Azemasor

Metals minerals and metallic preparations · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A name assigned to two historical pigment or mineral terms.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 9; facsimile PDF page 337.

Historical Definition

Azemasor is minium or cinnabar.

Meaning

The dictionary offers alternatives and does not select between them. The safe explanatory move is therefore to preserve both names and follow the surrounding text for its intended substance. Colour may help an author’s account, but colour alone does not prove that the two materials are identical.

Minium has its own dictionary entry. Aurum vitæ also compares a red product with ground cinnabar, explicitly as a resemblance. Together, these passages demonstrate the need to separate identification, alternative identification and comparison. Azemasor belongs to the second of those cases.

Places to Read

Minium. A precipitated lead preparation with an explicit correction of terminology.

Aurum vitæ. A gold preparation identified through precipitation, heating and intense redness.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 9; facsimile PDF page 337 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Azemasor ; compare Minium, Aurum vitæ

See also. Minium; Aurum vitæ