A True and Faithful Relation, Volume II

Volume II continues the documentary sequence after the material gathered in Volume I. It opens at Cracow on 10 April 1584 and ends with John Dee's Prague entry of 8 October 1584. Five divisions already named in Meric Casaubon's 1659 publication govern the internal structure. Their unequal lengths, dense tables, abrupt changes, and unresolved ending remain because the source does not supply a modern narrative arc. Dee records prayer, inquiry, household interruption, disputed messages, political hopes, and difficult travel. Edward Kelley reports voices, figures, letters, movements, doubts, and resistance. Albert Laski's patronage and fortunes shape the Cracow record. In Prague, Dee seeks access to Rudolf II through officers, ambassadors, letters, and petitions. The edition keeps observed acts distinct from claims reported within the conferences and keeps Casaubon's later skeptical judgments distinct from Dee's words. 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. Two printed pages omitted from TCP have been restored from direct witness evidence. Spelling, punctuation, and difficult syntax are clarified where the source permits. Names, dates, speaker roles, repetitions, damaged readings, failed checks, technical terms, and documentary uncertainty remain visible. What this edition includes: - 180 TCP source units plus two restored witness leaves - 411 independently resolved translation records - 832 linked notes and 168 searchable semantic tables - Historical orientation, guides, glossary, sources, and index Embedded Latin and other identifiable language receive independent English treatment. Unidentified or angelic-language strings retain their significant divisions, dots, capitalization, and uncertainty. The edition does not normalize them from later handbooks or turn the historical record into a practical system. All 168 source tables remain searchable or receive verified transcriptions. The densest twelve-column grids pair source images with accessible descriptions and row records. Four checked reader images, two table facsimiles and two source figures, have live captions and text alternatives. Every source unit and restored leaf has an auditable witness trail. Historical orientation, a reading key, chronology, people and places guide, glossary, thematic essay, source list, and index help readers follow the path from Cracow to Prague. The apparatus supports close study without presenting reported religious, visionary, political, alchemical, or medical claims as verified fact. For readers of early modern intellectual life, Renaissance religion and magic, historical diaries, Enochian history, and the documentary sources behind later accounts of Dee's spiritual work.