A Chymical Dictionary

Quintessentia

Elements principles and the natural world · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A purified spiritual matter obtained from living things.

In the book. Separation supplies the operation and purity supplies its intended result.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 39; facsimile PDF page 367.

Historical Definition

Quintessentia is a certain spiritual matter extracted bodily from herbs, plants and all things that have life, and its exaltation to the highest degree of purity by separating every impurity.

Meaning

Quintessence combines two features that can seem opposed to a modern reader: the matter is called spiritual, yet it is extracted corporeally. Spiritual therefore cannot automatically mean wholly immaterial here. The definition concerns something obtained from a natural body and raised to a higher degree of purity.

Use in the Book

Separation supplies the operation and purity supplies its intended result. The historical sentence joins the extracted matter to the act of exalting it. Our wording preserves both. A quintessence is not defined simply as a pleasant odor, an ordinary extract, or a figurative summary of a subject. Its force in this account depends on removing what is judged impure.

Compare Sulphur rerum, where the sulphur of things can stand for their quintessence. That connection does not make every occurrence of sulphur a reference to ordinary mineral sulphur. The dictionary moves between a named material and the effective part or virtue of a natural thing. Rubella adds another useful comparison: an essence is described by its dissolving power and its extraction of tincture.

Places to Read

Rubella. An essence defined by dissolving and extracting tincture.

Spagirus. The alchemical practitioner defined through discrimination and separation.

Sulphur rerum. The sulphur of things used as a name for their quintessence.

In This Edition

The definition does not identify one universal modern substance shared by every plant. Each contextual use needs its own subject and operation. Nor does the term itself establish a medical effect. For readers of the companion books, the useful questions are what body supplies the matter, what is separated, what is retained, and in what respect the result is said to be purer.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 39; facsimile PDF page 367 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Quintessentia; 1650 facsimile PDF p. 367; compare Rubella, Spagirus, Sulphur rerum, Tinctura

See also. Rubella; Spagirus; Sulphur rerum; Tinctura