Rudolf II & Prague

I have just about finished Peter Marshall's The Mercurial Emperor - his biography of Rudolf II. This is a good example of the sort of issues raised by different styles of biography. The beginning and end are straightforwardly chronological, while the middle chapters take a thematic approach. I think this generally works well, especially since Marshall is not strongly focused on the military and political history of the period. So there are several chapters on Rudolf's patronage of art, quite a lot on magic, and, of course, a couple of chapters on Tycho and Kepler. Without doubt, this provides a great deal of interesting colour for a view of Prague in the period and does manage to compliment Evan's book on Rudolf, which has been my main source up to now.

I am now keen enough on a visit to Prague that I have bought a guide book. But so far we have no idea when such a trip could be made. Maybe next May if Emma doesn't want to go away after exams.

In the meantime, more odd art from Rudolf's time in Prague - Archiboldo's portrait of Rudolf's librarian, and two works by Spranger, Venus and Vulcano and Venus and Adonis