Ouroboros Press has opened pre-orders for a newly translated edition of Dr. John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica which should be available October/November 2021. The publisher’s site says:
“I am very excited to announce that the final stages of production are underway for a new and scholarly edition of John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica. Translated from the Latin by Dr. Teresa Burns and Dr. Nancy Turner, the Ouroboros Press edition will be the most complete version of the text since the original 16th century printings.
“Dr. Burns has written an introduction and provided scholarly footnotes which places the proper context for Dee’s famous enigmatic book.
At left you can see the front cover of the dust jacket which features new artwork by Michelle Anderst who also redrew all the illustrations of the book modeled on the original printing.
” This edition will also include the letters John Dee wrote to Emperor Maximillian and to the printer Willem Silvius wherein Dee relates details about the book not found in other editions. The text has been completely reset in an elegant layout by Joseph Uccello who was able to benefit from Dee’s letter to the original printer providing specific instructions about laying out the book based on the original manuscript.
“Elizabethan Magus John Dee is an intriguing figure in the history of ideas and the Hermetic Tradition. The Monas Hieroglyphica represents one of his most important works and expounds upon his monadic glyph in a series of 24 theorems in terms of mathematics, magic, kabbalah and anagogy. The art and meaning behind geometric marks, signs, seals and sigils owe much to this text of occult science.
“The first edition of the Monas Hieroglyphica was printed by Guiliemus Silvius at Antwerp, 1564. The book is dedicated to the Emperor Maximiilian II., and there is a letter to the printer in which he is requested to set up the book in as close an imitation of the manuscript as possible, in so far as the diagrams, marks, capital letters, and so on are concerned. Apparently Dee attached importance to such details, as they formed part of the significance of his symbol. There was a reprint in 1591. – John Ferguson
“In this new translation from the original Latin, Dr. Teresa Burns and Dr. Nancy Turner have rendered the most complete edition of the Monas Hieroglyphica to date. Employing all the current scholarship available since C. H. Josten’s 1964 translation, Dr. Burns has supplied scholarly footnotes which elucidate many of the enigmatic passages of Dee’s text. Included here are the letters to Maximillian and Silvius often lacking in other editions.
“New illustrations carefully reproduced from the original 1564 edition have been rendered in ink by artist Michelle Anderst. The typesetting has been carefully and expertly executed by Joseph Uccello following Dee’s instructions to the original typesetter.”
Pre-order
https://www.bookarts.org/store/p110/Monas_Hieroglyphica.html.
