A Chymical Dictionary

Gamathei

Spirits celestial influences and signs · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. Stones bearing signs and images associated with celestial powers.

In the book. Gamahei gives the broader description of images impressed by a supercelestial influence.

In this edition. A textual note records the reading of the 1650 printing and the editorial treatment.

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

Historical Definition

Gamathei are stones impressed with celestial virtues and supernatural constellations, and marked with wonderful characters and images.

Meaning

The entry joins a material subject, stones, to two kinds of description. Virtues and constellations are said to be impressed in them, and characters and images mark them. The visible marks are therefore related to attributed powers rather than offered merely as surface decoration.

The definition does not enumerate the images or state a method for interpreting them. Nor does it say that every marked stone belongs to this category. A particular passage must supply the features or judgement by which the name is applied.

Use in the Book

Gamahei gives the broader description of images impressed by a supercelestial influence. Imagines concerns metallic figures in which celestial powers operate. Constellatio explains the impression of higher stars or their virtues upon lower bodies. Read together, these entries connect medium, mark and efficacy without making every figure or stone the same kind of object.

The original has the defective spelling supernaturll. The modernised definition supplies the expected supernatural while the original reading and the textual note remain available. That small correction does not alter the source’s substantive claim about the stones.

Places to Read

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

Gamahei. Images attributed to an influence beyond the celestial.

Imagines. Metallic images treated as subjects of celestial efficacy.

In This Edition

The commentary keeps the distinction between visible markings and the powers attributed to them. Recognising a historical claim of celestial efficacy is different from independently confirming that efficacy or supplying an unmentioned system of talismanic correspondences.

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

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Gamathei

See also. Constellatio; Gamahei; Imagines