Giovanni Battista Seni
Giovanni Battista Seni (* around 1600 in Padua , † 1656 in Genoa , also Giovanni Battista Seno or Johann Baptist Zeno or Zenno or Senno ) was an Italian astrologer and personal physician to Wallenstein , the commander in chief of the imperial armed forces in the Thirty Years War .
After a university education in his hometown of Padua, where he had been taught by the well-known astronomer and astrologer Andreas Argoli (Argvlus) (1570-1657), Seni was introduced to the court of Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein, called Wallenstein, by Octavio Piccolomini . He served the general as personal court astrologer until his death in 1634 . Shortly before Wallenstein's murder, he was in his room with him. To what extent he was involved in the death of his master is not known. However, he is said to have accepted not inconsiderable bribes. In 1643 he was stabbed in a dispute by the Polish ambassador Biboni according to a Vienna file protocol. Nothing is known about his further fate.
Friedrich Schiller set a monument to the astrologer Seni in his drama Wallenstein's Death, completed in 1799 .
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Zeno, Johann Baptist . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 59th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1890, p. 325 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Seni, Giovanni Battista |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Seno, Giovanni Battista |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian astrologer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1600 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Padua |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1656 |
| Place of death | Genoa |