macy; the noted Bawor Rodowsky von Hustrian, who had 

 wasted a considerable fortune in a vain search for the Philo- 

 sophers' Stone ; the mischievous female clairvoyant Salomena 

 Scheinpflug, who was responsible for intrigues that disgraced 

 more than one aristocratic family in Prague ; and the mystic 

 occultist Doctor Leonhard Vychperger von Erbach. More 

 eminent than these was the Italian alchemist Claudius Syrrus, 

 who was in the employ of the great Prince von Rosenberg 

 and with whom he had made a remarkable contract in which 

 the Italian bound himself to make efforts to discover the 

 secret of transmutation, and expressly stated in a dignified 

 and honorable way that he could not promise success as all 

 depended on the will of the Almighty. As Thomas Norton, 

 of Bristol, wrote in 1477 : 



"Maistryefull, merveylous and Archimastrye 

 Is the tincture of holi Alkiray : 

 A wonderful Science, -secrete Philosophic, 

 A singular grace and gift of th'Almightie: 

 Which never was found by labour of Mann, 

 But it by Teaching or Revelacion begann." 



Syrrus had previously worked in the laboratory of Wenzel 

 Wresowec, who lived in "Little Prague," as a certain quarter 

 was called. Wresowec, though devoted to occult studies, was 

 accounted so learned and shrewd that his services were in 

 demand as Ambassador to foreign courts and as Envoy in 

 delicate diplomatic missions. To him Syrrus had dedicated 

 his two Latin treatises on the Great Elixir. 



Besides the dwellings of alchemists, fortune-tellers and 

 other charlatans, Gold Alley contained the modest workshops 

 and unpretentious houses of many of the genuine artists who 

 found scope for their talents and a market for their wares 

 at Rudolph's court. Here lived the gold and silver smiths, 

 engravers of precious stones, cameo-cutters, wood-carvers, 

 illuminators of manuscripts, painters and sculptors, occupied 



20 



