ecclefiaftic, which he did not poffefs in an eminent degree. DECHALES (CLAUDIUS FRANCIS MILLIET) an excellent mathematician, mechanic, and aftronomer, was born at Chamberry, the capital of Savoy, in the year 1611; and defcended from a noble family, which had produced feveral perfons, creditably diftinguished in the church, the long robe, and the field. He was a great master in all the parts of Moreri, &c. mathematics, and printed several books in that way, which were very well received. His principal performances are, an edition of Euclid's Elements, where he has ftruck out the unferviceable propofitions, and annexed the ufe to those he has kept in; a difcourfe of fortification; and another of navigation. These performances, with fome others, were first collected into three volumes in folio, under the title of Mundus mathematicus; being indeed a compleat courfe of all the mathematics. The firft volume includes the firft fix books of Euclid, with the eleventh and twelfth ; an arithmetical tract; Theodofius's fpherics; trigonometry; practical geometry; mechanics; ftatics; univerfal geography; a discourse upon the loadstone; civil architecture, and the carpenter's art. The fecond volume furnishes directions for ftone-cutting; military architecture; hydroftatics; a difcourfe of fountains and rivers; hydraulic machines, or contrivances for water-works; navigation; optics; perfpective; catoptrics and dioptrics. The third volume has in it a difcourfe of mufic; pyrotechnia, or the operations of fire and furnace; a difcourfe of the use of the astrolabe; gnomonics, or the art of dialling; aftronomy; a tract upon the calendar; aftrology; algebra; the method of indivifible and conic fections. The beft edition of this work is that of Lyons, printed in the year 1690: It is more correct than the firft, has confiderable enlargements, and makes four volumes in folio. Dechales, though not abounding in difcoveries of his own, is yet allowed to have made a very good ufe of the productions of other men, and to have drawn the feveral parts of the fcience of mathematics together with great clearness and judgment. It is faid alfo, that his probity was not inferior to his learning, and that both these qualities made him generally admired and beloved at Paris; where for four years together he read public mathematical lectures in the college of Clermont. Then he removed to Marseilles, where he taught the art of navigation; and afterwards became pro feffor mathematici feffor of mathematics in the univerfity of Turin, where he died upon the 28th of March in the year 1678, aged 67. DEE (JOHN) a great mathematician, and very extraordinary perfon in the republic of letters, was born of parents in Vita Jo- good circumftances at London, upon the 13th of July 15273 hannis Dee, and, after fome time spent at fchool there, and at Chelmsford Angli, Tho- in Effex, fent to St. John's college in Cambridge. As to the ma Smith, life he led there, take it in his own words: “Anno 1542, I fcriptore.-66 was fent by my father Rowland Dee to the university of Compendious rehearsal "Cambridge, there to begin with logic, and fo to proceed in of John Der," the learning of good arts and fciences; for I had before &c. chap. 1. been meeting well furnished with understanding of the "Latin tongue, I being then fomewhat above fifteen years. "old. In the years 1543, 1544, 1545, I was fo vehemently "bent to ftudy, that for thofe years I did inviolably keep this "order, only to fleep four hours every night; to allow to "meat and drink, and some refreshing after, two hours every "day; and of the other eighteen hours, all, except the time "of going to, and being at, the divine fervice, was fpent in Compend. my ftudies and learning." In May 1547, he went into rehearf. c. I. the Low Countries, on purpose to converfe with Gemma Frifius, Gerardus Mercator, &c. and in about eight months after returned to Cambridge; where, upon the founding Trinity college by king Henry VIII, he was chofen one of the fellows. His turn was to mathematics and astronomy. He brought over with him from the Low Countries feveral inftruments made by the direction of Frifius, together with a pair of great globes made by Mercator; and his reputation was very high. However, his affiduity in making aftronomical obfervations, which in thofe days were always understood as connected with the defire of penetrating into futurity, brought fome fufpicion upon him; which was fo far increased by a very fingular accident that befel him, as to draw upon him the imputation of a conjurer, which he could never shake off for threefcore years after. As to this accident, it happened foon after his removal from St. John's college, and being chosen one of the fellows of Trinity, where he "was affigned "to be the under-reader of the Greek tongue, Mr. Pember "being the chief Greek reader then in Trinity college. "Hereupon, fays he, I did fet forth, and it was feen of the "univerfity, a Greek comedy of Ariftophanes, named in "Greek Eign, in Latin, Pax, with the performance of the "fcarabæus, or beetle, his flying up to Jupiter's palace with "a a man and his basket of victuals on her back; whereat was ' great wondering, and many vain reports fpread abroad of "the means, how that was effected." Ibid. c. 1. Disturbed with thefe reports, he left England again in the year 1548, and went to the univerfity of Louvain; where he diftinguished himself extremely, fo that he was vifited by the duke of Mantua, by don Lewis de la Cerda, afterwards duke of Medina, and other perfons of great rank. While he remained there, fir William Pickering, who was afterwards fo great a favourite with queen Elizabeth, was his pupil; and in this university it is probable, not certain, that he had the degree of doctor of laws conferred upon him. In July 1550, he went from thence to Paris, where, in the college of Rheims, he read lectures upon Euclid's elements, with prodigious applaufe: and very great offers were made him, if he would accept of a profefforfhip in that univerfity, which, however, he refufed. In 1551, he returned to England, Vita Joh. was well received by fir John Cheke, introduced to mr. fecre- Dee, p. 7. tary Cecil, and even to king Edward himself, from whom he received a penfion of one hundred crowns a year, which was afterwards exchanged for a grant of the rectory of Upton upon Severn, his majefty's prefentation to which he received upon the 9th of May 1553. In the reign of queen Mary, he was Compend. for fome time very kindly treated; but afterwards