I asked for another day, searched my card files, and came back to the office glowing with pride. I had found a clue, an almost invisible clue, but that's how Sam Spade works. Nothing is trivial or insignificant to his eagle eye. Toward 1584, John Dee, mage and cabalist, astrologer to the queen of England, was assigned to study the reform of the Julian calendar.
"The English Templars meet the Portuguese in 1464. After that date, the British Isles seem to be struck by a cabalistic fervor. Anyway, the Templars work on what they have learned, preparing for the next encounter. John Dee is the leader of this magic and hermetic renaissance. He collects a personal library of four thousand volumes, a library in the spirit of the Templars of Provins. His Monas Hieroglyphica seems directly inspired by the Tabula smaragdina, the bible of the alchemists. And what does John Dee do from 1584 on? He reads the Steganographia of Trithemius! He reads it in manuscript, of course, because it appeared in print for the first time only in the early seventeenth century. Dee, the grand master of the English group that suffered the failure of the missed appointment, wants to discover what happened, where the error lay. Since he is also a good astronomer, he slaps himself on the brow and says, ¡¥What an idiot I was!' He starts studying the Gregorian reform, after he obtains an appanage from Elizabeth, to see how to rectify the mistake. But he realizes it's too late. He doesn't know whom to get in touch with in France. He has contacts, however, in the Mittel-europaische area. The Prague of Rudolf II is one big alchemist laboratory; so Dee goes to Prague and meets Khunrath, the author of Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, whose allegorical plates later influenced both Andreae and the Rosicrucian manifestoes. What sort of relationships does Dee establish? I don't know. Shattered by remorse at having committed an irreparable error, he dies in 1608. Not to worry, though, because in London someone else is at work¡Xa man who, everybody now agrees, was a Rosicrucian and who spoke of the Rosicrucians in his New Atlantis. I mean Francis Bacon."
"Did Bacon really talk about them?" Belbo asked.
"Strictly speaking, no, but a certain John Heydon rewrote the New Atlantis under the title The Holy Land, and he put the Rosicrucians in it. But for us that makes no difference. Bacon didn't mention them by name for obvious reasons of discretion, but it's as if he did."
"And a pox on doubters."
"Right. It's because of Bacon that attempts are made to strengthen relations between the English and German circles. In 1613 Elizabeth, daughter of James I, now reigning, marries Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. After the death of Rudolf II, Prague is no longer the ideal location; Heidelberg is. The wedding of the elector and the princess is a triumph of Templar allegories. In the course of the London festivities, Bacon himself is the impresario, and an allegory of mystical knighthood is performed, with an appearance of the knights on the top of a hill. It is obvious that Bacon is now Dee's successor, grand master of the English Templar group..."
"And since he is clearly the author of the plays of Shakespeare, we should also reread the complete works of the bard, which certainly talk about nothing else but the Plan," Belbo said. "Saint John's Eve, a midsummer night's dream."
"June 23 is not midsummer."
"Poetic license. I wonder why everybody overlooked these clues, these clear indications. It's all so unbearably obvious."
"We've been led astray by rationalist thought," Diotallevi said. "I keep telling you."
"Let Casaubon go on; it seems to me he's done an excellent job."
"Not much more to say. After the London festivities, the festivities begin in Heidelberg, where Salomon de Caus has built for the elector the hanging gardens of which we saw a dim reflection that night in Piedmont, as you'll recall. And in the course of these festivities, an allegorical float appears, celebrating the bridegroom as Jason, and from the two masts of the ship recreated on the float hang the symbols of the Golden Fleece and the Garter. I hope you haven't forgotten that the Golden Fleece and the Garter are also found on the columns of Tomar...Everything fits. In the space of a year, the Rosicrucian manifestoes come out: the appeal that the English Templars, with the help of their German friends, are making to all Europe, to reunite the lines of the interrupted Plan." "But what exactly are they after?"
72
Nos inuisibles pretendus sont (a ce que Ton dit) au nombre de 36, separez en six bandes.
¡XEffroyables pactions faictes entre le diable & les pretendus Inuisibles, Paris, 1623, p. 6
"Maybe the manifestoes have a double purpose: to send an appeal to the French, and at the same time to collect the scattered pieces of the German group in the aftermath of the Lutheran Reformation. Germany, in fact, is where the biggest mess occurs. From the appearance of the manifestoes until about 1621, the Rosicrucians receive too many replies..."
I mentioned a few of the countless pamphlets that had appeared on the subject, the ones that had entertained me that night in Salvador with Amparo. "Possibly among all these there is one person who knows something, but he is lost in a sea of fanatics, enthusiasts, who take the manifestoes literally, perhaps also provocateurs, who want to block the operation, and impostors...The English try to take part in the debate, to channel it. It's no accident that Robert Fludd, another English Templar, in the space of a single year writes three works that point to the correct interpretation of the manifestoes...But the response is by now out of control, the Thirty Years' War has begun, the Elector Palatine has been defeated by the Spanish, the Palatinate and Heidelberg are sacked, Bohemia is in flames...The English decide to return to France and try there. This is why in 1623 the Rosicrucians appear in Paris, giving the French more or less the same invitation they gave the Germans. And what do you read in one of the libels against the Rosicrucians in Paris, written by someone who distrusts them or wants to confuse things? That they are worshipers of the Devil, obviously, but since even in slander you can't entirely erase the truth, it is hinted that they hold their meetings in the Marais."
