore in the future is the problem of where and how Dee acquired all this knowledge. Dee had studied abroad, at Louvain, in 1548-9, which suggests Catholic Flanders as the possible milieu where the mental formation which he exhibits in the Preface might first have developed. In 1550 he gave his famous lectures in Paris, which raises the possibility of contact with Vitruvian studies in the French Renaissance, and perhaps accounts for the copies of Philander on Vitruvius in his library. He was again in Flanders in the fifteen-sixties, purchasing books and manuscripts, and also paid some short visits to Italy. It was perhaps o~ these foreign trips that he absorbed the spirit of the Renaissance 60 Wittkower, Architectural Principles, pp. 14ff. 37

JOHN DEE AND VITR UVIUS

Vitruvian revival, which it seems unlikely that he could have imbibed solely through books. Strangely enough, the Renaissance architect whose interests and outlook seem closest to those of John Dee is Juan Herrera, the favourite architect of Philip II of Spain, who helped to design the Escorial for that monarch. Rene Taylor's study of Herrera 51 has brought out the surprising fact that this architect and his royal master had large numbers of occult works in their libraries and were deeply interested in magic and astrology. To read the catalogues of their libraries is like reading the catalogue of Dee's library-though there are some basic differences-and it is certain that when Dee's catalogue is published its editor should take cognisance, for comparison, of these contemporary Spanish libraries. Both Herrera and Philip were, like Dee, ardent Lullists. Like him they collected the works of Hermes Trismegistus and his followers. Herrera, like Dee, was bent on the revival of mathematical studies and was proficient in all the 'Vitruvian subjects', fortification, mechanics, hydraulics, and so on. Like Dee, Herrera was the expert adviser to mariners, in his case, of course, not Elizabethan ones but their Spanish rivals. Both Herrera and Philip were, like Dee, interested in magic mnemonics and possessed Giulio Camillo's L'Idea de! Theatro (Philip owned a now lost manuscript containing illustrations for this work by Titian). 52 They also both possessed copies of Dee's own work, the Monas hieroglyphica. 53 The parallels between Dee and Herrera have struck Rene Taylor from whose article I quote the following: ... Herrera and Dee must have been two very similar men in their basic outlook. While there is no evidence to show that Herrera went in for spirit-raising or that Dee practised architecture, they had many points of contact. Both were mathematicians who worked actively to promote the study of mathematics. At the same time side by side with their interest in rational mathematics went a passion for mathesis or 'mystical' mathematics. They also cultivated the sciences-astronomy, geography, mathematics, Rene Taylor, 'Architecture and Magic: Considerations on the Idea of the Escorial', Essays in the History of Architecture presented to Rudolf Wittkower, London, 1967, pp. 81-109. 62 Taylor, article cited, pp. 96, 103, 105. 53 Ibid., foe. cit. 51

38

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

medicine . . . both applied their studies to practical ends, inventing mechanical contrivances and marine instruments . . . they were both profoundly religious men ... enthusiastic Lullists ... interested in Hermetism, astrology, mnemonics and Cabala. Both were in Flanders during the years 1548-50. . . . It is not known whether the two men ever met, but Herrera's admiration for Dee is attested by the existence among his books of two copies of the latter's Monas hieroglyphica, one of which was a manuscript translation into Spanish. Philip II who had known Dee personally in connection with the casting of his horoscope also possessed this work. 54

Though it would be premature to draw any conclusions from these curious parallels, which can only be regarded at present as pointers for future research, it can be definitely said that Dee's Vitruvianism belongs in spirit into a strongly magical moment in the history of Renaissance Vitruvianism, such as Herrera also represents. Dee, as we saw, equated Vitruvian man with the magical cosmological man through his references to both Vitruvius and Agrippa when discussing the· proportions of 'Vitruvian man'. The strong aura of magic, astrology, and mysticism which colours Dee's approach to Vitruvius is also present in Herrera. These associations do not seem to have been so strongly in the minds of the earlier Renaissance architects; Herrera and Dee represent a stage in Renaissance Vitruvianism at which the growing strength of the Hermetic influences turns Vitruvius himself into a Magus 55 and infuses magical and Ibid., p. 87, note 69. Another recent line of enquiry has led to a suggestion of possible contact between Dee and Spanish occult circles. A mirror made of black obsidian and formerly belonging to Dee has recently been acquired by the British Museum. Expert examination has shown that this object is undoubtedly of Mexican origin. The following suggestion has been made as to how Dee might have acquired it: 'No doubt, Dr. Dee acquired his obsidian Aztec mirror on one of his journeys abroad on the Continent, soon after it had reached Spain from the New World. Accounts show that while Dee was in the Low Countries studying at Louvain (1548-50), many foreign noblemen from the court of Charles V visited him ... in this way Dee might easily have acquired the Aztec mirror from a Spanish courtier.. .' Hugh Tait, 'The Devil's Looking Glass: The Magical Speculum of Dr. John Dee', Reprinte~ fr~m Horace Walpole, Writer, Politician, and Connoisseur, Yale Uruvers1ty Press, 1967, p. 205. 55 Taylor, article cited, p. 89. 64

39

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

cosmological overtones into the proportions of 'Vitruvian man'. This chapter has proved that Dee was fully conversant with Vitruvian theory and that his mathematical Preface was inspired by Vitruvius. It has tried to suggest the moment in the history of Renaissance Vitruvianism to which Dee would seem to belong. Where is the English Renaissance architecture which arose from the stimulus of Dee's Preface? It seems unlikely that a current so powerful would have had no concrete result, that no buildings appeared in London expressive of these exciting ideas. There is one aspect of Dee's work which must be strongly emphasized. This is the fact that he addressed his mathematical and architectural theories to a middle class, to the artisans of London who sought to improve their work through better knowledge of mathematics, who sought to better their estate through improved skills. 56 He -wTote _his Preface in ____~:r:g~sh, adg,resseq)t to a_g~~-~r~!__ p_ub_lic, ~ban:Q:oned the atmosphere of sec;recy and privilege surroun~g the science of architecture, t~e~ open his library_ to e.?quir€?rs._It may therefore be suggested that the influences of Dee's Vitruvianism should be sought, not at the court ruled by a parsimonious queen, not among the nouveaux riches builders of Tudor mansions, not among the clergy of the Elizabethan Establishment which was noted for letting churches fall into decay rather than for building new ones, but among the class of people to whom Dee addressed his Preface, the middle-to-artisan class, the new race of eager mathematicians and technologists whom he did so much to encourage by his work and example. And out of that area of society there arose in 1576, six years after the publication of Dee's Preface, a building such as had not been seen in England before, built by a man who united in himself the trade of joiner or carpenter and the profession of actor, an energetic and intelligent man of exactly the type and class to which Dee's Preface appealed. He built it for the practi58 The Renaissance commentators on Vitruvius, including Alberti, had also sought to interest the artisan classes; Jean Martin stated that he intended his French translation for the use of workmen; see Vassili Pavlovitch Zoubov, 'Vitruve et ses commentateurs au XVIe siecle' , in La scienc~ au seizieme siecle, Colloque international de Royaumont, 1957, Pans, 1960, pp. 74-5.

40

JOHN DEE AND VITRUVIUS

cal purpose of providing permanent premises for a company of actors. James Burbage erected his wooden theatre in Shoreditch in 1576. This theatre was the first of the public .theatres of Elizabethan and Jacobean London. It initiated the theatrebuilding movement of the English Renaissance and was the direct ancestor of Shakespeare's theatre, the immortal Globe. I believe that out of Dee's popular Vitruvianism there was evolved a popular adaptation of the ancient theatre, as described by Vitruvius, Alberti, and Barbaro, resulting in a new type of building of immense significance for it was to house the Shakespearean drama. This theme must, however, wait for a while. I bring the reader to the point where, at the end of this chapter, he may begin to see something, and then temporarily close the door. For in the immediately following chapters I shall explore the currents of Vitruvian influence set in motion in England by John Dee in their later manifestations, working my way through Robert Fludd up to the appearance of lnigo Jones. Only when these foundations have been laid can I come back to the theme here momentarily glimpsed, and begin to explore the London theatre movement from an entirely new angle.

41

CHAPTER III

Robert Fludd and Vitruvius

J

OHN DEE died in 1608. The philosopher of the Elizabethan Renaissance whose work had given rise to some of the most powerful currents of the age died in poverty and neglect. The tradition of Hermetic philosophy, with its associated impulses towards scientific and artistic achievement, was carried on in England by Robert Fludd (Pl. 3). Born in 1574, four years after the publication of Dee's Preface, Fludd died in 163 7, 1 when Charles I had been on the throne for thirteen years. In the early part of his life Fludd was thus contemporary with Dee, though much younger; the years of his maturity and vast literary output belong to the reign of James I. When Dee and Fludd are recognized as representatives of Renaissance philosophy in England, it will be seen that Dee was the philosopher of the Elizabethan age, Fludd of the Jacobean. Their philosophies are similar, arising out of Renaissance Neoplatonism, with its Hermetic-Cabalist core, shading from genuine science into mysticism and magic. At many points, connection between the outlook of Dee and that of Fludd may 1 On Fludd's life, see the article in The Dictionary of National Biography, and J.B. Craven, Doctor Robert Fludd, Kirkwall, 1902, As in the case of Dee, no adequate life of Fludd has as yet been published. On Fludd's work, see Allen G. Debus, The English Paracelsians, London, 1965 (the bibliography in this book lists articles on Fludd); P. J. Amman, 'The Musical Theory and Philosophy of Robert Fludd', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXX (1967), pp. 198-227. See also my Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, pp. 403-7, and The Art of Memory, pp. 320ff.

42

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

be perceived. Fludd was a Paracelsist doctor; Dee's profound interest in the Paracelsan writings is shown by the large collection of them in the catalogue of his library. The MacrocosmMicrocosm relationship, which the Paracelsan-form - of the Hermetic tradition developed with enthusiasm, was funda-"' J!l~ntal to the thought of both Dee and Fludd. In Fludd's writings the theme takes a musical form and is worked out in terms of musical proportion. The proportions of the Microcosm' and their relation to those of the Macrocosm, of the musica humana to the musica mundana, are the foundation ideas of Fludd's voluminous works. The Renaissance philosopher to Whom he-was perhaps most indebted was Francesco Giorgi, whose Harmonia mundi is on similar lines to Fludd's work. 2 Giorgi had related musical proportion to architectural proportion by using 'Vitruvian man' as a symbol of the divine and human proportions. The image of Vitruvian man was certainly also present to Fludd's mind, as can be seen in one of his illustrations (Pl. 2(b)), which shows a man with extended arms and legs within a circle. The circle is the circle of the zodiac, which shows that Fludd subscribed, like Dee, to the Agrippan or magical and cosmic interpretation of the image; and there is much other evidence of the influence of Agrippa in Fludd's work. In short it may be said that Fludd's philosophy is an expression in musical terms of a tradition which is very close to that which nourished Dee. This similarity in the pattern of their minds is also reflected in their careers. Like Dee, Fludd was cold-shouldered at home but had a considerable reputation abroad. The point of connection between Dee and Fludd which I shall explore in this chapter is, however, a more specific one than general philosophical similarity. It is the fact that Fludd followed Dee on the 'Vitruvian subjects'. One of the longest parts of Fludd's immensely long Utriusque Cosmi Historia is based on Dee's mathematical Preface, treats of the same 'Vitruvian subjects', often citing the same authorities as Dee. Though Fludd never mentions Dee by name, he was clearly his disciple, one of the many whom the famous Preface had inspired to undertakings of their own. In treating of the 'Vitruvian subjects', Fludd appears, like Dee, in the light of a magical technologist, 2 See Amman, article cited, pp. 221-3.

