Michael Maier (1568–1622) was a German physician, a
counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg
and a learned alchemist.
Biography
Maier was born in Hindsburg , Holstein, in 1568. He attained
in 1597 the diploma of doctor in philosophy and medicine,
exerted the medical profession in Rostock and Prague
and became the physician and imperial counsellor of Rudolf II.
The interest of the emperor for the occult was the reason
of his high esteem for Maier. Maier commented Hermes Trismegistus
and dedicated with the emperor to the research of the secrets
of nature. After Rudolf's death, in 1612, Maier went servicing
other German princes and particularly the prince of Nassau,
great protector of alchemy. In 1620 he moved to Magdeburg
where he died in 1622 at the age of 54, leaving a noteworthy
quantity of unpublished works.
References
- Paul Arnold, Histoire des Rose-Croix, Mercure de France, Paris, 1955.
