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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · English Edition

Gerhard Dorn and John French

A Chymical Dictionary

An Expanded Diotimos Lexicon of Paracelsian and Alchemical Language

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A Chymical DictionaryBerillus

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English Edition · Branch 315 of 740

Berillus

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 315

Berillus

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A divinatory looking-glass described with a critical judgement.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 11; facsimile PDF page 339.

Historical Definition

Berillus is a crystalline looking-glass superstitiously consecrated by augurs.

Meaning

The definition combines the object’s character, its consecration and its users. The glass is described as crystalline, and the augurs’ treatment of it is called superstitious. The entry is therefore more than a neutral material description. The evaluative word tells us how the dictionary positions this use of the object.

It does not give enough information to reconstruct the glass’s shape or to identify one modern optical instrument. Berillistica supplies the associated act of observing visions, while Augurista describes a practitioner. Those links are more secure than an unsupported reconstruction based on the name alone.

Places to Read

Berillistica. A practice of viewing visions in the glasses described under Berillus.

Augurista. A diviner defined by media, bird signs and a hostile evaluation.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 11; facsimile PDF page 339 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Berillus ; compare Berillistica, Augurista

See also. Berillistica; Augurista

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About This Reading Edition

The complete 706 historical definitions of the 1650 English dictionary, modernised and accompanied by expanded Diotimos commentary, reading routes, 15 textual notes and complete linked indexes.

Historical Text

A Chymicall Dictionary, London 1650, English version associated with John French, based on Gerhard Dorn’s Dictionarium Theophrasti Paracelsi. The containing volume also prints Sendivogius and Paracelsus; neither neighboring work changes this dictionary’s attribution.

About This Edition

Complete 706 definition paragraphs with new introduction, commentary, reading guides and indexes; Diotimos Editions, 2026.

Rights

The historical 1650 English text is in the public domain. New introduction, commentary, reading guides and indexes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions and published with the site owner’s authorization.