A Chymical Dictionary

Formæ rerum

Spirits celestial influences and signs · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. Forms explained through received celestial influences or active virtues.

In the book. Constellatio defines an impression of higher stars or their virtues upon lower bodies.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 23; facsimile PDF page 351.

Historical Definition

Formæ rerum are the influences of celestial bodies received by lower bodies, or the virtues of a thing.

Meaning

The definition offers two related formulations. Forms can mean influences received from celestial bodies, or the virtues of a thing. Neither formulation treats form only as external shape. The entry is concerned with an attributed efficacy and with its relation to a subject.

The direction of reception matters in the first sense. Lower bodies receive influences from celestial bodies; the definition does not present a relation of equal exchange. The second sense allows the word to refer directly to a thing’s virtues, without repeating the account of their celestial source.

Use in the Book

Constellatio defines an impression of higher stars or their virtues upon lower bodies. Impressiones names fruits of stars in lower things. Corpus is the subject in which virtues lie hidden. These entries make a connected vocabulary of source, impression, reception and bodily subject.

Idea gives another kind of form-language: a figure conceived in imagination as a pattern of things of that nature. It should not simply replace Formæ rerum. One concerns a conceived pattern; this entry concerns influences or virtues. A historical passage may relate them, but the dictionary does not declare them identical.

Places to Read

Constellatio. The influence of higher stars understood as an impression in lower things.

Corpus. A body understood as the subject containing a thing’s hidden efficacy.

Idea. A conceived figure understood as an enduring pattern.

In This Edition

The commentary uses efficacy to explain “virtue” while retaining the historical word where it matters. It does not reduce these forms to visible outlines or replace celestial influence with an unmentioned modern mechanism.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 23; facsimile PDF page 351 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Formæ rerum

See also. Constellatio; Corpus; Idea; Impressiones