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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 DictionaryCenigdam

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English Edition · Branch 320 of 740

Cenigdam

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 320

Cenigdam

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A skull-opening instrument named in a historical surgical context.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342.

Historical Definition

Cenigdam, or Ceningotam, is a surgical instrument used to open the skull during fits of epilepsy.

Meaning

The definition gives the object, its action and the condition in which it was said to be employed. It does not supply an instrument design or establish that the intervention was effective. The final clause is evidence for the source’s historical account of treatment, not a present-day recommendation.

Both spellings should be preserved in the index. A reader can then recognize the term as an instrument rather than search for a medicine or material with a similar name. The exact action described—opening the skull—is necessary to distinguish it from surgical tools generally.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Cenigdam

320

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.