43

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

and in touch with the Vitruvian-mathematical movement which Dee had stimulated-an aspect of the strange figure of Fludd which has hardly been suspected. The 'two worlds' of which Fludd writes the history in his Utriusque Cosmi Historia are the world of the Macrocosm, or the cosmos, and the world of the Microcosm, or man. In Fludd's neatly arranged scheme of things, both these worlds have 'technical histories', that is arts and sciences concerned in the one case with the outer world of the cosmos, in the other case with the inner world of man. The techniques or technologies connected, according to Fludd, with the Macrocosm, can be recognized as basically the Vitruvian techniques. Fludd sets them out in what he calls 'the technical history of the Macrocosm'. The volume on the technical history of the Macrocosm forms part of the long series of the Utriusque Cosmi Historia which was published at Oppenheim, in Germany, by the firm of John Theodore De Bry. Since this series is rather confusing. I set out its parts here in simplified form. Tomus Primus. On the Macrocosm. In two parts. Part I on the metaphysics of the Macrocosm was published in 1617, with a dedication to James I. Part II is on 'the technical history of the Macrocosm' with which this chapter is concerned. It was published in 1618. Tomus Secundus. On the Microcosm. In two parts, namely on the metaphysics of the Microcosm and on 'the technical history of the Microcosm', which correspond to the two parts of the Macrocosm Tomus. They were however not published separately, like the Macrocosm parts, but in one volume, in 1619. The 'technical history of the Microcosm' contains the 'Ans memoriae', all discussion of which is postponed until a later chapter of this book. The Tomus on the Microcosm did not conclude the series, other parts of which appeared later. I am however only concerned with the publications enumerated above, which I shall refer to as Macrocosm I and II; and Microcosm I and II. The subjects of Macrocosm II, 'the technical history of the Macrocosm' are set out on its title-page in the form of images on a wheel. These images, and their order, constitute a mnemotechnic for remembering the subjects of which the book will

44

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

treat. Many of the illustrations to Fludd's books have this partly symbolic and partly mnemotechnic character, and witness to his constant pre-occupation with the art of memory. Before we begin to study the subjects of the 'technical history of the Macrocosm', let us gaze attentively at this helpful mnemonic title-page (Pl. 4). The full Latin title may be translated as 'On the Ape of Nature or the Technical History of the Macrocosm divided into eleven parts'. Art as the Ape of Nature sits in the centre of a wheel divided into eleven sections containing images representing the eleven parts into which the volume is divided. He points with a wand to a book containing numbers. All nature is based on number and the Ape of Nature man, musttnereforebase all his arts on number. This refers to section 1 of the volume, on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, with sub-sections on the relation of number to military art, music, astronomy, astrology, and geomancy. To keep to the order in which the subjects are treated in the volume, we must now move to the man playing the organ, representing music, which is the subject of section 2. Next we look at the man surveying with a cross staff, with quadrant and compass beside him, who represents section 3, on land measurement. The man looking at a house stands for section 4, on optics. The painter at his easel brings us to section 5, on painting proportion and perspective. The segment of a fort, bombarded with guns, represents section 6, on military art. The instrument for lifting weights, of a type used by builders, brings us to section 7, on motion, which includes machines and mechanical devices of many kinds. The clock and the dial stand for section 8, on time-measurement. The globe refers to section 9, on cosmography and geography. The astrologer represents section 10 on astrology. Finally, the shield with the dots on it stands for geomancy, which is treated in the last, or eleventh, part of the volume. Now, with one exception (geomancy), these subjects can be classed as Vitruvian subjects, subjects which Vitruvius states in the first book of the De architectura that the architect must know, or which are treated in the succeeding books-number and calculation, music, land measurement, optics, drawing and painting, fortification and military art, motion and machines and instruments using motion, time measurement, cosmography, astrology. All _Fludd~s eleven"' subjects, e?CCeP,!.~ geomancy, a;~ ,./',1

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

treated by Vitruvius as subservient to archite~ture, which Fludd --does not mention. ' - Fludd is however following not so much Vitruvius himself (though he certainly knew Vitruvius's text) but Dee's treatment of the Vitruvian subjects in the mathematical Preface. Fludd enormously expands Dee's treatment . of the subjects and illustrates them with quantities of engraved illustrations. The 'technical history of the Macrocosm' is thus very much longer than Dee's Preface, and also differs from it in being lavishly illustrated. -The suspicion arises from time to time that some of Fludd's expansions might actually be Dee's own expansions of the subjects in unpublished manuscripts which Fludd was here publishing without acknowledgement. Some of the illustrations were certainly suggested by Dee's own words. For example, Dee in connection with painting mentions Dtirer's work on proportion; Fludd expands by reproducing illustrations from Diirer's book. Fludd had grasped that the common ground between all the subjects was number. The mathematical Preface had made this clear to him. But he omits architecture itself from the subjects and does not quote, as Dee had done, Vitruvius on proportion to make clear the mathematical link of all the subjects with architecture. But he certainly knew the Vitruvian theory; as already mentioned, his whole musical philosophy of Macrocosm and Microcosm is based on proportion in musical terms. The study of Fludd's 'technical history of the Macrocosm' as depending on and expanding Dee's Preface is an intricate matter. The following attempt at tackling it is necessarily incomplete, and it is selective, and made with the general purposes of this book in view. The Ape of Nature (Pl. 4) points to the book containing numbers as the basis of all the arts. Vitruvius had said that the architect must be versed in mathematics, but Fludd's extremely long treatment of arithmetic, algebra, geometry in their relation to other arts 3 corresponds to the opening of Dee's Preface on arithmetic, algebra, geometry and their connections. The suggestion that Fludd's expansion of the Preface on number may possibly represent unpublished mathematical works by Dee must be left to the historians of mathematics to investigate further. 3 Macrocosm II, Pars I, pp. 5ff. 46

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

Omitting for the present music, represented on the mnemonic circle by the man playing the organ, which is actually the first subject which Fludd treats after his general survey of number, we tum our attention to the man engaged in surveying a town. Vitruvius had said that the architect must understand land measurement; Dee had a paragraph on geodecy; Fludd expands surveying into a very long and very fully illustrated section of his book. 4 The art of surveying had been greatly developed by Dee's able associates and disciples in the flourishing London school of applied mathematics. Leonard Digges wrote a treatise on it, called Pantometria, which his son Thomas Digges, who was Dee's close disciple, published with additions in 1571, the year after the publication of Dee's Preface. 5 This treatise is illustrated with cuts showing men surveying with cross staff and quadrant (Pl. 5(b)); the preface to it points out that the book will be useful to those skilled in architecture. Fludd certainly had this book by him when composing his section 3, on surveying, introduced by a scene of a man surveying a town (Pl. 5(a)), and dotted with many illustrations of men with surveying instruments, some of which are very similar to those in Digges's book. This is interesting, for it shows that Fludd not .only knew the Preface but was in touch with the work of the Dee school as a whole. I am not in a position to discuss technically what Fludd has to say about surveying, but I refer the reader to E. G. R. Taylor, who states that Fludd's claim to have invented a new type of surveying instrument is justified. 6 In the next two sections on optics and on painting (represented on the mnemonic wheel by the man looking at a house and the painter) Fludd again appears in the light of an instructor, of someone who is setting out to teach perspective drawing and the elements of proportion in figure drawing, just as he had been teaching the elements of surveying in the section on surveymg. Vitruvius had said that the architect must know optics; Dee Ibid., Pars III, pp. 261ff. On Leonard and Thomas Digges and their work on surveying, see E. G. R. Taylor, Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England, pp. 166-7, 175. 6 Ibid., p. 175. 4

5

47

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

had mentioned optics and perspective in the Preface. Fludd as usual greatly expands and heavily illustrates these themes. As with all the subjects, the section on optics 7 is introduced with a picture illustrating the theme (Pl. 6). A man is gazing at a sculptured head on a table; in the background is a street scene in perspective. In the pages which follow the student is given some elementary instructions in drawing and is shown in the illustrations several examples of the squared grid, the device, said to have been invented by Alberti, and illustrated in one of Diirer's -books which provided the artist with mechanical help for perspective drawing. 8 The draughtsman observed the scene or figure to be drawn through a frame divided into squares by netting or some other material; he had by him a piece of paper divided into corresponding squares to which he transferred what he saw through the squares of the grid. Diirer's illustration of the squared grid shows the foreshortened figure of a woman being observed through the grid by an artist who is transferring this figure on to squared paper. ln Fludd's illustrations, the grid is being used for drawing buildings in landscape settings in perspective (Pl. 7(a)). Thus Fludd aimed in this section, not only at expounding optics and perspective as mathematical arts, but also at teaching perspective drawing with the use of the grid. The next section 'on the pictorial art' 9 is introduced by a picture of an artist painting at an easel which is like the one on the mnemonic wheel illustrating this subject though not identical with it. Painting and drawing were Vitruvian subjects; Dee had discussed painting and sculpture in the Preface and had cited Diirer and Pomponius Gauricus. Fludd mentions both these names and expands with illustrations. He reproduces from Diirer's Vier Bi;·cher von Menschlicher Proportion a diagram of the whole human figure, also heads and a foot (Pl. 7(b)) from the same work, illustrating the principles of proportion. Just as he had expanded Dee on surveying with illustrations based on Digges, so here he expands Dee on painting with illustrations from Diirer. Again he seems here to aim, not only at demonstrating that painting is a mathematical art, based on geometriMacrocosm II, Pars IV, pp. 293ff. See E. Panofsky, The Codex Huyghens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory, London, Warburg Institute, 1940, pp. 92-3 and fig. 80. 9 Macrocosm II, Pars V, pp. 317ff.

7 8

48

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

cal principles, but also at providing a practical guide for artists of a somewhat mechanical kind. One illustration shows how to copy a picture of a Siren on ruled paper. He reproduces examples of how to draw eyes (Pl. 7(c)) from Odoardo Fialetti's pattern book, 10 and of heads from the book by Hans Sebald Beham.11 Indeed this section might be described as an artist's pattern book of the type which became fashionable in the early seventeenth century. Fortification and military art are, of course, Vitruvian subjects and they were touched on by Dee in the Preface. Fludd's section on these subjects12 is one of the most impressive and lavishly illustrated in the book. The introductory picture of an angled fort being attacked by gunfire (Pl. 8) is followed by large numbers of pictures or plans of forts, all designated as in certain towns or places in Europe. There are pictures of troops drawn up in mathematical battle order, and illustrations of instruments of war ranging from classical battering rams to modern guns. Fludd on military art represents Vitruvius brought up to date; the forts which he illustrates so ·profusely are modern, Renaissance angle-bastion forts, 13 designed to resist gunfire, and the weapons include guns. The aspects of the proficiency of Dee. and his disciples in the mathematical arts in which the Elizabethan government had taken most interest had been those connected with the development of navigation and with improved methods of defence in warfare, of great importance in view of the threat of Spanish invasion which loomed over the country. Gunnery was one of Dee's specialities, 14 and one wonders whether the 'brief compendium' on artillery which Fludd prints might be one of Dee's unpublished papers. 10 Odoardo Fialetti, JI vero modo ed ordine per disegnar tutte le parti et membra de/ corpo humano, Venice, 1608. 11 H. S. Beham, Kunst und Lehrbiichlein, Nuremberg, 1565. This book is in the catalogue of Dee's library. 12 Macrocosm II, Pars VI, pp. 342ff. 1a See J. R. Hale, 'The Development of the Bastion 1440-1534' in Europe in the Late Middle Ages, J. R. Hale and others, London, 1965, pp. 468ff. . . . . . H William Bourne, the specialist on this, was one of his associates; see Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England, p. 177. Bourne's Art of Shooting was in Dee's library (see above, p. 12).

