Christoph Weigel I (1654 - 1725)

Christoph Weigel I

Christoph Weigel the Elder, full name Johann Christoph Weigel, was a German painter, engraver and publisher.

Weigel worked very successfully in the mezzotint technique. He was the first engraver to use a kind of machine for making backgrounds. He established his own printing house in Nuremberg in 1698, and worked closely with the imperial geographer and cartographer Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) to produce his maps. His younger brother Johann Christoph Weigel kept an art trade store in Nuremberg around the same time, and also quite successfully.

One of Weigel's most important works is the Ständebuch (Book of Classes) of 1698, which describes and illustrates with engravings more than two hundred trades and services, including mining.