His collection is said to have consisted of more than four
thousand books, nearly a fourth part of them manuscripts, which were
afterwards dispersed and lost. This library, and a great number of
mathematical and mechanical instruments, were destroyed by the fury of
the populace in 1583, who, believing him to be a conjuror, and one that
dealt with the devil, broke into his house, and tore and destroyed the
fruit of his labours during the forty years preceding.
On the 16th March 1575, Queen Elizabeth, attended by many of her court,
visited Dr Dee's house to see his library; but having buried his wife
only a few hours before, he could not entertain her Majesty in the way
he wished. However, he brought out a glass, the properties of which he
explained to his royal mistress, hoping to wipe off the aspersion, under
which he had long laboured, of being a magician.
In 1578 her Majesty being indisposed, Dee was sent abroad to consult
with some German physicians about the nature of her complaint. But that
part of his life in which he was most known to the world commenced in
1581, when his intercourse began with Edward Kelly.
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