49

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

Fortification is, of course, a branch of architecture, and Fludd is at pains to prove that it is a mathematical art by demonstrating the geometrical basis of fortification plans. Yet he is also providing a kind of pattern book offortification by illustrating so many examples of forts. Books on fortification, with plans of angled fortresses, abound in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 15 I have examined· a certain number of these and it is clear that Fludd's section on military art is of a similar type to the general run of these books. I have not however succeeded in finding one which illustrates identically the same range of forts as those shown by Fludd. One wonders whether he had come across a hoard of unpublished plans of forts. In his study of Elizabethan architects, Sir John Summerson describes how they were employed in strengthening and redesign of fortifications-one of the few practical outlets open to them-and mentions that one of them had made a collection of many plans of fortifications. 16 Next after fortification on the mnemonic wheel we see a machine for lifting weights. There is another illustration of this in the section of the book to which it refers, where it is described as a device used by builders (Pl. 9(a)). It is in fact described by Vitruvius17 and is illustrated in Daniele Barbaro's commentary on Vitruvius (Pl. 9(d)); Barbaro's reconstruction of the Roman builder's machine is pretty close to Fludd's illustration of it. The appearance of this builder's machine as typifying the section in Fludd's book on motion, 18 with its wealth of illustration of machines and mechanical devices of many kinds worked by pulleys (Pl. lO(a)), levers, screws, and so on, is an instance of close dependence on Vitruvius by Fludd, for Vitruvius's tenth book on motion is about such machinery. Dee had been following it in the Preface in his remarks on 'Menadrie' or weight-lifting machines, on 'Trochlike' or the use of wheels, on 'Hydragogie' or the art of pumping and controlling water. All these technologies, so far as they were known to the ancients, 15 The following are a few examples of the type: G. Maggi, Della fortificatione de/la citta, Venice, 1~83; Paul Ive, The Practice of Fortification, London, 1589; Bonaiuto"Lorini, Le fortificationi, Venice, 1609. 18 Sir John Summerson, 'Three Elizabethan Architects', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, XL (1957), p. 208. 17 Book X, chapter 2. 18 Macrocosm II, Pars VII, pp. 433ff.

50

Plate

7 From Fludd.

C:,uit

(a) Grid. (b) Eyes, after Fialetti.

./.�

(c) Foot, after Di.irer.

.

a - >

C

i

,,,:-

-J

-- " •..., .,..._ I

�

Plate 8 Fortification and Military Art. From Fludd. Plate 9 (a) Builder's machine; (b) Mechanical singing bird; (c) Thunder­ making device. From Fludd. (d) Builder's machine. From Daniele Barbaro.

--

d

a

b

Plate 10 (a) Pulley; (b) Musical machine. From Fl u dd.

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

come into Vitruvius's tenth book, and by introducing his section on machinery with the Vitruvian builder's device, Fludd shows that his mechanics, like those of Dee, grow out of Vitruvius, though modem improvements have been added ·(as with fortification, Vitruvius on machinery is brought up to date). As usual, Fludd is concerned both to show that all these mechanisms are mathematical arts dependent on number, and also to expand the subject with many illustrations thereby providing a kind of illustrated textbook on mechanics which will be of practical use to those interested in this mathematical art Uust as his treatises on surveying, perspective, painting, are intended to be of use to practitioners of those mathematical arts). He was certainly taking many of his illustrations from extant books on machinery; his sources ought to be traced but this should be done by an expert on history of machinery, which I am not. Nor can I assess what of originality or advance there may be in Fludd's mechanics, though I would remind that John Wilkins in 1648 still quoted Dee and Fludd as authorities on 'Mathematical Magic or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry' 19 which would seem to indicate that Fludd's treatise was still considered up to date in the middle of the seventeenth century. In the concluding pages of Fludd's section 'on motion' we are in the realms of what Dee would have called 'Thaumaturgike', though Fludd does not use Dee's terms for the various branches of the mechanical arts. In Vitruvius, devices for theatrical production are included here as part of the architect's business. 20 And just as we saw a connection with theatrical effects in Dee's 'Thaumaturgike' which he applied in the flying Scarabaeus made for a theatrical performance, so a theatrical undercurrent may be perceived in Fludd's work. Who save a theatrical producer would want to know how to 19 John Wilkins, Mathematica/I Magick, or, The Wonders that may be performed by Mechanicall Geometry, London, 1648, pp. 112 (reference to Dee's Preface), 163, 264 (references to Fludd). The actual references to Fludd by name on these and other pages do not represent the fu.11 debt of Wilkins to Fludd. Wilkins on pulleys, levers, wheels, screws, is following Vitruvian mechanics as developed in the D~e-Fludd tradi~ion. 2 0 In the Introduction to Book X (the book on motion and machines) Vitruvius states that it is a branch of the architect's business to plan seating and machinery for public shows and plays on the stage.

51

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

simulate sounds like thunder or guns? This can be done, explains Fludd, by bringing water to boil within a spe~ially designed vessel (Pl. 9(c)). 21 Who save a producer would be mterested in hearing about how to represent burning sacrifices on altars with hidden arrangements of lights? Or of a useful invention for representation of the burning of Troy, or of Nero and the conflagration of Rome ?22 Hero of Alexandria, says Fludd, knew how to arrange that a door should open of itself when no one was by, but Fludd claims to know a better way of effecting this. 23 Who save a producer of some tense scene would want a magically opening door? Fludd has been a close student of the pneumatic and other devices for automata described by Hero of Alexandria, and several of his illustrations, for example that of the mechanical singing bird (Pl. 9(b)), are based on illustrated editions of Hero's works. Besides the mechanical bird, he illustrates other devices using sand or water to revolve wheels through which surprising effects may be produced, as of men marclllng or hunters hunting the stag. Mechanical music can be produced by a variation on the water organ 24 (described by Vitruvius). 25 And Fludd has invented a machine, 'Nostra machina spiritalis' which revolves to show seven different sides, representing the seven planets. 26 This machine would seem to work on principles allied to those of the revolving stage. Fludd seems to reveal himself in this section as a man of the theatre. The Hermetic mechanic would be a useful handy man behind the scenes. The disciple of Dee would know his way about inside a theatre. That side of the Vitruvian technology which affected the theatre would seem to be developing, in Fludd's time, in new and more elaborate directions, and this reminds us that the introduction by Inigo Jones of elaborate scenic effects for the masques at the court of James I had begun in 1605 and was in full swing by the time Fludd's book was published. Fludd's interest in large-scale perspective painting, using the squared grid, and his (possible) adumbration of scenerevolving machinery should certainly be studied in connection with the origins and growth of the early Stuart masques. 21 22

26

52

Macrocosm II, Pars VII, pp. 490-1. 23 Ibid., p. 489. 24 Ibid., p. 483. Ibid., p. 477. 26 Macrocosm II, Pars VII, pp. 492ff. Book X, chapter 8.

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

I shall not attempt to discuss the next three items shown on the memory wheel illustrating the subjects of the 'technical history of the Macrocosm'. These are time measurement with clocks and dials 27 (illustrated on the memory wheel· after the builder's machine representing machinery and mechanics); cosmography and astronomy, 28 represented by the two globes in the next compartment of the wheel; followed in the next section by the horoscope diagram representing astrology. 29 These were all Vitruvian subjects, all discussed by Dee in the Preface, 30 and are all expanded at very great length by Fludd as mathematical arts for which he provides practical guidance. With the next subject on the memory plan, geomancy, 31 represented by the dots on the shield, we reach a subject which is not in Vitruvius, nor mentioned by Dee. Its presence among the Vitruvian subjects introduces a strongly magical tinge into Fludd's survey of these subjects. Geomancy is also peculiar in that it is one of the Macrocosm subjects which also appears in the Microcosm volume, where it can be seen on the memory wheel representing the subjects of 'the technicai history of the Microcosm' (Pl. 17). The only other subject which appears in both volumes and on both memory wheels is astrology. Geomancy is of course closely linked witb astrology. Fludd's geomancy has been the subject of a study by C. H. Josten. 32 Pausing here for a moment's reflection let us try to sum up what we have learned from the preceding analysis (which has omitted so much) of Fludd's 'technical history of the Macrocosm'. In following its subjects, we have been within hail of vast Renaissance themes, we have been passing easily, like Leonardo da Vinci, from art to science, from proportion to machines, and we have seen that what holds all these subjects together is Vitruvius-Vitruvius as interpreted by Dee as the storehouse of all workmanship and the fount of mathematical arts. It is through number, as the Ape of Nature shows us with his wand, that all these subjects are basically one, held together by number 28 Ibid., Pars IX, pp. 529ff. Ibid., Pars VIII, pp. 502ff. 30 29 Ibid., Pars X, pp. 558ff. See above, pp. 22, 24 31 Ibid., Pars XI, pp. 715ff. 32 c. H. Josten, 'Robert Fludd's Theory of Geomancy and His Experiences at Avignon in the Winter of 1601to1602', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXVII (1964), pp. 327-35. 21

53

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

in the lofty abstract sense of what Luca Pacioli would call the 'divine proportions' which run through man and the universe, and by number in the practical sense as the basis of all applied arts, including art itself. Notwithstanding the late, derivative, and mechanical nature of the 'pattern book' through which Fludd explains painting, or his sim~larly mechanical and uninspired exposition of perspective drawing, it can be seen that these themes are still integrated, in the mind of this early seventeenth-century Welshman, with a philosophico-religious background, as they had been in the Italian Renaissance. But for Vitruvius, all these subjects subserved architecture, which was the subject of his book. Dee had known that the basic theory of proportion in Macrocosm and Microcosm came from Vitruvius and had directed his readers to 'looke in Vitruvius' and find it there. Fludd was certainly familiar with both Vitruvius and Dee's Preface and, moreover, as briefly indicated at the beginning of this chapter, his whole musical philosophy of Macrocosm and Microcosm, his whole History of these Two Worlds, is imbued with the Macrocosm-Microcosm analogy expressed in terms of musical proportion. And this reminds us that we have left out one of the subjects of the 'technical history of the Macrocosm', a Vitruvian subject, a Dee subject, and the most important of all subjects for Fludd -music. Music comes second among the sections of the technical history of the Macrocosm, 33 immediately after the first section on number. On the mnemonic wheel, immediately to the left of the numbers to which the Ape points, representing section 1 of the book, we see the man playing the organ, representing section 2, on music. This section is introduced by a large folding engraving containing one of the most striking illustrations in the whole book. It represents a fantastic building called 'The Temple of Music' (Pl. 11). This building is fundamentally a memory system for memorizing all the parts of the exposition of his music theory which Fludd gives on the following pages. Fludd's music theory has been studied by P. J. Amman 34 who finds that it is 'antiquated in comparison with other musical treatises of the period but Macrocosm II, Pars II, pp. 159ff. 'The Musical Theory and Philosophy of Robert Fludd', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXX (1967), pp. 198-227. 33

