More intriguing facts about Renaissance Habsburg ruler and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Remember, this was the late 16th C when the lines between alchemy and science were but a mere blur. Rudolf was empassioned by the belief that man-made instruments could extend the limits of the human senses and artificially manipulate nature. Galileo's telescope was a good contemporary example. Alchemy was a sacred art, blending mystical religion and philosophy with medicine and chemistry. As the Holy Grail of alchemy, the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone was a search for the Creator through his/her created works.
Rudolf boasted not only of the best art collection of his day, but also of the greatest alchemy lab in which armies of alchemists gathered from the far corners of Europe mixing potions bubbling away in alembics stoked by enormous furnaces and recreating centuries-old spells chanelling down the energy of the planets for the sake of protecting Rudolf from his enemies and to cure his bouts of melancholy (let's call a spade a spade: the dude was a manic depressive).
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