Michael Maier (; 1568–1622) was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer. Early life Maier was born in Rendsburg, Holstein, the son of a specialist in beadwork in embroidery named Peter Maier. He studied philosophy and medicine at Rostock (1587–1591), Frankfurt (Oder) (M.A. 1592), and Padua (1595–1596). Maier left Padua abruptly after getting involved in a fight, injuring the other party, and being arrested. He went on to the University of Basel, where he attained a doctorate in medicine in October 1596. His doctoral thesis, De epilepsia was dedicated to Matthias Carnarius. Maier then returned to Holstein to practice medicine. Around 1599, he became interested in alchemy and attempted to create an alchemical concordance, synthesizing the works of different authors. For Florian G. Calian, Maier is " an alchemist who over-spiritualized his discipline." In the service of Rudolf II (1609-1611) In 1608, he went to Prague, and on 19 September 1609, he formally entered the service of Rudolf II as his physician and imperial counsellor. Ten days later, Rudolf raised him to the hereditary nobility and gave him the title of Imperial Count Palatine. He was granted a coat of arms which depicted a bird, bonded together with a frog by a golden chain. Around this time, Maier published an extremely limited print run of De Medicina Regia et vere Heroica, Coelidonia (1609), including in it his autobiography. The interest of the emperor in the occult was the reason of his high esteem for Maier. However, by April 1611, Rudolf's political position had substantially deteriorated, and he was more or less imprisoned in his castle in Prague. Maier left the city that month. He corresponded with Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, and visited Hessen-Kassel's brother-in-law, Count Ernst III of Holstein-Schauenburg. He was also a guest of Christoph Reinhard, Doctor of Laws and town syndic of Mühlhausen, to whom he later dedicated his book Atalanta Fugiens. In England 1611-1616 First Maier visited the Netherlands where he stayed with Petrus Carpenterius in Rotterdam. Carpernterius had previously been the rector of a Walloon school in Norwich in 1598. From there he continued on to London arriving in 1611 or 1612. Whether he had arrived in person or not by Christmas 1611 is unknown, but he did send Christmas cards to both James I and his son Prince Henry. He composed a wedding song for