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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 DictionaryArbor Maris

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English Edition · Branch 381 of 740

Arbor Maris

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 381

Arbor Maris

Plants animals and natural materials · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. Coral named through the image of a sea shrub.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 6; facsimile PDF page 334.

Historical Definition

Arbor Maris is coral, which grows like a shrub in the sea.

Meaning

The entry supplies both a material identification and the resemblance behind its descriptive name. The shrub comparison concerns growth or form in the sea; it should not be silently converted into a modern biological classification. The historical account calls the substance coral.

This is a useful example of an image that the dictionary itself decodes. A reader encountering a sea-tree expression can first test the coral identification against the passage. It is more restrained to begin with that explicit explanation than to supply a broader symbolic meaning unsupported by the text.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 6; facsimile PDF page 334 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Arbor Maris

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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.