Plzeň’s Friend of Astrologers and Alchemists

Stehlík of Čeňkov, a Plzeň burgher living in the time of Rudolf II, was an enthusiastic practitioner of astrology. He was in contact with Tycho Brahe, who came to visit him here several times. He had an observatory in the former Saská Street (now Rooseveltova), where he also established an alchemical laboratory. There he worked with an alchemist called Skot, perhaps Alessandro Scotta. Jeroným Alessandro Scotta came from Parma and attended several Italian universities as a young man. He became an itinerant alchemist, working in Cologne and Nuremberg. On 14 August 1590 he arrived in Prague and lodged at an inn in the Old Town. His consultations with Rudolf II concerned astrology rather than alchemy. Yet by 1593 he was performing conjuring tricks in a wooden booth in Old Town Square. He then left for Germany, where he seduced the wife of Duke Johann Casimir in Coburg. The place of his death is unknown. When Wallenstein entered the city and settled in for a lengthy stay, he brought his astrologer Zéno (Seni), who soon befriended Stehlík of Čeňkov. Stehlík set up an observatory for Seni’s evening observations on the wooden gallery of a house standing to the right of the Saxon Gate. This gallery survived until the final years of the nineteenth century. (See Třebíč.)