Anna Zieglerin and the Lion`s Blood: Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany, Nummedal Tara

In 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary substance she called the lions 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 lions 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 Lions Blood, Tara Nummedal reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates Annas story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germanys 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, Annas alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and destruction. By 1575, three years after Annas arrival at court, her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Annas 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 womans alchemical schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in Reformation Germany.