Re: fate of Jacobus's writings

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[This one should have been sent to the list too. --JS]

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Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 22:52:03 +0200
From: "Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: fate of Jacobus's writings


Hi Jorge,

This arrived as a private message - if you intended to send it to
the list, you may forward my reply there, too.

>     > [Rafal:] I would rather say [Dee] was never financially
>     > independent - but also never fell into poverty.
> 
> In England, yes --- but I gather that in Bohemia he got much closer to
> bankrupcy, yes?  Fell-Smith reports that on Feb-Mar 1585 Jane Dee demanded
> that Dee and Kelley ask the spirits advice on how to make ends meet,
> lest they be forced to pawn their "house ornaments".

If we accept this, then Arthur's testimony of playing with toys
of silver becomes even less credible. On the other hand, women
often exaggerate :-)

> It is possible that his books (if there were any) were sold as part of
> the estate, or (more likely) they were incorporated into the
> Clementinum's library. If the latter, they may have ended up at
> Charles university, and/or may have been taken to Sweden (I believe
> this was Lubos Antonin's guess), or (who knows) they may have remained
> in the Clementinum to this day.

I do not think Lubos was right on this point. Pelcl in _Abbildungen..._
says: "Seine Werke ueber die Chemie und Kraeuterkunde liegen noch
in der Handschrift", which means he was aware of them in late 18th c.
in Prague.

Best regards,

Rafal

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