"So?"
"Don't you know Paris? The Marais is the quarter of the Temple and, it so happens, the Jewish ghetto! What's more, the libel says that the Rosicrucians are in contact with a sect of Iberian cabalists, the Alumbrados! But maybe the pamphlets against the Rosicrucians, under the guise of attacking the thirty-six invisibles, are actually trying to foster their identification...Gabriel Naude, Richelieu's librarian, writes some Instructions a la France sur la verite de I'histoire des Freres de la Rose-Crouc.What do these instructions say? Is Naude" a spokesman for the Templars of the third group, or is he an adventurer barging into a game that isn't his? On the one hand, he dismisses the Rosicrucians as lunatic diabolists; on the other, he insinuates that there are still three Rosicrucian colleges in existence. And this would be true: after the third group, there are still three more. Naude gives some almost fairy-tale hints (one college is in India, on the floating islands), but he also says that one of them is in the underground of Paris."
"And this explains the Thirty Years' War?" Belbo asked.
"Beyond any doubt," I said. "Richelieu receives privileged information from Naude; he wants to have a finger in this pie, but he gets it all wrong, tries armed intervention, and makes matters even worse. There are two other events that shouldn't be overlooked. In 1619 a chapter of the Knights of Christ meets in Tomar, after forty-six years of silence. It had met in 1573, only eleven years before 1584, probably to prepare, along with the English, the Paris journey, but after the business of the Rosicrucian manifestoes it meets again, to decide what line to take, whether to join the English operation or try a different path."
"Yes," Belbo said, "these are now people lost in a maze: some choose one path, some another; some shout for help, and there's no telling if the replies they hear are other voices or the echo of their own...They all are groping. And what are the Paulicians and the Jerusalemites doing in the meantime?"
"If we only knew," Diotallevi said. "But consider, too, that this is the period when Lurianic cabala spreads and the talk about the Breaking of the Vessels b
egins...And the idea that the Torah is an incomplete message. There is a Polish Hasidic document that says: If another event takes place, other combinations of letters will be born. But remember this: the cabalists aren't happy that the Germans chose to jump the gun. The proper succession and order of the Torah have remained hidden, and they are known only by the Holy One, praised be He. But you make me talk nonsense. If cabala becomes involved in the Plan...."
"If the Plan exists, it must involve everything. Either it explains all or it explains nothing," Belbo said. "But Casaubon mentioned a clue."
"Yes. Actually, it's a series of clues. Even before that 1584 meeting fails, John Dee has begun devoting himself to the study of maps and the promotion of naval expeditions. And who is his associate? Pedro Nunes, the royal cosmographer of Portugal...Dee has a hand in the voyages to discover the Northwest Passage to Cathay; he invests money in the expedition of a certain Frobisher, who ventures toward the Pole and returns with an Eskimo, whom everybody takes for a Mongol. Dee fires up Francis Drake and encourages him to make his voyage around the world. However, he wants the explorers to sail east, because the East is the source of all occult knowledge, and at the departure of one expedition¡XI forget which¡Xhe summons the angels."
"And what does this mean?"
"Dee, I think, isn't really interested so much in the actual discovery of places, as in their cartographic depiction, and for this reason he consults Mercator and Ortelius, the great cartographers. It's as if the fragments of the message in his possession have convinced him that the final whole will be a map, and he is attempting to discover it on his own. Indeed, I'll say more, like Signer Garamond. Is it really likely that a scholar of his standing would have missed the discrepancy between the calendars? Perhaps Dee wants to reconstruct the message himself, without the other groups. Perhaps he thinks the message can be reconstructed by magic or scientific means, instead of waiting for the Plan to be achieved. Impatience, greed. The bourgeois conqueror is born, and the principle of solidarity that sustained the spiritual knighthood is breaking down. If this was Dee's idea, you can imagine what Bacon thought. From Dee on, the English try to discover the message by using all the secrets of the new learning."
"And the Germans?"
"The Germans....We'd better have them stick to the path of Tradition. That way we can explain at least two centuries of their history of philosophy. Anglo-Saxon empiricism versus romantic idealism..."
"Chapter by chapter, we are reconstructing the history of the world," Diotallevi said. "We are rewriting the Book. I like it, I really like it."
73
Another curious case of cryptography was presented to the public in 1917 by one of the best Bacon scholars, Dr. Alfred von Weber Ebenhoff of Vienna. Employing the same systems previously applied to the works of Shakespeare, he began to examine the works of Cervantes...Pursuing the investigation, he discovered overwhelming material evidence: the first English translation of Don Quixote bears corrections in Bacon's hand. He concluded that this English version was the original of the novel and that Cervantes had published a Spanish translation of it.
