Limbus

Elements principles and the natural world · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. The universal world considered as the human being’s seed and first matter.

In the book. Microcosmus supplies the corresponding description of man as a little world.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 30; facsimile PDF page 358.

Historical Definition

Limbus in Paracelsus is the great and universal world, the seed and first matter of man.

Meaning

The definition relates the largest whole to a particular generated being. Limbus names the great world while also identifying it as the seed and first matter of man. The relation is one of origin and constitution, rather than the ordinary meaning of a border or edge.

Seed and first matter should both remain in view. The language presents the human being as proceeding from what the universal world contains. It does not identify one anatomical seed-fluid as the whole meaning of Limbus, nor reduce the world to the visible human body.

Use in the Book

Microcosmus supplies the corresponding description of man as a little world. Mysterium magnum gives first matter of all things, a broader statement than the particular relation to man specified here. Reading the three together preserves both their common cosmological vocabulary and their differences of scope.

Places to Read

Microcosmus. The human being named as a little world.

Mysterium magnum. A universal first matter, rather than one particular prepared subject.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 30; facsimile PDF page 358 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymical Dictionary 1650, 1650 dictionary, facsimile PDF page 358, Limbus

See also. Microcosmus; Mysterium magnum