Tuba Veneris or The Trumpet of Venus English Version

This translation was made primarily from London's Warburg Institute Ms. FBH 51 (written about 1600, +/- 20 years), following the comparison made by Jorg M. Meier between that handwritten manuscript and eight others, especially Munich's Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 27005 (17th century), Erlanger's Universitatsbibliothek Erlangen-Nurnberg Ms. 854 (second half of the 17th century), and the 1794 Gedrucker text from Vienna. Except as noted, we've followed the Warburg copy except to regularize spelling or grammar (i.e., when it says 'pargamento' (parchment), we've used the more typical spelling 'pergamento'). Where no manuscript follows usual spelling or grammar we've used the Warburg manuscript, and we've also followed Meier's transcription of capitalization and inter-paginal line breaks

from that version.

About the author

John Dee (July 13, 1527 - 1608) was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy.

Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on advanced algebra at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery. In one of several tracts which Dee wrote in the 1580s encouraging British exploratory expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage, he appears to have coined the term "British Empire."

Simultaneously with these efforts, Dee immersed himself in the worlds of magic, astrology, and Hermetic philosophy. He devoted much time and effort in the last thirty years or so of his life to attempting to commune with angels in order to learn the universal language of creation. A student of the Renaissance Neo-Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, Dee did not draw distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations into Hermetic magic and divination, instead considering both ventures to constitute different facets of the same quest: the search for a transcendent understanding of the divine forms which underlie the visible world.

Dee's status as a respected scholar also allowed him to play a role in Elizabethan politics. He served as an occasional adviser and tutor to Elizabeth I and nurtured relationships with her two leading ministers, Francis Walsingham and William Cecil.

In his lifetime Dee amassed the largest library in England and one of the largest in Europe.