Rudolf II and his World: A study in intellectual history 1576-1612 (with 20 illustrations)

Rudolf II of Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor King of Bohemia and Hungary was an extraordinary ruler a monarch whose court occupied a central position in 16th-century Europe - yet he remained a shadowy and fugitive figure. The decades around 1600 saw sweeping cultural changes in Europe with the waning of an old-world view and the beginnings of the 17th-century intellectual revolution. The author argues that the conflict which played itself out in the Hapsburg lands during these years was a political manifestation of the intellectual confrontation between the old guard and and their preoccupation with the mystical spiritual and hermetic sciences and the rise of a more rational and empirical view of the world. Rudolf as the embodiment of the old philosophy failed to grasp this profound shift in the prevailing climate of thought: Professor Evans argues that it was this failure which led to his eventual tragic downfall.