Edward Kelley

Edward Kelley (also spelled Edward Kelly)(1555 - 1597) was a spirit medium who worked with John Dee in his magical investigations. Besides the ability to summon spiritss or angels on a crystal ball, which John Dee so valued, Kelley also claimed to own the secret of transmuting base metals into gold. When Kelley dropped into Dee's life, in 1582, he carried with him a cryptic book and samples of some red and white powders. These items had allegedly been robbed from the tomb of a medieval bishop. With the powders (whose secret was presumably hidden in the book) he could prepare a red "tincture" which was supposed to turn metals into gold. He reportedly demonstrated its power a few times over the years, including in Bohemia (present Czech Republic) where he and Dee resided for many years. Kelley's association with Dee came to an abrupt end in 1589, when Kelley claimed to have received orders from the "angels" messages suggesting that they should share everything — including Dee's wife. However she would not submit to this arrangement, and Dee (who, after much soul searching, had felt it necessary to comply) concluded that he had been deceived by evils spirits, ceased his angelical investigations, and eventually resolved to go back to England. By the time of Dee's departure, Kelley had already managed to convince Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia to finance his experiments, with the aim of uncovering the secret of the powder's manufacture (whose supply had been nearly exhausted over the years). But eventually Rudolf tired of waiting for results and had Kelley locked up in the tower of his castle. While trying to escape through the window, with an insufficiently long rope, the hapless alchemist broke a leg, was taken back to his prison, and died from the injury shortly thereafter. Kelley's "angels" sometimes communicated in a special "angelic" or Enochian language. Dee and Kelley claim the language was given to them by angels. Some modern cryptographers presume they invented it, possibly with the help of a cryptographic device called a Cardan grille. (It is not clear whether Dee was a victim or an accomplice of this farce.) Because of this precedent, and of a dubious connection between the Voynich Manuscript and John Dee through Roger Bacon, Kelley has been suspected of having fabricated that book too, in order to swindle Rudolf. Kelley's flamboyant biography, and his relative notoriety among English-speaking historians (chiefly because of his association with Dee) may have made him the source for the folklorical image of the alchemist-charlatan.