in alchimia bibliotheca

The Renaissance alchemists were very taken with this vision of astrology, particularly Trithemius in his Chronologica Mystica of 1508; his pupil Cornelius Agrippa in his De Occulta Philosophia (1533); the visionary Bruno who had Trithemius' Steganographia summarized; and the downright Dee, whose Clavis Angelicae was published in Krakow in 1584. Bruno's diagrams of his decans for internalizing his magic memory system are particularly quaint. They were probably inspired by the Picatrix and the decans painted on the fresco in the Palazzo Schifanio at Ferrara.

John Dee writes in his Spiritual Diaries (Sloane MS 3188, 22 December 1581 to 30 May 1583) how Enochian letters first appeared to him through his scryer Kelley and were recorded on 29 March 1582. Over the months, a completed 'Enochian Dictionary' was revealed and Kelley transmitted it as Enochian language. They received another Enochian text between April and August 1585 during their stay in Bohemia (the Liber Logaeth in Sloane 3139). Years before, on 18 January 1559, Dee had been given a copy of Voarchadumia by Joannes Augustinus Pantheus. The book was like many others on cabala, except that it showed an alphabet of Enoch. Was this the language of angels that the impressionable Dee memorized and Kelley telepathized twenty-five years later from Dee's brain? Dee worked inseparably with Kelley and never actually asserted that he saw anything himself. Nevertheless, Kelley's personality was so magnetic that susceptible scryers might repeat Dee's ideas as visions.

The Great Seal, the Sigil of Truth, Emeth, was placed on the tabletop and covered with red silk, on top of which the crystal was set. When the time was ripe and the "dignification" of Dee and Kelley complete, the sessions of crystal gazing could begin.