Dramatis Personae, October 1600

(Persons in bold are Mages)

 

At Prague Castle

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria.

 

Emperor's closest aides

Wolfgang von Rumpf, court chamberlain, longtime friend of the Emperor (banished)

Paul Sixt Trautson, President of the Privy Council (banished)

Thaddaeus Hagecius, Bohemian, personal physician of the Emperor, astronomer (deceased)

Jacobus Sinapius, pharmacist, botanist and physician, master of the Gardens, lives at the Clementinium

Hieronymous Makofsky of Machau, valet de chambre, Utraquist

Philip Lang, Jew, valet, assistant to the Emperor

Johannes Barvitius, close adviser, secretary and councilor to Rudolf

Blahel, keeper of the stoves

Michael Maier, German physician, counselor to Rudolf, learned alchemist

 

Imperial officials

Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel z Lobkovice, Supreme Chancellor

Václav Berka of Dubá, the Supreme Chamberlain

Adam of Šternberk, the Supreme Judge of the Land

Volf Novohradský of Kolovraty, the Aulic Judge

Kryštof Popel z Lobkovice, the Supreme Court Steward

Jakub Breuner, President of the Court Chamber

Giorgio Basta, Albanian-born general

Jan Mydlář, Imperial Executioner

 

Other courtiers

Anselm Boethius de Boodt, Belgian mineralogist and physician, physician-in-ordinary to Rudolf, cataloguer of the Kunstkammer

Hugo Blotius, former Imperial librarian at Vienna

Heinrich Khunrath, physician, Hermetic philosopher, and alchemist

Johann Pistorius, religious controversialist, Kabbalist, Catholic confessor and historian

Giovanni Gargioli, Imperial architect and master of the household workshop

Nicolaus Reimers, a.k.a Bär or Ursus,astronomer and former imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II.

Caspar Lehmann, Imperial gemcutter

Jacobus Typotius, Flemish humanist, court historian, collector of emblems and imprese

Václav Budovec, Czech politican, diplomat and writer, member of Bohemian Brethren

Bartolomeus Spranger, Imperial Court Painter, artist, chamberlain

Hans von Aachen, Imperial Court Painter, portraitist, artist recruiter (frequently traveling)

Aegidius Sadeler, Belgian, Imperial Engraver

Elizabeth Jane Weston, orphaned poetess

Joris Hoefnagel, a Flemish painter and engraver, the son of a diamond merchant, naturalist and cataloguer of people, places and animals

Erasmus Habermel, Hofinstrumentenmacher, clockmaker and manufacturer of astronomical and geodetic instruments for Rudolf's court

Jan Jesenius, physician, anatomist, lecturer and diplomat

Jiri Barthold Pontanus, devout Catholic (Jesuit), noble, poet, in the circle of Westonia

Richard Strein von Schwarzenau, historian of the Hapsburgs, naturalist, librarian

Raphael Sobiehrd-Mnishovsky, university student of Bohemian history, translator

Octavio Misseroni, Milanese gemcutter

Martin Ruland the Elder and Younger, father-and-son physicians and alchemists

Theobaldus de Hoghelande, alchemist, historian of alchemy

Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic, Czech nobleman, traveller, humanist, soldier, writer and composer

Anthony Shirley, English traveller, representative of the Shah of Persia

Ottavio Strada, historian, antiquarian, designer of jewellery, miniaturist and archaeologist 

Katharina Strada, imperial mistress, daughter of Ottavio, mother of six bastards

Julius d'Austria, eldest bastard of the Emperor, Lord of Krumau Castle

Ulrico Aostalli, (1520-1597), late architect and redesigner of Prague Castle

Father Wilhelm Lamormaini, Jesuit at the Clementinium 

 

Ambassadors/foreign diplomats

Juan de Borgia, ambassador of King Philip III of Spain 

Cardinal Filippo Spinelli, ambassador of Pope Clement VIII

Pierre Bergeron, French diplomat

Marechal de Boisdauphin, French ambassador and Marechal de France

Johannes Franciscus (Gianfrancisco) Bonomi, Papal nuncio

Tommaso Contarini, Venetian envoy

Phillippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French exile, soldier, the taker of Székesfehérvár

Stephen Szamosközy, court archivist and historian, sometime ambassador of Michael of Wallachia.

Lorenzo di Brindisi, abbot of the Capuchin order at Prague Castle

 

In Prague

Daniel Adam z Veleslavína, (1546 – 1599), Czech lexicographer, publisher, translator, and writer

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague, Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher, currently serving as chief rabbi of Poland

Rabbi Sinai Loew, the Maharal's brother

David Gans, Jewish mathematician, historian, astronomer, astrologer

Mordecai Maisel, philanthropist and Jewish community leader

Yom Tov Lipman Heller, 22-year-old rabbi, Talmudist, dayan (religious judge)

Archbishop Zbyněk Berka z Dubé, cleric, cardinal and the tenth Archbishop of Prague, member of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star

 

In the household of Tycho

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe the Younger, 19-year-old son of Tycho

Georg Brahe, 17-year-old son of Tycho (assistant)

Christen Sørensen Longomontanus, assistant to Tycho

Frans Gensneb Tefsnagel, Ritter von und zu Kamp, assistant to Tycho

Johannes Kepler, assistant to Tycho

Kirsten Jørgensdatter Brahe, wife of Tycho

Magdalene Brahe, 26-year-old daughter of Tycho

Sophie Brahe, 22-year-old daughter of Tycho

Elisabeth Brahe, 21-year-old daughter of Tycho

Cecilie Brahe, 18-year-old daughter of Tycho

 

Outside Prague, part of court or associated with court

Oswald Croll, professor of medicine and alchemy at the University of Marburg in Hesse, Germany

Jost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker, a maker of astronomical instruments and a mathematician

Michał Sędziwój, alchemist, philosopher, and medical doctor, currently at the court of Sigismund III of Poland-Lithuania

 

Outside Prague, part of Imperial family

Albrecht, Archduke of Austria; Co-sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands; Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Upper Guelders, Limburg, Lothier, and Luxembourg; Count of Artois, Flanders, Hainault, and Namur, Count Palatine of Burgundy

Matthias, Governor of Austria

 

Outside Prague, outside Imperial household

Giambattista della Porta, Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lives in Naples

István Bocskai, Hungarian noble from Transylvania

Elizabeth Báthory, loyal but mysterious Imperial noblewoman

 

In Rome

Francesco Maria del Monte, Cardinal, diplomat, connoisseur of the arts

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painter (stats)

 

Royals and other leaders

Pope Clement VIII (Ippolito Aldobrandini)

Philip III, King of Spain and Portugal

Elizabeth I, Queen of England

Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor

Michael, Prince of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia

Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, playwright, architect, witch-hunter