Bavor Rodovský mladší of Hustířany (around 1526 in Hustířany – 1591/92 or 1600 in

Budyně nad Ohří Budyně nad Ohří () is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,200 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural m ...

) was a nobleman and alchemist from Bohemia. Bavor Rodovský mladší was born into the Rodovský of Hustířany noble family to Jan Rodovský of Hustiřany and his wife Anna Šelndorfská of Hornšperk. He was named in honor of his grandfather, the elder Bavor Rodovský. The family was too poor to send Rodovský mladší to university, and he had to study on his own. Among other things, he taught himself German, Latin, mathematics,

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, philosophy, and in particular,

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

. In 1566, Rodovský mladší married Voršila of Šelndorf. With her dowry he was able to purchase an estate in Radostov, but was later forced to sell it to settle his debts. The family then moved to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. There Rodovský mladší again fell into debt, at which point his wife left him, taking their only son, Jan. From 1573 Rodovský mladší worked with alchemists like

William of Rosenberg William of Rosenberg (; 10 March 1535 – 31 August 1592) was a Bohemian nobleman. He served as High Treasurer and Supreme Burgrave of Bohemia, High Burgrave of Bohemia. Life William of Rosenberg was a member of the influential noble House of ...

, and

Zbyněk Zajíc of Hazmburk Zbyněk Zajíc of Hazmburk or of Hasenburg (; c. 1376 – 28 September 1411) was a Czech nobleman, and an important representative of the Roman Catholic Church in the Crown of Bohemia. He was the 5th Archbishop of Prague 1403–1411, succeeding ...

, and also found work in the alchemical laboratories of Emperor

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the H ...

. One of his alchemical manuscripts survives as part of the Vossiani Chymici collection at the

Leiden University Library Leiden University Libraries is the set of libraries of Leiden University, founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. A later edition entitled ''The bastion of liberty : a history of Leiden University'', was published in 2018. Full-text at archive ...

.Petrus Boeren, ''Codices Vossiani Chymici'' (Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1975), 7-13.

Works

*''Smaragdová deska'' (1591), a Czech translation of the

Tabula Smaragdina The Emerald Tablet, also known as the Smaragdine Table or the ''Tabula Smaragdina'', is a compact and cryptic text traditionally attributed to the legendary Hellenistic period, Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus. The earliest known version ...

attributed to

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from , "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest") is a legendary Hellenistic period figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.A survey of the literary and archaeological eviden ...

*''Alchimie česká'' *''Kniha o dokonalém umění chymickém'' *''Vo Hermesově filosofii, tj. vo požehnaném kameni filosofické'' *''Řeči filosofické o kameni filosofickém'' *''Secreta Aristotelis aneb Kniha lidských cností a mnohých naučení, kterak se králové, knížata i páni v svém panování mají opatrovati'' *''Kuchařství, to jest knížka o rozličných krmích, kterak se užitečně s chutí strojiti mají'' (1591); one of the oldest Czech

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

References

Bibliography

*Karpenko, Vladimír. "Bohemian Nobility and Alchemy in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century: Wilhelm of Rosenberg and Two Alchemists." ''Cauda Pavonis'' 15, no. 2 (1996): 14–18. *Krumlowský, Felix. ''Jména z českých dějin, která byste měli znát II.'' Pavel Dobrovský – Beta, 2008. * Nummedal, Tara. Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, esp. 22–23. *Zachar, Otakar. "Z dějin alchymie v Čechách. I. Bavor mladši Rodovský z Hustiřan, alchymista český." ''Časopis Musea Kralovstí Českého'' 21–22 (1899–1900): 157–63. 1520s births 1600 deaths Habsburg Bohemian nobility Alchemists from Bohemia 16th-century alchemists People from Náchod District 16th-century scientists from the Holy Roman Empire 16th-century writers from Bohemia {{CzechRepublic-bio-stub