„Nicolaus Ficke … der sich mit Physiognomie, Astrologie etc. abgab, übrigens ein schlechter Mann war“

Abstract

This arcticle summarizes what could be learned from newly discovered documents about the biography of Nicolas von Vicken, first known reader of Kepler’s „Astronomia Nova“ and Kepler’s partner in an exchange of more than a dozen letters over several years. Von Vicken stems from a rich and influential family of merchants in Riga, made noble by the Polish King (who ruled Riga at the time) in 1580. His education included legal studies at the universities of Konigsberg, Leipzig and Rostock, partially overlapping with a stay of ten years at the Polish court. There von Vicken pursued family business but also served in an official court role. In 1600/1 von Vicken switched sides and started to serve the Swedish ruler (and later king) Duke Carl IX, who was at war with Poland to gain control over Riga and Livonia. In 1602 a mission for Sweden to Northern Germany brought him in conflict with Francis II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, who accused von Vicken of withholding money from him, which was supposed to be used for hiring troops. Von Vicken, together with his brother Heinrich, was imprisoned, but could flee. During a mission to Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, in 1599/1600 von Vicken had been initiated as an alchemist and astrologer through reading the works of Paracelsus and his future stations in life were influenced by this. These include an attempt to get employed at the Saxon court in Dresden, and stays in Wolfenbuttel and Halberstadt, both ruled by Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Luneburg. Von Vicken offered various astrological and alchemical services to the Duke and private investors. With one of them he got into a serious conflict over the alleged non-fillment of a contract to produce steel in an alchemical way. During that vonVicken got imprisoned twice, in 1609 and between 1611 and 1614. A subsequent attempt to get employed by Ernst of Schaumburg left us with several letters that detail von Vicken’s alchemical and astrological thinking, two of these are published here in the appendix. Since 1603 von Vicken was also in the service of Emperor Rudolf II; again he got imprisoned in Prague at least once. An interesting speculation based on some hints in the documents is that after reading Paracelsus and during his time in Leipzig von Vicken authored a book on mining, that was later to become part of the works of the alleged medevial monk Basilius Valentinus.