LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 13 



DR. JOHN DEE TO LORD BURGHLEY*. 



[MS. Lansd. No. 19. Art. 38. Orig.] 



Right honorable and my singular good Lord, Whereas of 

 late your honor very favorably used me, considering your 

 mervailous skantnes of leysor from very waighty matters and 

 publick : I am now, therefore, most humbly to render thanks 

 to your honor. Sins which tyme I have som whole dayes 

 attended at London, hoping for your lordship comming 

 thither. And on fryday last, perceyving your honor to be 

 almost in a redines to ride toward the court, ere I could get 

 to London (after I hard of your lordship certayn being there) 

 I than thowght the season to be very unfeete for my purpose. 

 Therfore finding your Lordship, at all tymes of usuall access 

 for suters, so fraught with matters of more importance than 

 any of myne can justly be deemed, I thowght good (with your 

 lordships leave and favor) thus by writing to enjoy e one 

 howre of your lordships leisour (best known to your Lord- 

 ship onely, whan that is) to vew the pattern of som part of my 

 symple sute : which hertofore I wold gladly have opened 

 unto your honor by word of mowth ; and that is this. So 

 much of my intent and studious doings is well known unto 

 your honor, and the most part of all universities in Christen - 

 dome (and farder) ; that for this xx. yeres last past, and 

 longer, it may be very truely avowched that I have had a 

 mervailous zeale, taken very greate care, endured great tra- 

 vayle and toyle, both of mynde and body, and spent very 

 many hundred powndes, onely for the attayning some good 

 and certayn knowledg in the best and rarest matters mathe- 

 maticall and philosophicall. How little or much therin the 

 aeternall God hath imparted to me (for my talent) He onely 

 best knoweth. But certaynly by due conference with all that 

 ever I yet met with in Europe, the pore English Bryttains 

 (II favorito, di vostra Excellentia) hath carried the bell away. 

 God Almighty have the glory ! The same zeale remayneth 

 (yea, rather, greater is grown). But the hability, for chargis, 

 is far lesser ; and that somwhat occasioned the sooner, throwgh 

 my frank dealing for procuring and purchasing speady meanes 

 of good knowledg. Which also I did uppon no small hope 



* This letter has been partly printed by Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation, 

 vol. ii. App. xlv. The conclusion of it is a striking example of the little attention that 

 was paid to the preservation of ancient records ; it is known, from Dr. Dee's well- 

 known memorial addressed to Elizabeth on the subject, that a MS. of Cicero " De 

 Republica" was even as late as the sixteenth century preserved in the library of Can- 

 terbury cathedral. 