34

54

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

original in its presentation of the subject.' 35 The fact is that Fludd was still trying to be a universal man of the Renaissance; his music treatise is but one of his efforts in the volume and should be compared with his treatises on surveying, or painting, or machinery, though doubtless for him the section on music was the most significant and all-inclusive. The symbolism of the Temple of Music is explained by Fludd in the description which follows the picture, from which the following is a translated quotation: We imagine then this Temple of Music to be built on the summit of Mount Parnassus, the seat of the Muses, adorned in every part with eternally green and flowering groves and fields, sweetly watered by chrystal fountains whose murmur induces to gentle repose, frequented by birds pouring forth in song the sound of diverse symphonies. The nymphs around the temple, the satyrs in the groves taught by Sylvanus, the shepherds in the fields with Pan their leader, utter their choruses. Amidst these delights is the divine gift of Apollo who receives the adoration of all; whence arise on all sides peace and concord through the mysteries of harmony and symphony in which all the concords of the heavens and the elements are linked together. The whole universe must perish and be reduced to nothing in warring discord should these consonances fail or be corrupted. 36

Apollo with his lyre, whom we see sculptured on the Temple, thus represents music in a cosmic and philosophical, as well as a poetic, aspect. The presiding genius of the Temple, says Fludd, is Concordia. Its custodian or priestess is Thalia, one of the Muses, who is shown in an alcove on the upper level of the Temple pointing to a piece of music. On the ground level is an arched doorway through which a little scene is visible; smiths are wielding their hammers at a forge, and through a door on the far side of the building a figure enters mysteriously, holding a set-square. It is, as Fludd explains, 37 Pythagoras, represented in the moment of discovering the musical proportions and consonances through listening to the sound of hammers on an anvil. Music is here being presented both as a fundamental cosmic reality and as a mathematical art having its basis in proportion; s5 Article cited, 10

p. 206.

Macrocosm II, Pars II, pp. 161-2.

37

Ibid., pp. 162-3.

55

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

and the Temple of Music is a striking example of the mnemonicsymbolic basis of Fludd's thought, which made the detailed illustration of his works, the presentation of his arguments in mnemonic-symbolic form, so important for him. However singled out and emphasized because of its importance for his musical philosophy as a whole, Fludd's section on music conforms to the general plan of the technical history. It gives the theory of the subject as a mathematical art, basically connected with number like all the subjects, and it gives illustrated information about practical applications of the art. The strong practical bent of Fludd is nowhere more apparent than in his chapters on musical instruments; these include stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments. Particularly striking is his application of his mechanical bent to the invention of music-making machines. He claims to have invented new instruments and music-making devices, such as the remarkable looking object described as 'Our Great New Instrument'.38 (Pl. IO(b)). The musical instruments and inventions are fully illustrated and these illustrations must be seen in the context of the whole rich illustration of the book to realize that Fludd, the universal man, can turn his hand to surveying, perspective painting, mechanics, and machines, as well as to musicmaking. It is possible that music may have been Fludd's strongest subject. He was interested in singing, and mentions a Friar Robert Brunham whose notation for singing he has used, 39 and perhaps he could play the musical instruments which he illustrates. As an adviser on music, Fludd could have been in demand by theatrical producers and at courts. In another of his works he states that his musical inventions were received with sympathy by the musicians 'of the court of the King of England.'40 There is a point about the symbolism of the Temple of Music in relation to music theory which may be important. The most noticeable features of the Temple are those great spirals under the dome, with two doors below them. Their meaning is thus explained in Fludd's text accompanying the engraving: 39 Ibid., p. 192. Ibid., pp. 145ff. Fludd, C/avis philosophiae, Frankfort, 1633, p. 29; quoted by Amman, article cited, p. 219. ·

38

'° 56

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

Thou shouldst carefully examine the spiral revolution in the largest tower which denotes the movement of the air when struck by the sound or the voice. The two doors signify the ears or the organs of hearing, without which the poured-forth sound is not perceived, nor can there be entry into this temple save by them. 41

Surely (a point not noticed by Amman) this is a visual representation of Vitruvius on acoustics in the theatre, on those undulating circles of air on which the voice is carried, wherefore 'the ancient architects following in nature's footsteps traced the voice as it rose and carried out the ascent of the theatre seats'. u Fludd is following Vitruvius, not only in treating of music as a Vitruvian subject but also in introducing his treatment of music in the context in which Vitruvius had treated it. For the exposition of musical theory in Vitruvius comes in connection with his discussion of the theatre and of the 'sounding vessels' which amplified voices in the theatre. 43 The musical theory expounded by Vitruvius is based on that of Aristoxenus, an Aristotelian rationalist philosopher who was not in the Pythagoro-Platonic tradition. On the other hand Vitruvius's plan of the theatre, based on zodiacal configurations, 44 introduces the idea of a cosmic music, or, as he says, a musica convenientia astrorum, 45 and this accords with the traditional notions of musica muri.dana and musica humana descending from Boethius. Renaissance theory developed this side of the musical tradition, involving connections between musical proportion and cosmological proportion such as Vitruvius implies in his theatre plan, based on the musica convenientia astrorum. Fludd, like Francesco Giorgi, is of course fully in this tradition. As we saw, Dee had repeated Vitruvius on the 'sounding vessels' placed under the steps in theatres and ordered according Macrocosm II, Pars II, p. 162. Vitruvius, Book V, chapter 3; see below, p. 113. 43 Vitruvius, Book V, chapters 4, 5; see below, loc. cit. 44 See below, pp. 114-6. 45 See below, p. 115, note 9. A Renaissance commentator on Vitruvius, Philander, ignores Aristoxenus when he comes to the music theory and gives an astrological interpretation of music as though thinking solely of Vitruvius on the musica convenientia astrorum. This was probably the way in which Renaissance theorists in general evaded Vitruvius on Aristoxenus, which did not suit their views. 41

42

57

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

to musical harmonies 'distributed in the circuits by Diatessaron, Diapente, and Diapason'. 48 This is the only allusion to an ancient building in Dee's Preface. The allusion in the Temple of Music to the voices rising on spirals of sound in the theatre is the only allusion in Fludd's technical history to an ancient building. We asked why Fludd left out architecture in the technical history. The answer may perhaps be suggested that the Temple of Music represents architecture, represents music as architecture. All the Renaissance theorists emphasize the connection, indeed the identity, of musical proportion with architectural proportion. 47 The building shown by Fludd is of course not a theatre, nor are there any sounding vessels in it. Nor is it properly Neoclassical but a mixture in which the classical columns do not fit with the Gothic features. It does not represent any real building though it may reflect something of the architectural eccentricity of the Jacobean age. It is an architectural fantasia invented and, perhaps, drawn by Fludd48 as a symbolic expression of his musical philosophy and of the musical theory which he will expound on the following pages. But I am impressed by the fact that Fludd clothes music in this architectural form, suggesting that he is thinking of a connection between architectural and musical proportion. And though this is not a theatre, ancient or modern, some of its leading aspects were certainly suggested by passages in Vitruvius on the ancient theatre and its musical expressiveness. Tantalized and mystified we gaze and gaze, noting the dome and the lantern, the circle of the angelic choir beneath it, the airy spirals carrying the sound to the ears. And that large mask on the wall, does it refer to the figure of Thalia, the Muse of Comedy, and carry with it a suggestion of the theatre? And below, there is that room which extends right through the building to the back, where Pythagoras enters and hears the mysterious sounds. t Whatever one may think of Fludd's musical theory or of the ~., peculiar architecture of the Temple of Music, this Temple is surely an impressive symbolic statement of the psychology of a See above pp. 25-6 and below, pp. 193-4. See Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, pp. 103ff. 48 See below, p. 75.

46 47

58

ROBERT FLUDD AND VITRUVIUS

musical philosopher, of one whose outlook on Man and the \ I Univer~e, .?n Macrocosm. and Microcosm, finds its deepest )I express10n m terms of music. This chapter has attempted to bring out a side of Robert Fludd which has not been generally recognized. Though, as in the case of Dee, historians of science are becoming increasingly interested in Fludd who is no longer regarded solely as a wild and hazy figure, it has not been realized that in one aspect of his thought he belongs into the mathematical, technological, and Vitruvian tradition stimulated by John Dee. As I have suggested earlier, it is even possible that Fludd may have had access to Dee's papers. These are known to have been dispersed, and sought after by his son in the early seventeenth century. 49 Some of them came into the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, whom Fludd knew. Among the titles of unpublished works of his which Dee lists one finds, for example, Trochlica inventa mea, indicating some treatise on wheel-mechanisms (perhaps expanding his notes on this in the Preface), and De perspectiva ilia, qua peritissimi utuntur Pictores, indicating a lost treatise by Dee on perspective for the use of artists. 50 Some of the titles of Dee's missing mystical works sound to me also extremely close to the categories of Fludd's thought. To expl~re this theme of possible dependence of Fludd on Dee in many ways would require a book in itself and I do no more here than raise it as a question. What can however be said as a result of the preliminary researches in this chapter (preliminary in the sense that I hope that others will carry them much further) is that there is a continuous tradition of Vitruvian influence in England, operating in both John Dee and Robert Fludd, that this tradition connects with technological development, and in particular with the technologies needed in the developing art of the theatre. See the letter from Sir Thomas Browne to Elias Ashmole, quoted in C. H. Josten, Elias Ashmole, Oxford, 1966, IV, pp. 1371-2. 0 0 Compendious Rehearsal!, in Autobiographical Tracts, ed. Crossley, p. 75.

u

59

CHAPTER IV

Robert Fludd and the Jacobean Age

]C

KE John Dee, Robert Fludd has been neglected by modern scholars. Unlike Dee, he left behind him a vast mass of published writings which, though full of valuable information about himself, his period and its thought, present a somewhat inscrutable aspect to the reader. Thomas Fuller, writing in 1662, characterized Fludd's works thus: His Books, written in Latine are great, many, and mystical. The last some impute to his Charity, clouding his high matter with dark language, lest otherwise the lustre thereof should dazle the understanding of the Reader .... His Works are for the English to sleight or admire, for French and Forraigners to understand and use: not that I account them more judicious than our Countrymen, but more inquiring into such difficulties. The truth is, here at home his Books are beheld not so good as Chrystal, which (some say) are prized as precious Pearls beyond the Seas. 1

Thus mysteriously does Fuller allude to one of the salient facts about Fludd, namely that his works were published abroad, that his musical philosophy played a part in continental controversies involving famous personalities, Marin Mersenne and Johannes Kepler, though his books are even now (though there are many signs of growing interest) but little consulted 'at home' by those interested in the religion, philosophy, science, or literature of the Jacobean age. Thomas Fuller, The Worthies of England, ed. John Freeman, London, 1952, p. 281 (quoted here in origii:i.al spelling from the 1811 edition, I, pp. 503-4).

