The Theatre of the World

At the end of the Renaissance in Europe, a remarkable and unparalleled meeting of minds took place in Prague. It was at the court of Rudolf II (1552 - 1612), the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the Dominus Mundi, Archduke of Austria, King of Bohemia, Hungary, Germany and the Romans. The seat of his power was Prague Castle at the centre of Bohemia, at the centre of Europe, at the centre of the known world. Here he established a magic theatre of the world into which he invited some of the most creative, original and subversive minds of the day. But it was not political influence that Rudolf sought - he was after all the most powerful man in Christendom - but power over nature and power over life and death. Rudolf exemplifies the Renaissance drive to obtain power through knowledge, both in its positive and negative aspects. He presided over an extraordinary flowering of Renaissance science that marked a crucial phase in the history of Western thought. It is a fascinating story involving the great sweep of historical and cultural movements, intellectual geniuses and the complex and paradoxical life of the most powerful man of the late Renaissance.