A True and Faithful Relation, Volume I

In 1659, Meric Casaubon published a large collection of records associated with John Dee's reported spiritual conferences. He presented them as evidence that spirits were real and that deceptive spirits had misled Dee. His intervention is part of the history of the book, not a neutral frame. This edition preserves Casaubon's complete preface, postscript, contents, errata, and source notes while keeping his voice distinct from Dee's record. Volume I opens with the 1659 preliminary matter and John Dee's printed Apology. The main sequence begins on 28 May 1583 and continues through 4 March 1584. It follows Dee, Edward Kelley, their households, and the Polish nobleman Albert Laski from Mortlake into continental travel. Prayer, inquiry, political expectation, household interruption, reported vision, and exact documentary detail remain together because that is how the source presents them. The text has been modernized conservatively against the Public Domain Mark Wellcome Collection witness, with the CC0 EEBO-TCP transcription used as a working aid. Spelling, punctuation, pronouns, and difficult syntax are clarified where the evidence permits. Names, speaker roles, dates, repetitions, technical terms, failed checks, damaged readings, and uncertainty remain visible. Embedded Latin and other non-English passages receive independent treatment, and unusual or unidentified language is not forced into a later standardized system. What this edition includes: - Complete treatment of all 159 Volume I source units - 285 translation records with source-linked provenance - 231 Casaubon notes kept distinct from eight new editorial notes - Six historical images, two semantic tables, chronology, glossary, and index Dense source figures are reproduced from the public-domain witness with live captions, concise alternatives, and adjacent descriptions. Genuine tabular relationships remain searchable semantic tables. Every source unit carries an auditable witness trail, and every linked note and internal reference resolves in the final reading text. A historical orientation explains Dee, Kelley, Casaubon, and Laski without deciding questions the record cannot settle. A reading key, chronology, people guide, glossary, source list, and index help readers follow the documentary sequence. The apparatus supports study without turning the volume into a practice manual or treating reported events as verified fact. For readers of Elizabethan intellectual life, Renaissance religion and magic, historical diaries, Enochian history, and the documentary sources behind later accounts of Dee's spiritual work.