It is hard to overestimate the importance of the contribution made by Dame Franc
es Yates to the serious study of esotericism and the occult sciences. To her wor
k can be attributed the contemporary understanding of the occult origins of much
of Western scientific thinking, indeed of Western civilization itself. The Occu
lt Philosophy of the Elizabethan Age was her last book, and in it she condensed
many aspects of her wide learning to present a clear, penetrating, and, above al
l, accessible survey of the occult movements of the Renaissance, highlighting th
e work of John Dee, Giordano Bruno, and other key esoteric figures.
