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9. New Science, Old Magic

Neil MacGregor reveals how a black obsidian disc from Mexico reflects the Elizabethan fascination with astrology. From 2012.

Dr Dee's Mirror was actually a highly polished disk of black obsidian from Mexico but it reflects the Elizabethan fascination with the new sciences of cosmology and astrology.

Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.

Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time, he explores how Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers made sense of the unstable and rapidly changing world in which they lived.

With old certainties shifting around them, in a time of political and religious unrest and economic expansion, Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed.

He uses carefully selected objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public and helped shape the works, and he considers what they can reveal about the concerns and beliefs of Shakespearean England.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 in April 2012.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Fri 27 Oct 2023 02:15

Dr Dee's Magical Mirror

Size: H:224mm, W:186mm Ìý

Made in: Mexico Ìý

Made by: Unknown Ìý

Material: Obsidian

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An Aztec mirror from Mexico isn’t necessarily the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Shakespeare’s world. But this obsidian disc reveals something about 16th-century England and the level to which beliefs in ghosts and spirits still persisted.

This mirror is said to have belonged to one of the world’s most famous practitioners of the occult arts, Dr John Dee, whose advice was sought by the rich and powerful including Elizabeth I herself.

He was a kind of celebrity in his own time, a highly educated intellectual who explored the worlds not only of science and mathematics, but the workings of the occult and spirits too. Magic also had a starring role in many of Shakespeare’s plays – although making those spirits appear in front of the audience presented another set of challenges.

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This object is from the

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Quotations

'Spirits, which by mine art/I have from their confines called to enact/My present fancies.' Ìý

The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1

Background

  • Obsidian mirrors were used by Aztec royalty as symbols of their power, derived from the god Tezcatlipoca, 'Lord of the Smoking Mirror'
  • John Dee was England's first magus and a leading mathematician of the age, a reviver of ancient knowledge and enthusiastic supporter of the Copernican world
  • Although known as Dr Dee, his only claim to this title was the award of a doctorate of medicine from the University of Prague in 1584/5
  • He received no favour from James I, whose opinions on witchcraft caused Dee some concern and he protested passionately against his reputation as a conjuror
  • Shakespeare's magus figure, Prospero, is perhaps the most positive portrayal of a magus fugure in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

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More from Radio 4: The Aztecs

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Renaissance Astrology, an essential part of Renaissance thinking on magic, music, medicine, politics, cosmology, destiny and much more.

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Melvyn Bragg discusses the heavenly host of Angels, so popular with so many believers and so problematic for philosophers and theologians.

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 26 Apr 2012 13:45
  • Thu 26 Apr 2012 19:45
  • Thu 18 Oct 2012 14:15
  • Thu 19 Mar 2015 14:15
  • Fri 20 Mar 2015 00:15
  • Wed 22 Jun 2016 13:45
  • Thu 26 Apr 2018 14:15
  • Fri 27 Apr 2018 02:15
  • Thu 26 Oct 2023 07:15
  • Thu 26 Oct 2023 12:15
  • Thu 26 Oct 2023 17:15
  • Fri 27 Oct 2023 02:15

Podcast