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Corpora supercœlestia
Elements principles and the natural world · A Chymical Dictionary
At a Glance
The word. Bodies distinguished by a rational mode of knowing.
In the book. Corpus invisibile similarly combines bodily language with invisibility, but specifically identifies its subject as the soul.
A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 18; facsimile PDF page 346.
Historical Definition
Corpora supercœlestia are bodies known by reason rather than by the senses.
Meaning
The definition draws a boundary between ways of knowing. The senses do not make these bodies known; reason does. It does not enumerate the bodies or explain the argument by which their existence or nature is established. The brief gloss should therefore be used as an interpretive distinction rather than as a complete description of a hidden region.
“Body” consequently has a wider range here than an everyday visible object. The vocabulary needs to be read with the book’s own distinctions between material subjects, virtues, souls and celestial operations in view.
Use in the Book
Corpus invisibile similarly combines bodily language with invisibility, but specifically identifies its subject as the soul. Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum concerns astral virtues in matter. The entries should remain separate: an invisible soul, an attributed celestial virtue, and something known by reason are not declared identical merely because all complicate ordinary bodily language.
Places to Read
Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum. Celestial bodies of the spagyrists understood as astral virtues in matter.
Corpus invisibile. The soul described through both bodily support and spiritual invisibility.
In This Edition
The edition keeps the contrast between sense and reason. Describing these bodies as imaginary would decide a question the definition itself does not settle.
Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 18; facsimile PDF page 346 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Corpora supercœlestia
See also. Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum; Corpus invisibile