Academy of Medicine which was appropriately named in 

 honor of the Emperor Rudolph. Its membership embraced the 

 physicians of the court and of the city, a few of the residents 

 of "Gold Alley," the astrologers, magicians and other learned 

 men surrounding the Emperor, and the retainers who worked 

 in the imperial laboratories. The presiding officer and moving 

 spirit of the society was Guarinonius himself, and the secre- 

 tary was Chevalier Adam Zaluzansky, the Bohemian natur- 

 alist who is said to have anticipated Linnaeus in his discovery 

 of the sexual system of plants. Prominent members were 

 the physicians Maier, Croll and Boethius; Martin Ruland, 

 author of a Lexicon of Alchemy; the Vice Chancellor Jacob 

 Curtius ; Hans Hayden ; Johann Marquard Kiirbach ; Hierony- 

 mus Makowsky, all Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber; Hip- 

 polytus Guarinonius, the young son of the president, who 

 afterwards distinguished himself by a huge folio on "The 

 Evils that Waste Mankind" (Grauel der Verwiistung mensch- 

 lichen Geschlechtes, Ingolstadt, 1610); also the court poet and 

 jester Mardochaeus deDelle and the favorite valets of Rudolph, 

 Philip Lang von Langenfels and Kaspar Rucky von Rudz. 

 Dr. Thaddeus von Hayek had died in 1600, protomedicus of 

 Bohemia, a short time before the founding of the Academy. 

 Tycho Brahe and John Kepler were occasional attendants 

 and their attainments in astronomy made them most wel- 

 come; the journeymen alchemists visiting their colleagues in 

 "Gold Alley" were often present at meetings as invited guests ; 

 Dr. Steegius joined the society later. 



At one of the largely attended meetings of the Rudolphine 

 Academy of Medicine the secretary Zaluzansky read a report 

 on the wonderful elixir discovered by Antonio Michele, a 

 protege* of the wealthy William von Rosenberg. This Italian 

 alchemist was first employed as an architect, but soon de- 

 veloped latent talent for hermetic labors, and von Rosenberg 



no 



