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Azoth
Metals minerals and metallic preparations · A Chymical Dictionary
At a Glance
The word. A body’s extracted Mercury, with a further universal-medicine sense.
In the book. Compare Aquila Philosophorum, which describes the Mercury of metals as metal reduced to first matter.
A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 9; facsimile PDF page 337.
Historical Definition
Azoth is quicksilver extracted from any body, properly called the Mercury of that body; in Paracelsus it is the universal medicine of things.
Meaning
The entry has a general material relation and a more particular attribution. First, Azoth is explained through quicksilver extracted from any body and named that body’s Mercury. Second, the dictionary reports a Paracelsian use meaning the universal medicine of things. Those clauses are connected by the headword, but neither should erase the other. A passage’s author and purpose can determine which description is relevant.
The phrase “of the body” is especially important. It relates the Mercury to the substance from which it is extracted. A reading that replaces every such phrase with an unqualified portion of common quicksilver would lose that relation. The entry’s breadth—“any body”—also extends the concept beyond one isolated recipe or one named metal.
At the same time, “extracted” should not be made to explain a procedure the dictionary has not supplied. The entry does not name an apparatus, solvent, duration or test for the desired product. It gives a conceptual identification and a relationship of source to product. To understand an actual preparation, the reader needs the particular work’s description of how its Mercury is obtained and recognized.
Use in the Book
Compare Aquila Philosophorum, which describes the Mercury of metals as metal reduced to first matter. Both entries connect Mercury with a body’s underlying or recovered condition, but their scope differs: Aquila Philosophorum is explicitly metallic, whereas this entry says any body. The comparison clarifies a shared relation without proving every author uses the names as perfect synonyms.
Aurum vitæ offers a concrete use of “proper Mercury”: the preferred gold preparation is said to be precipitated with its own. That entry makes the relational language easier to recognize when it reappears. It also shows why the qualification is not ornamental. The account distinguishes a Mercury proper to the preparation’s subject from an unspecified Mercury.
Anima supplies another philosophical name, glossed simply as “our Mercury.” The possessive signals the same need for local interpretation, though it does not identify the same preparation on its own. Such entries are best read as a network of authorial names whose exact relation is established by passages and operations, not by a modern equation applied everywhere.
Places to Read
Aquila Philosophorum. The philosophers’ eagle explained as metallic first matter.
Aurum vitæ. A gold preparation identified through precipitation, heating and intense redness.
Anima. A designation of “our Mercury” through the language of soul.
In This Edition
The universal-medicine clause introduces an additional claim of scope and efficacy. This edition reports it as the dictionary’s attribution to Paracelsus. The statement does not constitute modern evidence that a universal medicine exists or that any substance offered under the name has that power. Its editorial value lies in explaining what a historical writer may intend by the term.
When reading Azoth, begin with three questions: Whose usage is being reported? What body is named as its source? Is the passage discussing extraction, first matter or a medicine’s claimed universality? The answers may support one sense, show an overlap or leave the case unresolved. Preserving that uncertainty is more useful than assigning a single confident modern substance to every occurrence.
Finally, keep a preparation’s name separate from its promised reach. The source body and method of extraction answer what the author says the material is; the universal-medicine description answers what it is said to do. One claim does not by itself establish the other.
Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 9; facsimile PDF page 337 — Facsimile
See also. Aquila Philosophorum; Aurum vitæ; Anima; Mercurius Crudus