magical disc
- Museum number
- 1838,1232.90.a
- Description
-
Disc; wax; engraved with magical figures and names; used by Doctor Dee when consulting "shew stones" or magic mirror.
- Production date
- 16thC(late)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 23.20 centimetres
-
Weight: 1322 grammes
-
Depth: 3.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039368111001117 for article on Dee's objects
This is one of three wax discs, one large and two smaller ones, 1838, 1232.90 a-c, which bear a striking similarity to the "seals" for which the angel Uriel was said to give instructions to John Dee on Saturday 10 March 1582 as recorded by Dee in Ms Sloane 1388, fol.1or, British Library.The Great Seal [this one?] was to be placed at the centre of a table made from sweetwood with four legs balanced on smaller versions of the seal, as sketched by Dee on the same ms page. The inscrptions on the large wax disc are almost identical to the diagram. The wax discs are first mentioned in 1692 by a visitor to the Cotton Library. We cannot be absolutely certain that the discs were made in Dee's lifetime but they do appear to follow the ms diagrams closely.
The wooden table does not survive but a marble copy is displayed at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, inv.15449, which is thought to have been made after an engraving of 1659 in Meric Casaubon's book on Dee. The table was presented to the Bodleian by Richard Rawlinson in 1750.
- Location
- On display (G1/fc20)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2012 19 Jul-25 Nov, London, BM Shakespeare: Staging the World
1980 15 Mar-28 Sep, Italy, Florence, Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence and Medicean Tuscany
- Acquisition notes
- Transferred from the Department of Manuscripts.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1838,1232.90.a
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 1838,XVI.5 (MSS 1838 transfer list)
-
Miscellaneous number: OA.105