1

60

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

Though I have boldly given the title 'Robert Fludd and the Jacobean Age' to this chapter, it must be emphasized that I make h~re on.ly a very partial attempt at this vast subject. The c?apter is ma!nl~ concentrated on the question of the ·composit10n and publicat10n of the Macrocosm and Microcosm volumes, though the problems connected with this involve one in a good many aspects of the life and work of this remarkable man. Published in rapid succession iP 1617,J918_(t_l.!e.._kfa_q[Q.~o~m) and 1619 (the Mic!_ocos_m) Fludd's great volumes on Macrocosmical and Microcosmical history cannot have been written in a moment. He must have been preparing them for years beforehand, and indeed he gives information, here and there in the volumes, about the periods of his life when he conceived or began to write some of the material. For example, when treating the subject of astrology in the 'technical history of the Macrocosm', he mentions, as a useful side to this science, that it can help in the detection of theft. As an instance of this he tells the following anecdote. When he was at Oxford, his tutor, a doctor of theology named 'Perin us', came to his room, announced that he had been robbed and asked Fludd if he could detect the thief with 'my astrology'. Fludd set to work with times, planets, and signs, and through his astrology was able, so he· tells us, to discover the thief and recover the money. This episode took place at St. John's College, 'When I was so deeply engrossed in my treatise on music that I had hardly left my room for a week.' 2 Useful though it would be to learn more in detail how astrology can discover a thief, this is not the point of the story on which I want to dwell. The point is that Fludd was writing his treatise on music, so engrossed that he had not been out for a week, in his room at St. John's. 'Robert Fludd', says W. C. Costin, historian of St. John's College, 'came up in Michaelmas 1592, had a room under the new built library, and left at Lady Day, 1600'. 3 This gives between 1592 and 1600 as the date when Fludd was writing on music in his room at St. John's. The identity of the tutor who asked astrological assistance for the recovery of stolen money may be conjectured as Dr. John Macrocosm II, Pars X, p. 702; cf. Amman, article cited, p. 205. W. C. Costin, The History of St. John's College Oxford 1598-1600, Oxford, 1958, p. 58. 2

3

61

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

Perrin, chaplain of St. John's, Regius Professor of Greek, and associated with translations for the Authorized Version of the Bible. 4 The 'treatise on music' which Fludd was composing before 1600 at St.· John's College might refer to Fludd's musical philosophy in general though it seems likely that he may be more particularly referring to the section on music in the 'technical history of the Macrocosm', illustrated with the Temple of Music and discussed in the last chapter. This gives one food for thought. TJ;iough not published until 1618 in Germany that treatise may have been composed in Oxford before 1600. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, St. John's College was a centre for the High Church Anglican revival, led by William Laud, 5 who was contemporary with Fludd at St. John's. An important aspect of this revival was the introduction, or rather re-introduction, of music into the liturgy. Laud was keen on the use of organs, 6 and his friend Sir William Paddy-a great luminary of St. John's and deeply interested in music-presented an organ to the College. 7 Fludd must have known Paddy sufficiently well to feel justified in dedicating one of his works to him, 8 and two of the set ofFludd's works now in St. John's College library were presented to the library by Paddy. 9 When we look at the organ player representing music in the diagram of the subjects of the 'technical history of the Macrocosm,' (Pl. 4), or when we gaze at the organ pipes in the Temple of Music (Pl. 11), it becomes interesting to realize that Fludd was earnestly engaged in his labours on music in his room at Ibid., p. 25. Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, London, 1962 (second edition), pp. 52ff. 6 Ibid., p. 126. 7 On Paddy as a friend of Laud, see Costin, p.29; Trevor-Roper, p. 34. 8 Fludd's Medicina Catholica, 1629, is dedicated to Paddy; see J. B. Craven, Doctor Robert Fludd, Kirkwall, 1902, p. 221. 9 Fludd himself presented to St. John's copies of his Macrocosm and Microcosm, and of some other works, in 1624. In 1627 he presented another work. In 1634 (after Fludd's death) Sir William Paddy presented two more Fludd volumes to the library, apparently in order to make 1;1P th~ set. The names o~ the donors and dates of presentation are written m the volumes. I wish to thank the librarian of St. John's College for allowing me to examine them. 4

6

62

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

St. John's in years when the movement for restoring music in the liturgy was being intensively developed in the High Church movement of which St. John's was one of the main centres. On leaving St. John's College in 1600, Fludd went overseas and 'wandered through France, Spain, Italy, and Germany'.10 In the section on geomancy in the Macrocosm he says that in 'the penultimate year of the glorious Queen of England (whose fame will never die) I was compelled to spend a whole winter in the City of Avignon'. 11 This was the winter of 1601-2 and Fludd was compelled to stay so long in Avignon owing to snow on the mountain passes. He spent the time, he says, with young men, formerly pupils of the Jesuits, with whom he often discussed philosophical subjects, including geomancy. Rumours of this got him into bad favour with the Jesuits, but the Vice Legate defended him by remarking :-'Is there a single Cardinal in Italy who does not -possess an interpretation of his nativity after the astrological or geomantic method?' The Jesuits made peace with him and invited him to visit them, but he had to leave in order to go to Marseilles to stay with the Due· de Guise (Charles de Lorraine, fourth Due de Guise) and his brother (Fran~ois de Lorraine) who had sent for him in order that he might instruct them in 'the mathematical sciences' .12 He also speaks of this time in the south in the Microcosm volume, at the beginning of the treatise on the art of memory, saying that he perfected himself in the art of memory when at Avignon and afterwards went to Marseilles to teach the Due de Guise and his brother .13 And in the address to the reader before the 'technical history of the Macrocosm' there is yet another reference to this French circle; here he says that he wrote the section on arithmetic in that volume for the Due de Guise, and the geometry, perspective, and military art for his brother. The music he here says that he wrote for a certain Marquis de Orizon, Vicomte de Cadenet, also the art of memory. And he says that he wrote the cosmography in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth. 14 Macrocosm II, Pars I, p. 3 (address to the reader). Ibid., Pars XI, p. 717; quoted as translated by Josten in his article 'Robert Fludd's Theory of Geomancy', p. 332. 12 Macrocosm II, Pars XI, pp. 717-20; the whole of this biographical passage is translated by Josten, article cited, pp. 332-5. 1s Microcosm II, p. 48; see my The Art of Memory, p. 336. u Macrocosm II, Pars I, p. 3 (address to the reader). 10 11

63

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

We have thus to envisage Fludd, as he passes at the tum of the century from High Church circles in Oxford to Catholic circles in France, already engaged in meditating and partially composing the work which was not printed until 1617 to 1619. In 1605 he was back in England and took his doctorate in medicine at Christ Church, Oxford (there had been some difficulty earlier in admitting him to the degree); in 1609 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. 15 Thereafter, so far as we know, he was continuously in England, practising in Lon~on his unorthodox and Paracelsan type of medicine in which he appears to have made use of suggestion. Wood says that 'he spoke to his patients amusing them with I know not what, till by his elevated expressions he operated them into a faith-natural, which consequently contributed to the well working of the physic.' 16 John Selden says that he was freed of an ailment 'by the bounteous humanitie and advice of that learned physician doctor Robert Fludd, whom my memorie alwaies honors'. 17 That Sir William Paddy, who was physician to James I, was Fludd's friend may suggest that the medical profession did not altogether disdain him, though Paddy might also have been drawn to him by their common interest in organs. And a yet greater physician, William Harvey, was Fludd's friend. Fludd welcomed Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood and helped to promote its publication. For him it was evidence of the Macrocosm-Microcosm connection that the circular motion of the heavens was repeated in the blood of the 'little world'. Nor was Harvey himself unimpressed by such analogies; it has been suggested by W. Pagel that Fludd's thought may have been a factor in setting Harvey on the road to his discovery. 18 Harvey was closely Fludd's contemporary and was Physician Extraordinary to James I. Much of Fludd's time after his return to England must have See Debus, The English Paracelsians, pp. 105-6. Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, 1815, II, 619. Cf. Fuller, Worthies, ed. Freeman, p. 281. 17 Quoted by Costin, foe. cit. 18 On Fludd and Harvey, see Geoffrey Keynes, Life of William Harvey, Oxford, 1966, pp. 133ff.; W. Pagel, William Harvey's Biological Ideas, Basel, New York, 1967, pp.113-18; A.G. Debus, 'Robert Fludd and the Circulation of thelBlood', Journal of the History of Medicine, XVI (1961), pp. 374-93. · 15

16

64

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

been taken up in preparing for publication beyond the seas the series of voluminous works for which he became very well known abroad. We may pause here to reflect again on the comparison between Dee and Fludd. Dee also travelled beyond the seas and had a big reputation abroad. And though his printed output was tiny compared to Fludd's, he also published his scientific works beyond the seas, with the exception of the Preface to the Euclid. And if I am right in my analysis of Fludd's 'technical history of the Macrocosm' as following the outlines of Dee's Preface, and perhaps even publishing some of Dee's unpublished papers, Fludd would stand out still more clearly as the successor to Dee, and as, like him, a Magus who was less honoured in his own country than abroad. The first of Fludd's long line of publications appeared in 1616 at Leyden. This was his Apologia for the "Fraternity of the Rosy Cross", followed in the next year by a Tractatus (published by John Theodore De Bry at Oppenheim) in defence of the Rosicrucians. Thus it was in apparent association with the Rosicrucians, whose manifestos had been published some years earlier, that Fludd first appeared. in print. It has been suggested that it was Michael Maier, who called himself a Rosicrucian, who introduced Fludd to the Fraternity. 19 Fludd certainly knew Maier, and it could have been Maier who helped to transport his manuscripts abroad for printing. 20 But as to his association with the Rosicrucians, Fludd himself has something to say, as will appear shortly. It was in 1617 that the first part of the Macrocosm was published by John Theodore De Bry at Oppenheim, thus initiating the publication of the Utriusque Cosmi Historia. Fludd sent it out into the world under the most august auspices with a dedication to none other than King James I. James is addressed as 'Ter Maximus', Emperor of the heavens and the earth, a shining ray of the divine light, to whom the truths of Nature revealed in the book are dedicated, which open a way to the heavens as by Jacob's Ladder, and are presented to the representative of the Deity on earth, King James. After this tremendous opening to 10 See J.B. Craven, Count Michael Maier, Kirkwall, 1910, p. 6. This is however far from certain. See C. H. Josten, 'Truth's Golden Harrow: An Unpublished Alchemical Treatise by Robert Fludd', Ambix, III 20 See my The Art of Memory, pp. 324-5. (1949), pp. 99-101.

