An edition of John Dee's "Brytanici Imperii Limites" (1578): Edited and with an introduction and notes.
Item
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Title
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An edition of John Dee's "Brytanici Imperii Limites" (1578): Edited and with an introduction and notes.
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Identifier
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AAI3214535
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identifier
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3214535
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Creator
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Abeles, Jennifer T.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Catherine McKenna
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, Medieval | Philosophy | History, European | Literature, English
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Abstract
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The reputation of John Dee (1572-1608) has been difficult to fix, both amongst his contemporaries and in succeeding generations as scholars of intellectual history try to ascertain whether he deserves to be hailed as an influential man of science or a charlatan barred from arenas of power. The 1578 work "Brytanici Imperii Limites," extant in a single manuscript and edited and annotated here, sheds further light on the intellectual pursuits of its author, as well as on Renaissance geography, early British bids for mastery of the New World, British attitudes toward Spanish imperialism, ideas of Britishness vis a vis the "four nations" comprising it, and the status of Galfridian history in the Renaissance. The introduction addresses each of these themes, the latter two receiving fullest treatment. Dee offers King Arthur as both motivation and legitimization for a British Empire extending overseas (being the earliest thinker to define the British Empire in this way), providing later and more observably influential authors such as Richard Hakluyt the evidence necessary to rationalize British colonization of the New World. Since fully 1/4 of Dee's treatise is concerned with the historicity, conquests and arctic explorations of King Arthur, the introduction provides an overview of the contemporary debate over the veracity of the British History and posits Dee's positioning within this debate.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
