Wallenstein and Kepler

After 1620 the estate passed to Albrecht von Wallenstein, who wanted to make Jičín the centre of his extensive possessions in northeastern Bohemia. In April 1630 the brilliant astronomer Johannes Kepler stayed at Wallenstein's residence for three weeks, his last visit to Bohemia. Wallenstein had been introduced to astrology by his tutor and travelling companion Petr Virdung. Together they went to Padua, where he studied under the renowned astrologer Andrea Argoli. Kepler came to Bohemia at Tycho Brahe's invitation and after Brahe's death was appointed imperial mathematician by Rudolf II. Alongside astronomy he practised astrology, writing On the More Certain Foundations of Astrology in 1601. In 1608 he drew up his first horoscope for Wallenstein. The young Bohemian nobleman and Gerhard of Taxis had asked an intermediary, Stromer, to obtain horoscopes from him. This version was indeed anonymous; Kepler later added the name Waltstein in his secret script. The birth details were only approximate, yet the prediction was very accurate. The original horoscope survives with Wallenstein's own notes in the Dresden library. Kepler first revised it in 1624–1625, and again in 1628, by then as Wallenstein's employee. Wallenstein settled him at his château in Żagań in Prussia. Despite repeated requests, Kepler refused to prepare a detailed horoscope beyond 1634, having found a very unfavourable planetary configuration for March 1634. Wallenstein was indeed murdered in Cheb on 25 February 1634, but Kepler did not live to see it: he died in Regensburg on 15 November 1630 and is buried there. Another of Wallenstein's astrologers was Giambattista Zenno, known as Seni. Born in Genoa in 1600, he too studied under Argoli. Before Wallenstein's murder he maintained that the danger foretold by the stars had not yet passed. After the murder Seni was arrested and taken to Vienna, where his innocence was established. He returned to Genoa and died there of plague in 1656. (See Cheb, Třebíč.)