65

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

the series, Fludd made no separate dedication in the second part of the Macrocosm (1618); the Microcosm volume of 1619 is dedicated to God himself, as defined by Hermes Trismegistus. What encouraged Fludd to believe that James I would be interested in his Utriusque Cosmi Historia? There are two manuscripts which throw a little light on the background of the publication of the work. . In Trinity College, Cambridge, there is a manuscript of a work by Fludd. 21 It is called A Philosophical! Key and is in English throughout; it is not written in Fludd's own hand but in that of an ·amanuensis. It must have been written after the publication of the lvfacrocosm and the Microcosm to which it refers, but probably very soon after, perhaps in 1620. Though A Philosophical! Key was never published as a whole, a part of it, which is about an experiment on wheat, was translated into Latin and published in Fludd's Anatomiae Amphitheatrum (Frankfort, 1623). The unpublished parts of A Philosophical! Key contain matter which adds to our knowledge of what was behind the publication of the Macrocosm and Microcosm volumes, and of the dedication of the first of these to James I. A Philosophical! Key is also dedicated to James I, a dedication which was never published and which opens thus: Most high and mighty King, I your poore suiect, hauing euer found your most sacred Majesty out of the affiuence of your wonted bounty to behold me with the eye of your favorable benignity, it maketh me bold as well in this English experimental Treatise, as in my Latin philosophical discourse to elect and choose your most Excellent Majesty ... for my best Patron and Worthyest Mecaenas, that under the shadow of your most royal Winge. . . . I may sheild myself from the Harpys talents and enuious endeavours of this Worlde ... Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. 0.2.46. This manuscript is discussed and a part of it (the experiment on wheat) published in an article by C. H. Josten, 'Robert Fludd's Philosophical! Key and his Alchemical Experiment on Wheat', Ambix, XI, February, 1963. The manuscript is unpaged; I have therefore not given folio references for my quotations from it. When a quotation which I use is quoted or referred to by Josten, the reference to his article is given. When there is no reference, it means that it is a quotation from the unpaged manuscript which is not quoted by Josten (Josten gives folio references for his quotations based on his own numbering of the pages). 21

66

Plate 11 The Temple of Music.

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

This suggests that Fludd had some access to James, and later on he says that in conversation with King James about the wheat experiment the King had observed 'quod non sit purum Elementum in rerum natura'. This remark, according to Fludd, was made to him in person by James 'for so it pleased his most Excellent and learned Majestie to object to me and that most rightly'. 22 That A Philosophical! Key was never published in full or in English with this dedication may indicate that James did not support the work, but we lean1 from this manuscript that Fludd did have some kind of personal contact with James and was ~ost anxious to gain his support and protection from his enemies. He complains bitterly of these enemies in the address to the reader before A Philosophical! Key. They have been assaulting 'my bigger Volumes of each World (I meane as wel Microcosmical as Macrocosmical)' as containing strange and heterodox doctrines. Yet learned readers both in England and beyop.d the seas have approved them as containing a revelation of those mysteries of nature 'which the ancient Philosophers have hidden from the Worlds eye by masking and obscuring them in aenigmaticall shadows.' He quotes, as a testimonial, a letter from Justus Helt, dated at Frankfort, April 20, 1617, which throws an interesting light on the background of the publication of the Macrocosm volume. As touching your great volume, before the printer would undertake it, he shewed it unto many other learned men, which did very much commend your Work; also he made the Jesuits acquainted with it, who in numbers resort unto the fayer of Frankford, which adding also their spur to your commendations sayed, that, only on[e] thing excepted, it was a work most worthy of edition, namly if, Geomancy were omitted; the which science (as you know very wel) they mislike of for their Religions sake.

This convinces Fludd that his work finds favour with truly religious persons of all denominations. His volumes are not distasteful to the Calvinists, among whom the printer lives, nor to the Lutherans 'which are his bordering neighbours', nor to the Papists since 'the Jesuits them selues (who for their profundite in Philosophy haue been especially respected ouer all 22

Josten, article cited, p. 14.

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Europe) haue allowed and approued them.' He ignores the fact that the objectionable geomancy had not been omitted from his volumes as published. The rumours which have been circulating against him have, he says, used the word 'Rosicrucian' and have recalled his apology for 'those learned and famous Theosophists and Philosophers' who call themselves the 'Fraternity of the Rosy Cross'. Fludd here calls his Apologia for the Rosicrucians a 'silly and poor work' and says that he wrote it with the object of trying to get into touch with members of the Fraternity. 23 He protests that he has never followed any religion save 'this reformed one, so happily celebrated here in England', and, though he has written Theosophically and Philosophically in defence of the Rosicrucians, he has never known one personally. His Apologia in their defence elicited no response from them, though he wrote it with the object of trying to get into touch with them. He supposes that the Fraternity must think him unworthy of 'ascending the hauty Parnassus of their exalted knowledge', though he imagines that their 'Pansophia or universal knowledge in Nature' may perhaps not be very much different from his own philosophy. Now his enemies are trying another line of attack and are asserting that he cannot have written the whole of his great volumes himself, that he must have had assistance from others, cannot have been 'conversant in so many sciences, except other notable heads wer joyned with his in such a tedious business'. This suspicion was 'put into the head' of an honorable personage and peer of the realm by one who seems a great scholar and doctor. Fludd swears that he had not 'borrowed any mans substance' to erect his 'two Cosmicall edifices'. His Macrocosmical History was composed, he says, some four or five years before the renown of the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross had reached his ears, and this can be confirmed by his worthy friends Dr. Andrewes (this is almost certainly Lancelot Andrewes) and Mr. Selden (John Selden) of the Inner Temple. 24 A Philosophical/ Key also contains a very long address to a 'calumniator' which takes the form of an elaborate exposition of Fludd's philosophy in mythological terms. The cosmic harmonies of the 'universal Pan' are felt running through the 23 Ibid., p. 12. 24 Ibid., p. 14..

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whole 'cosmicall fabrick' of the Microcosm whose history is viewed as a 'Cornick Tragicall Scene'. This discourse frequently reminds one of the Temple of Music. With the Trinity College manuscript containing A Philosophical/ Key must be associated a manuscript by Fludd in the British Museum, written in the same hand (not Fludd's) as the Trinity College manuscript, and probably at about the same time. This is the Declaratio brevis, 25 addressed to James I, in which Fludd vindicates the Rosicrucians, and himself as attached to them, defends his philosophy as drawn from ancient and holy sources, mentions the dedication of the Macrocosm volume to 'Your Majestie immediately after God', mentions also the Microcosm volume, appends testimonials from foreign scholars who are the same persons as those whom he cites in A Philosophical! Key. Whatever we are to make of the somewhat contradictory statements about Rosicrucians in these two manuscripts, the fact emerges from them both that Fludd's Macrocosm and Microcosm have been under fire as Rosicrucian, and that he seeks the support of James I as protector of his philosophy. We have gathered from these enquiries that the Macrocosmical and Microcosmical volumes were a long time in the making, from which it would follow that the date of composition of some of the material in them might be a good deal earlier than the date of publication. Also it is clear that the philosophy which they embody was not universally accepted, on the contrary it aroused antagonism in some quarters, and that doubts were expressed as to whether these books, with their so varied range of subjects, could be all the work of one man. These contemporary suspicions may tend to support the suggestion that Fludd might have incorporated unpublished works by others, and perhaps by Dee, in his Historia. Why did Fludd choose to have his books published abroad? One contemporary, Dr. William Foster, thought he knew an answer to this question. In an attack on Fludd as a magician, Foster pointed out as suspicious the fact that he did not publish his books in England, and insinuated as a reason for this that he 25 Declaratio brevis Serenissimo et Potentissimo Principe ac Domine Jacobo Magnae Britanniae ... Regi. British Museum, MS. Royal 12 C ii. See The Art of Memory, p. 323.

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would not have been allowed to publish them in his own country. 'I suppose this to be one cause why he bath printed his bookes beyond the Seas. Our Universities and our Reverend Bishops (God bee thanked) are more cautelous than to allow the Printing of Magical books here.' 26 Fludd rejected Foster's explanation of why he sent his books abroad to be printed and gave another reason for this. 'I sent them beyond the Seas because our homebome Printers demanded five hundred pounds to print the first volume and to find the cuts in copper; but beyond the Seas it was print~d at no cost of mine and that as I would wish. ' 27 Though there may have been something in Foster's reason for the foreign publication of the Macrocosm and Microcosm and Fludd's other books, Fludd's own reason for this was certainly also valid. The diagram, the hieroglyph, the symbolic statement were Fludd's essential modes of presenting his philosophy; the many subjects which he treated demanded much technical illustration. He required very large numbers of illustrations, many of them extremely complex. To publish his books illustrated as he would wish required the assistance of skilful engravers and these were more easily to be had abroad than in England at that date. In the early seventeenth century, probably the leading continental publishing firm for illustrated books was that of the De Bry family. 28 The De Brys came from Liege, in the Spanish Netherlands, and were Protestant refugees from Philip II's rule who had transferred themselves and their business to Germany. The founder of the firm, Theodore De Bry, had established its reputation for illustrated books through the publication of a William Foster, Hoplocrisma-Spongus: or A Sponge to wipe away the Weapon-Salve, London, 1631, p. 37. 27 Dr. Fludd's Answer unto M. Foster, or The Squesing of Parson Foster's Sponge ordained for him by the wiping away of the WeaponSalve, London, 1631, p. 11. See Yates, The Art of Memory, pp. 323-4; Debus, The English Paracelsians, p. 126; Pagel, William Harvey's Biological Ideas, p. 115. On the 'weapon salve' controversy, see Debus, 'Robert Fludd and the Use of Gilbert's De magnete in the WeaponSalve Controversy', Journal of the History of Medicine, XIX (1964), pp. 389-417. 28 For information about the De Bry firm, see the article by E. Weil 'William Fitzer, the publisher of Harvey's De motu cordis, 1628< Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (The Library), New Series, XXIV (1944), pp. 142ff. 26

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great series of illustrated volumes of travel and discovery. Amongst these was the America, illustrated with engravings after the. drawings of John White. Theodore De Bry visited England m 1587 to collect materials and illustrations for these volumes. 29 The elder De Bry had thus established the firm as specializing in illustrated books and he had initiated business connections with England. Theodore De Bry died in 1598, leaving his engraving and publishing business to his son, John Theodore De Bry. The son, as his father had been, was himself an engraver. Under his management the business grew and prospered; until the Thirty Years War put an end to civilized activities in Germany, large numbers of publications were tun1ed out by the firm. It was a family business in which John Theodore's brother and his sonsin-law joined forces with him. His daughters had made useful marriages. One married Matthieu Merian, the well-known Swiss engraver; another married a certain William Fitzer, an Englishman who came from Worcestershire. Both these men helped in the business or set up businesses closely connected with it. It was William Fitzer who published, at Frankfort in 1628, Harvey's epoch-making book on the circulation of the blood, on the advice and recommendation of Fludd. The De Bry firm was mainly centred at Frankfort, though for some years it was moved to Oppenheim for religious reasons, returning to Frankfort in 1619. 30 It was during the Oppenheim period that Fludd's Macrocosm and Microcosm were published; later works by Fludd in the same series have Frankfort on their title-pages. Fludd could not have chosen a firm better suited to publish his vast illustrated tomes than that of John Theodore De Bry. The copper plates for the first part (1617) of the Macrocosm were cut by John Theodore De Bry himself. Other members of the firm seem to have helped with the engravings of later parts. The title-page of the 'technical history of the Macrocosm' (1618) is signed 'M. Merian sculp.' (Pl. 4), and Merian may be the engraver of all the plates in this part, and possibly of those in the Microcosm volume (1619). So one has to imagine this busy publishing house in Germany pouring forth publications in that brief light period of the early seventeenth century, before darkness fell with the Thirty Years 29

Weil, article cited, pp. 148-9.