¡XJ. Duchaussoy, Bacon, Shakespeare ou Saint-Germain?, Paris, La Colombe, 1962, p. 122
It seemed obvious to me that in the days that followed Jacopo Belbo immersed himself in historical works on the Rosy Cross period. But when he reported his findings, he gave us only the bare outline of his fantasies, from which we drew valuable suggestions. I know now that in fact he was creating a far richer narrative on Abulafia, one in which a wild play of quotations mingled with his private myths. The opportunity of combining fragments of other stories spurred him to write his own. He never mentioned this to us. I still think he was, quite courageously, testing his talent in the realm of fiction. Or else he was defining himself in the Great Story he was distorting like any ordinary Diabolical.
FILENAME: The Cabinet of Dr. Dee
For a long time I forgot I was Talbot. From the time, at least, of my decision to call myself Kelley. All I had done, really, was to falsify some documents, like everybody else. The queen's men were merciless. To cover what's left of my poor severed ears I am forced to wear this pointed black cap, and people murmur that I am a sorcerer. So be it. Dr. Dee, with a similar reputation, flourishes.
I went to see him in Mortlake. He was examining a map. He was evasive, the diabolical old man. Sinister glints in his shrewd eyes. His bony hand stroking his little goatee.
"It's a manuscript of Roger Bacon," he said to me, "and was lent me by the Emperor Rudolf. Do you know Prague? I advise you to visit it. You may find something there that will change your life. Tabula locorum rerum et thesaurorum absconditorum Menabani..."
Stealing a glance, I saw something written in a secret alphabet. But the doctor immediately hid the manuscript under a pile of other yellowed pages. How beautiful to live in a period where every page, even if it has just come from the papermaker's workshop, is yellowed.
I showed Dr. Dee some of my efforts, mainly my poems about the Dark Lady¡Xradiant image of my childhood, dark because reclaimed by the shadow of time and snatched from my possession¡Xand a tragic sketch, the story of Seven Seas Jim, who returns to England in the train of Sir Walter Ralegh and learns that his father has been murdered by his own incestuous brother. Henbane.
"You're gifted, Kelley," Dee said to me. "And you need money. There's a young man, the natural son of someone you couldn't dare imagine, and I want to help him climb the ladder of fame and honors. He has little talent. You will be his secret soul. Write, and live in the shadow of his glory. Only you and I, Kelley, will know that the glory is yours."
So for years I've been turning out work for the queen and for all England that goes under the name of this pale youth. If I have seen further, it is by standing on ye shoulders of a Dwarfe. I was thirty, and I will allow no man to say that thirty is the most beautiful time of life.
"William," I said to him, "let your hair grow down over your ears: it's becoming." I had a plan (to take his place?).
Can one live in hatred of this Spear-shaker, who in reality is oneself? That sweet thief which sourly robs from me. "Calm down, Kelley," Dee says to me. "To grow in the shadows is the privilege of those who prepare to conquer the world. Keepe a Lowe Profyle. William will be one of our covers." And he informed me¡Xoh, only in part¡Xof the Cosmic Plot. The secret of the Templars. "And the stakes?" I asked.
"Ye Globe."
For a long time I went to bed early, but one evening at midnight I rummaged in Dee's private strongbox and discovered some formulas and tried summoning angels as he does on nights of full moon. Dee found me sprawled, in the center of the circle of the Macrocosm, as if struck by a lash. On my brow, the Pentacle of Solomon. Now I must pull my cap even farther down, half over my eyes.
"You don't know how to do it yet," Dee said to me. "Watch yourself, or I'll have your nose cut off, too. I will show you fear in a handful of dust..."
He raised a bony hand and uttered the terrible word: Garamond! I felt myself burn with an inner flame. I fled (into the night).
It was a year before Dee forgave me and dedicated to me his Fourth Book of Mysteries, "post reconciliationem kellianam."
That summer I was seized by abstract rages. Dee summoned me to Mortlake. There were William and I, Spenser, and a young aristocrat with shifty eyes, Francis Bacon. He had a delicate, lively, hazel Eie.
Dr. Dee said it was the Eie of a Viper. Dee told us more about the Cosmic Plot. It was a matter of meeting the Prankish wing of the Templars in Paris and putting together two parts of the same map. Dee and Spenser were to go, accompanied by Pedro Nunes. To me and Bacon he entrusted some documents, which we swore to open only in the event that they failed to return.
They did return, exchanging floods of insults. "It's not possible," Dee said. "The Plan is mathematical; it has the astral perfection of my Monas Hieroglyphica. We were supposed to meet the Franks on Saint John's Eve."
Innocently I asked: "Saint John's Eve by their reckonin
g or by ours?"
Dee slapped himself on the brow, spewing out horrible curses. "O," he said, "from what power hast thou this powerful might?" The pale William made a note of the sentence, the cowardly plagiarist. Dee feverishly consulted lunar tables and almanacs. " ¡¥Sblood! ¡¥Swounds! How could I have been such a dolt?" He insulted Nunes and Spenser. "Do I have to think of everything? Cosmographer, my foot!" he screamed at Nunes. And then: "Amanasiel Zorobabel!" And Nunes was struck in the stomach as if by an invisible ram; he blanched, drew back a few steps, and slumped to the ground.
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