A Nuremberg Chymist and a Torgau Astrologer Read Pseudo-Weigel

Abstract This chapter introduces two early readers of pseudo-Weigelian texts on the alchemical rebirth as representative of two different avenues by which this conception could have reached Jacob Boehme. Johann Siebmacher, a chymist in Nuremberg, penned a treatise that discussed the subject in 1607. It was printed a decade later under the title Wasserstein der Weysen (Water-stone of the wise). Boehme praised this work in a letter mistakenly dated 1622. Once the date is corrected to 1624, it becomes clear that Boehme only read the Wasserstein shortly before his death. This renders Paul Nagel, a millenarian and astrologer who corresponded with Boehme, the more likely source for Boehme’s spiritual alchemy of rebirth. Nagel not only copied relevant pseudo-Weigelian texts but also integrated their ideas on alchemical rebirth into his own manuscript treatises.