Re: VMs: History, Tepenecz

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Finally, I managed to check in more detail 
the sources for Jacobus Horcicky's biography
on my web site. In general, due to Jacobus' 
generosity towards the Jesuit order, a prominent 
description of his life appeared in Schmidl:
Historia Soc.Jesu Proviciae Bohemiae, 1754.
He used Balbin (a historian, friend of Marci).
The work by Schmidl was extended by Vavra, and
that formed the basis for the entry in the
Czech encyclopedia: 'Otto' (Ottuv Slovnik Naucny).
Some of it may well have been 'beautified'  but
it is well beyond my capability to judge that
properly. I am quite interested in learning
more about Tepenec from other sources, and so
is Jan Hurych in Canada, with whom I have 
corresponded in the past. (In fact, I found out
about his discovery of the signature at the 
same time that Dana posted it to the list).

Now to some details:

--- Manfred Staudinger <manfrstaudinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
 [quoting my web site]:
>>   "His fame finally reached Rudolf who called
>>   him to his court and named him imperial
>> chemist in 1607."
> Do You know the source for this? 

Apart from the year 1607, this is written in 'Otto'.
He was workign together with other (al)chemists.

> I have looked at the books preserved here in
> Vienna/Austria and found him appointed as a
> "Hofdiener" with 20 fl (florins) per month, 
> beginning with June 1, 1608. It might still
> be possible that he was used as a "chemist". As I
> know from other examples the title "Hofdiener"
> was a very unspecific one.

>>  "He became a favorite of the emperor and
>>  received numerous presents."

> This seems very doubtfully to me. What he received
> actually was a one month's salary on April 15,
> 1609.

Again the source is Otto, but it is stated in
all sources that he made a lot of money not from
a regular income from the emperor, but from his
sale of potions. 
When I was in Prague with Jorge Stolfi, we browsed
through Schmidl in a reading room of the Clementinum
and Stolfi transcribed the entire section on
Jacobus. I think I have it somewhere and will make
it available.

> This is consistent with the fact that he received 
> the post in Melnik from Rudolph's successor
> Matthias, first provisional (Administrator) and
> afterwards definitive. If he had
> been a favorite of Rudolph he would have be
> imprisoned instead. 

The relative roles of Rudolf and Matthias in
Jacobus' life are not clear to me, and it might
be interesting to find out. Jan Hurych found
reference to a 'trade of prisoners', where
Jacobus was 'swapped' for Jan Jessenius (the
physician). Again, I will provide the source.
This may explain why he survived.
 
>> "When, in 1608, he managed through his botanical
>> knowledge to cure the emperor from a grave
>> disease, he was raised to the nobility and
>> received the title 'de Tepenec'."

The title and the date are beyond doubt, and
that he cured the emperor as well, but the 
dependence I need to check further. 

> Again, I don't think this can hold. For one, the
> monthly salary of a "Leibmedicus" would have
> been at least 30 times the sum Horczicky
> got. 

He probably never was a Leibmedicus. I think
all the names are in Evans, and I can't remember
seeing him there. Anyway, I completely trust your
knowledge here :-)

> I'm not sure for the moment, but I think the 
> nobility was a prerequisite to become a
> "Hofdiener", which is much better than to
> become a servant in a labratory or a gardener.

This I cannot judge and it may well be. The date
on his 'Nobilitatio is a bit after his first
salary mentioned above, but this may not be 
relevant. By the way, I think that the text
of the diploma may be incomplete. I have found
another page in Latin, which could fit in between.
My Latin is not good enough to decide from 
the grammar...
I'll come back on this.

Finally, though, I am extremely interested in
your sources, Manfred. If you have access to some
kind of 'accounting' from Rudolph's court, would
this include money spent by Rudolph on the various
acquisitions of his museum? If there is an entry
that he spent several hundred ducats on a book,
this would be extremely interesting. Of course,
he bought hundreds of books. I have looked at the
inventory of his Wunderkammer (article by Bauer
and Haupt about the catalogue discovered in 
Liechtenstein) and there are lots and lots of
books, none of which look like the Voynich MS.

With kind regards,
                Rene Zandbergen 

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