In 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of
Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary
substance she called the lion's blood. She claimed that this golden
oil could stimulate the growth of plants, create gemstones,
transform lead into the coveted philosophers' stone—and would
serve a critical role in preparing for the Last Days. Boldly
envisioning herself as a Protestant Virgin Mary, Anna proposed that
the lion's blood, paired with her own body, could even generate
life, repopulating and redeeming the corrupt world in its final
moments. In Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood, Tara Nummedal
reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of
alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates
Anna's story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germany's
religious, political, and military battles; the rising influence of
alchemy; the role of apocalyptic eschatology; and the position of
women within these contexts. Together with her husband, the jester
Heinrich Schombach, and their companion and fellow alchemist
Philipp Sommering, Anna promised her patrons at the court of
Wolfenbüttel spiritual salvation and material profit. But her
compelling vision brought with it another, darker possibility:
rather than granting her patrons wealth or redemption, Anna's
alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and
destruction. By 1575, three years after Anna's arrival at court,
her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into
poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Anna's arrest, torture, and
public execution. In her own life, Anna was a master of
self-fashioning; in the centuries since her death, her story has
been continually refashioned, making her a fitting emblem for each
new age. Interweaving the history of science, gender, religion, and
politics, Nummedal recounts how one resourceful woman's alchemical
schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in
Reformation Germany.
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