A Chymical Dictionary

Alchymia

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. Alchemy defined as a work of separating impurity.

In the book. Chymia expands the same formulation by adding the making of essences.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 2; facsimile PDF page 330.

Historical Definition

Alchymia is the separation of what is impure from a purer substance.

Meaning

This definition makes separation the organizing action of the art. It does not begin with the production of gold, a catalogue of apparatus, or a promise of universal knowledge. The object of the work is a relation between impurity and a purer substance. That wording lets the definition encompass more than one material and more than one kind of preparation.

The comparative “purer” is important. It directs attention to an improvement or distinction in condition, without necessarily asserting that the resulting substance is absolutely pure. A reader should therefore inspect what a particular author calls impurity, what is retained, and what is rejected. Those decisions carry much of the meaning of an operation. The dictionary’s one sentence leaves their details to the passages being interpreted.

Separation is also a useful way to organize apparently different operations. A writer may describe a liquid rising while a residue remains, a prepared portion being removed from a mixture, or a substance being freed from an unwanted associate. Whether those cases instantiate Alchymia depends on their stated purpose and result. The definition supplies a broad aim rather than a universal sequence of laboratory steps.

Use in the Book

Chymia expands the same formulation by adding the making of essences. Spagiria provides another entry point into the named art, while Spagirus concerns its practitioner. Reading these related entries together reveals a vocabulary of action, product and expertise. It does not establish that every writer uses every word with exactly the same boundaries.

Several material entries show how purification is expressed locally. Alcali is identified by extraction from ash or calx. Caput mortuum names what remains after distillation or sublimation. Alembrot purified is a qualified form distinguished from the nearby Alembroth. Such entries help a reader trace what happens to a material instead of treating its name as unchanged throughout the work.

Cautela adds a further dimension: habitual skill makes labor easier and operations more effective in the dictionary’s account. The art therefore appears here not only as a set of nouns, but as a practice requiring judgment. This connection helps explain why a dictionary can clarify terms while still leaving the successful conduct of an operation dependent on experience.

Places to Read

Chymia. An art defined through separation and the production of essences.

Spagiria. A name commonly used for alchemy.

Spagirus. The alchemical practitioner defined through discrimination and separation.

In This Edition

When using this edition, begin with the historical sentence, then follow the particular operation or substance named in the passage before you. If an author links purification to medicine, metalworking or a philosophical account of nature, that application should be stated with its own evidence. The short definition itself does not settle all those fields.

Likewise, “pure” and “impure” should be read first as the historical author’s classifications. They can concern the portion thought valuable or effective within a preparation. Our explanatory notes distinguish that historical evaluation from a modern claim about chemical composition. The most useful question is what distinction the text is making and how its described work is meant to produce it.

A useful reading note can therefore distinguish four roles: the art’s aim, the operation performed, the product sought and the practitioner’s skill. The related entries distribute those roles across different names. Keeping them separate makes a philosophical definition easier to apply to an actual passage.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 2; facsimile PDF page 330 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Alchymia ; compare Chymia, Spagiria, Spagirus, Alcali, Caput mortuum, Alembrot, Alembroth, Cautela

See also. Chymia; Spagiria; Spagirus; Alcali; Caput mortuum; Alembrot; Alembroth; Cautela