Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.
Qualitas
Qualities powers and relations · A Chymical Dictionary
At a Glance
The word. The balance of hot, cold, dry and moist qualities.
In the book. Temperatum names the corresponding condition in which no quality exceeds its proper measure.
A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 39; facsimile PDF page 367.
Historical Definition
Qualitas is called a complexion, whether hot or cold, dry or moist, according to the predominance of an element.
Meaning
Complexion means a constitution or mixture characterized by predominant qualities. The four adjectives supply two pairs: hot and cold, dry and moist. An element’s predominance gives the compound its characteristic condition. The word does not describe a person’s skin color in this entry.
Use in the Book
Temperatum names the corresponding condition in which no quality exceeds its proper measure. Read together, the definitions make quality relational: a thing is understood through the balance and excess of attributes within it. Relloleum uses complexion to distinguish a plant’s manifest warmth from another, hidden virtue.
Places to Read
Relloleum. A distinction between a manifest quality and an occult virtue.
Temperatum. A balanced condition without excess in a quality.
In This Edition
Keep the historical qualities visible when translating. Replacing hot with a modern temperature measurement, or moist with a measured water content, would give a precision this definition does not supply. These qualities belong to the book’s account of natural constitution and activity.
Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 39; facsimile PDF page 367 — Facsimile
See also. Relloleum; Temperatum