came into rehears, c. 3. great trouble, and even danger of his life. At the very entrance of it, mr. Dee entered into a correspondence with several of the lady Elizabeth's principal fervants, while fhe was at Woodstock and at Milton; which being obferved, and the nature of it not known, two informers charged him with practising against the queen's life by inchantments. Upon this he was feized and confined; but being, after feveral trials, discharged of treafon, he was turned over to bifhop Bonner, to fee if any herefy could be found in him. After a tedious perfecution, Auguft the 19th 1555, he was, by an order of council, fet at liberty; and thought his credit fo little hurt by vita, &c. what had happened, that, upon the 15th of January 1556, p. 8. he prefented "A fupplication to queen Mary, for the recovery and preservation of ancient writers and monuments." The defign was certainly good, and would have been attended with good confequences, if it had taken effect; which it did not. The fupplication is ftill extant in the Cotton library; and we learn from it, that Tully's famous work, de Republica, was once extant in this kingdom, and perifhed at Canterbury. Upon Upon the acceffion of queen Elizabeth, at the defire of lord Robert Dudley, afterwards earl of Leicester, he delivered fomewhat upon the principles of the ancient aftrologers, about Compend. the choice of a fit day for the coronation of the queen, from reheart. c. 5. whom he received many promises; nevertheless, his credit at court was not fufficient to overcome the public odium he lay under, on the score of magical incantations, and which was the true caufe of his miffing feveral preferments. He was by. this time become an author; but, as we are told, a little unluckily; for his books were fuch as fcarce any pretended to understand, written upon myfterious fubjects in a very myfterious manner. The reader fhall have an account of them by and by. In the fpring of the year 1564, he went abroad again, to prefent the book which he dedicated to the then emperor Maximilian, and returned into England the fame fummer. In 1568, he engaged the earl of Pembroke to present the queen with his Propædumata aphoriftica; and two years after, fir Henry Billingfley's tranflation of Euclid appeared, with mr. Dee's preface and notes, which did him more honour than all his other performances, as they furnished inconteftable proofs of a more than ordinary skill in the mathematics. In 1571, we find him in Lorrain; where falling dangerously fick, the queen was pleafed to fend him two phyIbid. c. 4. ficians. After his return to England, he fettled himself in his house at Mortlake; where he profecuted his studies with great diligence, and collected a noble library. This library confifted of four thousand volumes, of which above a fourth part were manufcripts; a great number of mechanical and mathematical inftruments; a box full of feals, and other curiofities of the fame kind. It was upon his leaving the kingdom in 1583, that the populace, who always believed him to be a conjurer, and one who dealt with the devil, broke into his houfe at Mortiake; where they tore and deftroyed many things, and difperfed the reft in fuch a manner, that the greateft part of them were irrecoverable. Vita, &c. p. 17. Compend. rehears. c. 7. In November 1572, a new ftar appeared in Caffiopeia's chair, which gave mr. Dee an opportunity of diftinguishing himfelf in his own way. On the 16th of March 1575, queen Elizabeth went to mir. Dee's houfe, in order to fee his library; but having buried his wife but a few hours before, he could not entertain her in the manner he would have done, However, he brought out to her majesty a glass of his, which had occafioned much difcourfe; fhewed her the properties of it, and explained their causes, in order to wipe off the asper &c. p. 18. fion, under which he had fo long laboured, of being a magician. In 1577, a comet appearing, queen Elizabeth fent for Ibid. ch. 4. mr. Dee to Windfor, to hear what he had to fay about it. The queen was pleafed with his difcourfes, and promised him her royal protection, notwithstanding the vulgar reports to his Ibid. c. 4. prejudice. The year after, her majefty being greatly indifpo- and Vita, fed, mr. Dee was fent abroad, to confer with the German phyficians. The queen, hinting her defire to be thoroughly informed, as to her title to countries difcovered in different parts of the globe, by fubjects of England, mr. Dee applied himself to the tafk with great vigour; fo much, that on the 3d of October 1580, which was not three weeks after, he prefented to the queen, in her garden at Richmond, two large rolls, in which thofe countries were geographically defcribed and historically explained; with the addition of all the teftimonies and authorities, neceffary to fupport them, from records, and other authentic vouchers. These the queen very graciously received; and, after dinner, on the fame day, conferred with mr. Dee about them, in the presence of some of her privy-council, and of the lord-treasurer Burleigh especially. Ibid. p. 19. His next employment, of confequence enough to be remembred, was about the reformation of the calendar; which, though it never took effect, was one of his beft performances, and did him great credit. We e come now to that period of mr. Dee's life, by which he has been moft known to the world, though for matters which have juftly rendered him least to be regarded. Mr. Dee was certainly a man of uncommon parts, learning, and application; and might have performed great things, if he had been poffeffed of a folid judgment; but he was extremely credulous and fuperftitious. He was likewise extremely vain; and his ambition to surpass all men in knowledge, carried him at length to a defire of knowing beyond the bounds of human faculties. In fhort, he fuffered himself to be deluded into an opinion, that by certain invocations an intercourse or communication with spirits might be obtained; from whence he promised himself an infight into the occult fciences. He found a young man, one Edward Kelley, a native of Worcestershire, who had dipped already deep into these matters; and who readily undertook to be his inftrument in them, for which he was to pay him 50l. per annum. December the 2d, 1581, they Vita, &c. began their incantations; in confequence of which, Edward p. 46. Kelley was, by the infpection of a certain table, confecrated Ahmole's for that purpose with many fuperftitious ceremonies, enabled chemicum, Theatrum to p. 479. |