Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher, Franckenberg’s Spiritual and Philosophical Son

Abstract This chapter documents how Abraham von Franckenberg actively apprenticed some of his contacts and correspondents as spiritual alchemists, most notably Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher. In his later years, Franckenberg became increasingly interested in alchemical literature. Exiled in Danzig due to the Thirty Years’ War, he encountered the young Seidenbecher in the summer of 1649. They met frequently, and Franckenberg gave Seidenbecher letters and manuscript texts to copy and internalise. Two letters to Tobias König and other texts that survive in an edition from the eighteenth century show how Franckenberg pointed his associates towards spiritual alchemy without giving it away too easily. Having left Danzig, Seidenbecher corresponded with Franckenberg until the latter’s death in 1652.