This paper investigates John Dee’s relationship with two kinds of alchemist: the authorities whose works
he read, and the contemporary practitioners with whom he exchanged texts and ideas. Both strands coincide
in the reception of works attributed to the famous English alchemist, George Ripley (d. c. 1490).
Dee’s keen interest in Ripley appears from the number of transcriptions he made of ‘Ripleian’ writings,
including the Bosome book, a manuscript discovered in 1574 and believed to have been written in Ripley’s
own hand. In 1583, Dee and his associate Edward Kelley left England for East Central Europe, taking with
them a proportion of Dee’s vast library, including alchemical books—the contents of which would soon
pique the interest of continental practitioners. Kelley used Ripley’s works, including the Bosome book,
not only as sources of practical information, but as a means of furthering his own relationships with colleagues
and patrons: transactions that in turn influenced Ripley’s posthumous continental reception. The
resulting circulation of texts allows us to trace, with unusual precision, the spread of English alchemical
ideas in the Holy Roman Empire from the late sixteenth century.