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Emperor Rudolph II
(1552-1612)
Rudolph II was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
which by that time was neither holy, Roman, nor even much of an empire.
He moved the imperial court from Vienna to a castle in Prague, in what
was then Bohemia. He buried himself in esoteric studies: alchemy,
astrology ... magico-scientific disciplines of all sorts. Prague became
a center for everyone interested in such matters: the infamous British
magician John Dee and his henchman Edward Kelley, the monk Giordano
Bruno (later burned at the stake for heresy), and even a pair of astrologers
by the names of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Rudolph II kept a room of
curiosities, the Kunstkammer, full of alchemical manuscripts,
rhinoceros horns, exotic minerals, scientific instruments, and the like.
Further reading at:
http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.r/r922145en.htm
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