30

Ibid., p. 143.

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War. What inspired these people, one wonders? What can have been their motive for shouldering the huge, and, one supposes, unremunerative undertaking of publishing Fludd's huge production of books? Should one murmur that mysterious word 'Rosicrucian' about the De Bry firm? Certainly it was publishing at about the same time as Fludd's works those of Michael Maier, who called himself a Rosicrucian, 31 ·and who might have been the emissary who carried Fludd's materials abroad for printing. I cannot spare the time in the present book to undertake explorations about the De Bry firm, though such explorations ought to be undertaken. For the activities of that firm coincide in time with the Jacobean age; Englishmen published books with it during that period and its products were sold in England. 32 It may be that the De Bry firm is as important for the mysterious early seventeenth-century phase of European thought as Plantin was for an earlier period. The De Bry books do not have the aesthetic appeal of the products of the great humanist presses. They are printed on bad paper which has badly discoloured with time; they are rather hastily printed with a good many typographical errors; the engraving is good but cannot compare with really first-class engraving. The De Bry books were poured forth in haste, as though to produce as much as possible before darkness fell. And the firm's most phenomenal undertaking was the publication of the works of Robert Fludd, with their vast numbers of elaborate illustrations which are closely and accurately integrated with the text, faithfully following all its specifications. How were these illustrations prepared? Who drew the sketches for them from which the engraver worked? How was the illustrative material transmitted from England to Germany? How was it ensured that the illustrations were rightly placed in the text? Even in these days of rapid communications, the organization of such publications would present many problems. The Fludd volumes must represent a triumph of co-operation between engravers and printers in Germany and the author in in England. How was it done? Weil thinks (article cited, p. 144) that it was Fludd who introduced Maier to Rosicrucianism, and not the other way round (that Maier converted Fludd) as generally supposed. 32 b d . l i ., p. 148. 31

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The manuscript of A Philosophical/ Key gives interesting evidence as to how Fludd prepared his works for the press. The part about the wheat experiment contains directions as to where the illustrations are to be inserted, such as 'Heare leave a space', or 'Leave a pagina'. This part of the manuscript was published in a Latin translation in the Anatomiae Amphitheatrum, published by the De Bry firm at Frankfort in 1623 (with a dedication to an English bishop, John Thornborough, Bishop of Worcester). Fludd's Anatomiae Amphitheatrum looks like a normal Fludd-De Bry publication, with many illustrations. The illustrations for the part on the wheat experiment are inserted at the points where 'Heare leave a space' and so on were indicated in the manuscript English version. 33 That manuscript can therefore be taken as evidence of how Fludd would have prepared for publication the Macrocosm and the Microcosm and his other works. He would have sent to the printer in Germany manuscripts in which the points where the illustrations were to be inserted were clearly marked, just as a careful author does ~~-

-

Examination of the illustrations in Fludd's books shows that some of them were taken from illustrations in existing books, as in the case of Diirer's diagrams ~llustrating human proportions, but more often, where already published illustrations have been traced as a source, the copyist who prepared these for Fludd's books has altered them, putting in original touches or idiosyncratic variations. As an example of this we may take the illustrations to the section on surveying in the 'technical history of the Macrocosm'. Comparison of Fludd's surveying illustrations with those in the Pantometria of Leonard and Thomas Digges reveals that none of the Fludd figures are exact copies of the Digges figures, though certainly suggested by them. The Fludd figures are always variations from the Digges figures; they are more pictorial, with vivid touches added to the surveyors, and to the towers, towns, hills, trees, which they are surveying. In one case, the Fludd figure alters the monument being surveyed into a different style of architecture. The building shown in the cut in the Digges figure is changed in the Fludd figure into an obelisk, of a certain type (Pl. 5(c)). If it is compared with those on one 33

See Josten, 'Robert Fludd's Philosophical! Key', pp. 6-8.

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of the arches of triumph erected for the entry of James I into London in 1603-4 34 the resemblance is striking. The obelisks on this arch are almost, though not quite, identical with the one in Fludd's surveying operation. The naturalistic touches introduced into many of the engravings, as for example in the backgrounds to the surveying operations, are likely to have been introduced by the engravers, interpreting given pictorial sources in their own way. Whilst in _some cases a pictorial source is traceable behind the Fludd illustrations, in many cases the illustrations must have been originally created to provide an exact visual counterpart to the elaborate descriptions in the text. Such are the many illustrations, partly diagrammatic and partly pictorial, through which Fludd's musical philosophy was set forth. Though in some cases influenced by earlier schemata, in their elaboration and complexity these illustrations are new works, created, not solely as illustrations to the text, but as means of grasping and imprinting on memory its substance through visual symbolic expression. In that remarkable visual expression of the musical philosophy, the Temple of Music, every detail corresponds most closely to the text, as in all the diagrammaticpictorial illustrations. The Temple is, I believe, an original architectural fantasy most carefully designed to express in symbolic form all the parts and arguments of the following text. The sketch from which the Temple of Music was engraved must have been drawn, as an original drawing, by someone most closely conversant with Fludd's text and in sympathy with it. The great importance which Fludd evidently attached to exact visual representations of his arguments in illustrations reveals the significance of these both as symbols and as mnemonic aids. Fludd is wedded to the notion of the hieroglyph as integrated to the argument both symbolically and mnemomically. Kepler taunted him with the 'hieroglyphic' character of his diagrams. 35 To a mind as nourished in the memory tradition in its Renaissance forms as was that of Robert Fludd 36 the memory Stephen Harrison (described on the title-page as 'Ioyner and Architect'), The Arch's of Triumph, London, 1604. 35 See Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, p. 443. 36 See Yates, The Art of Memory, pp. 320ff.

34

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image is also symbolic and hieroglyphic. The two aspects are inseparable. The drawing of the sketches for the engravings for all the hundreds of illustrations in Fludd's books-illustrations which are so important for his whole symbolic-hieroglyphic-mnemonic approach to philosophy-must have been the work of someone most closely conversant with Fludd's mind, and with a most detailed knowledge of his texts. The person who knew most about Fludd's mind and how he wanted his illustrations to be presented would of course have been Fludd himself. Is it possible that Fludd himself was the artist behind some of them? The suggestion can, I think, be legitimately made. Who else but himself could have been so constantly beside him, translating into complex images and diagrams his every thought? It is not outside the bounds of possibility that it may have been Fludd who drew the sketches for some of the engravings in his books, for this suggestion seems corroborated by the fact that, in the 'technical history of the Macrocosm', Fludd offers teaching in drawing and perspective. He taught the use of the squared grid for perspective drawing; he gave instructions in proportion for figure drawing; he provided patterns which the student could copy. For example, he illustrates.sets of pattern eyes from Fialetti's book; if you want to draw a head with an eye in it you have only to copy one of the pattern eyes. Fludd's efforts at teaching art may not be very inspiring, but they do suggest that perhaps he could practise the mechanical kind of art which he teaches. He taught surveying in the section on surveying, and could himself survey, since he invented a surveying instrument. He teaches perspective and figure drawing in the optics and painting sections, from which it would seem naturally to follow that he could himself draw. Not very well perhaps, but well enough to be himself the artist of the illustrations in his books which are not remarkable as works of art 37 but serve their purpose as the accompaniments to his text. Look for example at the famous theatre illustration in the Microcosm volume, the engraving which he says refers to the stage of a real 'public theatre'. And now compare it with the illustration of optics in the Microcosm volume. These two 37 Fludd's diagrams are, however, remarkable, and deserve a special study as Renaissance development of medieval schemata.

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illustrations reach about the same level of fairly adequate but not brilliant drawing. Probably they are by the same hand, and possibly that hand is Fludd's. Or look at Fialetti's pattern eyes as reproduced by Fludd, then at the eye of the head on the table in the optics illustration. then at the eye of the man who introduces the art of memory. It is possible that they were both drawn by Fludd who is following the pattern eyes in a mechanical way but adequately for his purpose. One cannot be too dogmatic about these problems which need further research. There is however evidence in the Fludd manuscript marked with the points at which the illustrations were to be inserted that Fludd kept careful control over these. It is therefore most unlikely that he would have left the choice to chance. Seen in this light, the task of publishing Macrocosm and Microcosm in three years, from 1617 to 1619, now seems a possible one from the point of view of the printers and engravers. All the material for text and engravings was prepared for them, with instructions as to how to combine the two. The task of publishing these books demanded untiring industry and years of preparation on the part of Fludd, but the task of the printers and engravers was a relatively easy one which could be executed at speed. That Fludd was on good terms with the engraver, Matthieu Merian, who signs one of the plates in his book (Pl. 4) is suggested by Merian's engraved portrait of Fludd (PI. 3) which is highly sympathetic to the visionary character of the sitter. This matter of how Fludd's books were published is important for the theme of Fludd and the Jaco bean age, the most salient point about which is that here was a philosopher, famous abroad where his books became involved around figures of firstclass importance, such as Kepler and Mersenne, who yet lived in Jacobean England from about 1605 onwards, busily engaged in preparing his foreign publications. It would seem that these works were not much noticed 'at home', to quote the words of Thomas Fuller cited at the beginning of this chapter. The famous home-gro~ philosop~e~~l!!Wg this period was of course·- Francis Bacon whose unillustrated works were being published in England, with dedications to James I, from 1605 , onwards. A full comparison b~tween the works of Fludd and those of Bacon has not yet been made, though it would be

I

I 76

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

extremely illuminating for the genesis of seventeenth-century thought. I have suggested in an essay on 'The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science' that Bacon felt himself to be embarking on dangerous waters, and was careful to avoid what might have seemed to him extreme forms of the Hermeticscientific tradition, amongst which he might have included the Dee mathematical tradition with its flavour of 'mechanical magic'. 38 Bacon himself was certainly not a mechanician nor much of a mathematician. He was a splendid humanist with a wonderful mastery of persuasive language which he used to persuade of the importance of the advancement of the sciences and to point out the error of holding to preconceived opinions without judicious enquiry into their truth. Amongst such erroneous preconceptions, says Bacon in The Advancement of Learning, is 'the ancient opinion that man was microcosmus, an abstract or model of the world' which 'hath been fantastically strained by Paracelsus and the alchemists'. 39 This at once puts , Bacon in an opposite camp to Fludd. It would be interesting to J compare Dee, Fludd, and Bacon on mathematics. Here is ! Bacon in The Advancement of Learning on what are obviously the 'Vitruvian subjects': 1

1

1

I

For many parts of nature can neither be invented with sufficient subtilty, nor demonstrated with sufficient dexterity, without the , aid and intervening of the mathematics: of which sort are perspective, music, astronomy, cosmography, architecture, enginery,\ and divers others. 40

7 V

It may be doubted, from what he says elsewhere about 'mechanical arts', whether Bacon had any idea of what the connection was between mathematics and 'enginery' and other Vitruvian subjects. For after the words quoted above, he says: In the mathematics I can report no deficiencie, except it be that men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of the pure mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many defects in the wits and faculties intellectual. 38 'The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science', in Art, Science and History in the Renaissance, ed. Charles S. Singleton, Baltimore, 1968, pp. 267-9. 39 Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book II, 10, i. 110 Ibid., 8, ii.

