an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, imperialist, and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on the geometry of Euclid at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. His 1576 General and rare memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, was the first volume in an unfinished series planned to advocate the rise of imperial expansion. He has often been associated with the Voynich manuscript.
