Portrait of Edward Kelley

This is a monochrome engraving depicting a bearded man, traditionally identified as the occultist Edward Kelley, shown from the chest up. He wears a dark, brimmed skullcap and a heavy, fur-lined coat. His expression is serious, with his gaze directed slightly to the left of the viewer. He holds an open book in his hands; the visible page displays the word 'Trithemius' alongside esoteric, possibly alchemical, symbols. The portrait is framed by a decorative border of leaf motifs, and the entire figure is set against a horizontally hatched background.

The image references the collaboration between the alchemist-astrologer John Dee and the scryer Edward Kelley, specifically invoking the works of Johannes Trithemius, whose 'Steganographia' was foundational to Dee's interest in cryptography and angelic communication. It represents the early modern overlap between Renaissance humanism and occult practice.