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Compare this with Dee's earnest desire in the Preface for the improvement of the mathematical arts, his clear vision of how it is through concentration on mathematical arts that the artisans and technologists he addresses can both improve their own estates and advance the sciences, Th3:! 'improvement of man's estate', so much admired as a feature in Bacon's programme, had been advocated many years before by Dee in the Preface, and with a much better grasp than Bacon had of the nature of technical education. As compared with Bacon's, Fludd's philosophy, banished to foreign publication, was a philosophy of the Renaissance, descending straight from Ficino and Pico, strongly magicized by Agrippa, full of the musical correspondencies of Macrocosm and Microcosm, and bound up with Vitruvian technology. Careful enquiry should be made as to where the advancement of science in Stuart England really lay. Did it advance among the descendants of Dee's school, amongst .the surveyors, engineers, improvers of nautical instruments (out of whom came, directly, William Gilbert, of whom Bacon disapproved) or did it advance among those who tried to apply a Baconian method? Leaving these problems as beyond the scope of this book, let us return to Fludd, and how he employed his time in the Jacobean age. Engrossed in preparing his books for foreign publication, he was also busy in practising Paracelsan medicine. But were there other skills of his which might have found an outlet in this period? It is said of the technology of the Romans that they applied what technical skill they had chiefly to fortification and military needs, to the building and maintenance of great works of public utility, such as aqueducts; when these requirements were met, technical skill was used chiefly in the production of amusing devices for pleasure and entertainment. There being slave labour in plentiful supply in ancient society, it was not thought necessary to ease the labours of production with technical skills. It has perhaps not been sufficiently realized that these remarks could also apply to the development of science and scientific , t· skills in Renaissance Europe. Perhaps the first large-scale em1 ployment of technical skills, other than for military purposes, J was in the great court spectacles of the period. In England, these , . had been introduced by Inigo Jones intliemasques afthe court 78

l

ROBERT FLUDD AND THE JACOBEAN AGE

of James I, which continued in ever more brilliant and elaborate forms in the reign of Charles I until civil war put an end to them. Where did Inigo Jones find the craftsmen and technicians to operatehis perspective and multi-machined stage, unless a good deal of this was known already in England ?41 It now seems clear that it was in the tradition of the Vitruvian subjects, established in England by John Dee at least as early as 1570, and continued in a direct line from Dee by Fludd with improved mechanical techniques and emphasis on perspective that Inigo Jones would have found his experts. Although he could have picked up the latest developments in masque production in his travels in Italy, the elements of the subject were already there in England where Inigo could have first heard of Vitruvius and the Vitruvian subjects from the Dee Preface, and could have imbibed in London some such teaching as that reflected in Fludd's 'technical history of the Macrocosm'. Theatrical magic, or illusion, and scientific magic, or technology, were blended and inter-related activities, and the pu.rsuit of the Vitruvian subjects could Iead both to the improved technologies of all kinds developing in London and to improvement in all the arts of the theatre. In Fludd's directions for the use of the squared grid in perspective painting, in his elaborate mechanisms for sound effects, his interest in effects of lighting, his attention to machines, we seem to be tapping the Vitruvian subjects in their relation to the arts of the theatre in an atmosphere which may well be very close to that in which Inigo Jones was working at the development of the masque in England. John Dee, Robert Fludd, Inigo Jones. These three personages have never before been placed in a sequence. The next chapter will suggest that the discovery of Vitruvian influences in Dee and Fludd makes necessary a new historical approach to Inigo Jones. This question is asked by Glynne Wickham, Early English Stages 1300 to 1600, London, 1959, I, p. 5.

41

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CHAPTER V

Inigo Jones in a New Perspective

V

ERY little is known of the early life oflnigo Jones. 1 He was baptized in 1573 at a London church; his father was a clothworker. According to George Vertue, who had it from Sir Christopher Wren, he began his professional career as apprentice to a joiner in St. Paul's Churchyard. 2 As Sir John Summerson remarks 'this is quite a likely beginning for a young man of obvious artistic talents, since Elizabethan joiners in London handled a great variety of designing and craftmanship'. 3 Most of what else we know about Jones's early life comes from the book on Stonehenge compiled from his notes by his disciple and son-in-law, John Webb. 4 Webb makes Jones say 'being naturally inclined in my younger years to study the Arts of Design, I passed into foreign parts to converse with the great masters thereof in Italy'. 5 The dates of this early journey, or journeys, to Italy are obscure, but Jones The fullest biography is that by J. A. Gotch, lnigo Jones, London, 1928; the best book on Jones the architect is that by Sir John Summerson, Inigo Jones, London (Penguin Book), 1966, which contains a bibliography of the Jones literature. 2 Vertue Note Books I, Walpole Society XVIII (1930), p. 105. Horace Walpole repeats that Jones was 'by the most probable accounts, bound apprentice to a joiner' (Anecdotes of Painting in England, ed. R. Wornum, 1849, II, p. 402). Cf. Summerson, p. 15. 3 Summerson, /oc. cit. 4 John Webb, The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain called StoneHeng Restored, London, 1655; second edition, London, 1725. References are to the second edition. 6 Ibid., p. I. 1

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had certainly travelled abroad before 1605 at which date he was described as a 'great traveller', in connection with entertainments at Oxford in honour of James I. 6 He was certainly back in England early in 1605 at which date he produced at court in collaboration with Ben Jonson the Masque of Blackness, the first of the great series of masques for which he is famous. In 1611, Jones was given the office of 'surveyor' to Henry, Prince of Wales. This lapsed on the sudden death of the prince in the following year, but in 1615 Jones was made Surveyor of the Royal Works, an office which included responsibility for the upkeep of royal property, and also carried with it the implication of official court architect. Our familiarity with 'Vitruvian subjects' can now perhaps enable us to see how one 'subject' would imply the others, and a surveyor would naturally function also as an architect, both as a builder and as responsible for theatrical production, after the Vitruvian manner. Meanwhile, Jones had again visited Italy in the train of Thomas, Earl of Arundel. After this second visit to Italy, in 1613-14, the style of his drawings and designs fo~ the masques became noticeably more assured. On these second travels he certainly acquired more first-hand knowledge of Italian festival design, and more knowledge of architectural theory and practice. It was with the masques that his court. career began and it was not until 1616 (so far as we know) that he began to work as an architect. It was in this year that he began work on the Queen's House at Greenwich which he built for Anne of Denmark. In 1619 he began work on the Whitehall Banqueting House, and in 1633 on a new fa93.de for St. Paul's cathedral. The sequence of Jones's career is thus, first the masques, then the building and more masques. In his work as an architect Inigo Jones fully justified his title of 'Vitruvius Britannicus' because he was the first to build in the Neoclassical style in England. There is something very abrupt about this sudden appearance of Inigo Jones (Pl. 24) as the first 'Vitruvius Britannicus', coming so late in time, when the Vitruvian revival in Europe was now ancient history. It seems extraordinary that the Renaissance Vitruvius should have made no impression in England until Inigo Jones arrived to reveal him. There seems to be an unaccountable gap here which requires filling in, and can be s Gotch, p. 38; E. K. Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, I, p. 130. 81

INIGO JONES IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE

filled in now that we know more about John Dee and Robert Fludd. It is impossible that a young man of the artisan class, beginning his career as a joiner in Elizabethan London in the later years of the sixteenth century, should not have heard of John Dee's famous Preface to Euclid. That Preface was designed to appeal to just such a class of young man; it set forth in English the principles of architectural proportion, with quotations from Vitruvius and Alberti, and announced in no uncertain language the supremacy of architecture among the mathematical arts and the arts of-design. It is now obvious that it was through reading the Dee Preface, or through personal contact with Dee and his circle, that Inigo Jones became inspired with the wish to pursue the arts of design, and other evidence for the validity of this approach can be brought. There is a reference to Dee's Preface in the book on Stonehenge which John Webb says that he compiled from Inigo Jones's notes and which he presents as though actually written by Jones. The subject under discussion is by what means the huge stones of Stonehenge were set up, and John Dee is brought in as having indicated what may be done by engines for raising weights. Dee, says Jones-Webb, has described 'in ills Mathematical Preface to Euclyde' what may be effected by that 'Mechanical Art' which he calls 'Menadry, or the Art of ordering Engines for raising weights.' 7 This refers, of course, to Dee on 'Menadrie' in the Preface where he alludes to the weight-lifting machine described by Vitruvius and illustrated by Daniele Barbaro, and used by Robert Fludd as the image for his section on mechanics in the 'technical history of the Macrocosm'. 8 If Jones had seen the 'Menadrie' passage in Dee's Preface, he had also seen the rest, had read there in his young and impressionable years the Renaissance definition of the architect, the references to Di.irer on proportion, and had gained more than a glimpse-a deep impression from the mind of a masterof basic Renaissance principles. One may also wonder whether Jones in his youth might have had access to the riches of Dee's library, or what remained of it. I would picture Jones as growing up in London at a time 7 8

82

Stone-Heng Restored, p. 23. See above pp. 24, 50-1; below, pp. 210-11.

INIGO JONES IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE

when the influence of Dee's Preface was exciting the artisans of the ci~y to intensive study of the mathematical arts, encouraging buddmg surveyors, mechanics, painters, perspectivists, many types of craftsmen into an enthusiastic activity behind which lay some knowledge of the abstract and religious importance of number on which Dee laid such stress. I would suggest that it was in these formative years that Jones's future was formed, and that it was upon his contacts in that busy world of technical advance that he was able to draw when he needed technicians for the masques. And now let us consider the remarkable parallels between the lives of Inigo Jones and Robert Fludd. They were almost exactly the same age; Fludd was born in 1574, Jones was baptized in 1573. They were travelling abroad at about the same time; Fludd was wandering through France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, so he tells us, from 1600 onwards, but was back in England by 1605 when he took his medical doctorate at Oxford. Jones, according to Jones-Webb, had passed into foreign parts to study design in Italy, which must have been .before 1605 at which date he was described as a great traveller, and was helping to produce entertainments at Oxford, in honour of James I. That both Jones and Fludd were back in England by 1605 when they were both in Oxford may of course be purely a coincidence. Or might it mean that they had travelled together? Or, at any rate, that it might be worth while to investigate Fludd's travels abroad about which we have more information than about those of Jones-his peculiar activities with French Catholics in the south of France for example-in case these might lead to some clues about Jones? From 1605 onwards Fludd and Jones would appear to have been based on London, Fludd pursuing his Paracelsist and medical activities, Jones busied on his work for the court as producer and surveyor. Fludd's 'technical history of the Macrocosm' shows that Fludd and Jones would have had interests in common-interests in those of the Vitruvian subjects which were needed for masque production. Fludd's technical history should, I suggest, be studied by those interested in Jones and the Stuart nla'sque as probably the work representing most closely the theoretical background of the early Jones productions. I would even say that some illustrations_!!!..aY. be the nearest thing -----83

INIGO JONES IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE

available to Inig? J.ones's early style. Compare, for example, '1oiies's'~design "for a palace in the masque of Oberon, The Faery Prince (PI. 25), produced in 1610-11 in honour of Henry, Prince of Wales, with Fludd's Temple of Music. Flu ,;, � ;, •

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