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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 DictionaryCorpora supercœlestia

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English Edition · Branch 18 of 740

Corpora supercœlestia

Book Mode

A Chymical Dictionary

p. 18

Corpora supercœlestia

Elements principles and the natural world · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. Bodies distinguished by a rational mode of knowing.

In the book. Corpus invisibile similarly combines bodily language with invisibility, but specifically identifies its subject as the soul.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 18; facsimile PDF page 346.

Historical Definition

Corpora supercœlestia are bodies known by reason rather than by the senses.

Meaning

The definition draws a boundary between ways of knowing. The senses do not make these bodies known; reason does. It does not enumerate the bodies or explain the argument by which their existence or nature is established. The brief gloss should therefore be used as an interpretive distinction rather than as a complete description of a hidden region.

“Body” consequently has a wider range here than an everyday visible object. The vocabulary needs to be read with the book’s own distinctions between material subjects, virtues, souls and celestial operations in view.

Use in the Book

Corpus invisibile similarly combines bodily language with invisibility, but specifically identifies its subject as the soul. Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum concerns astral virtues in matter. The entries should remain separate: an invisible soul, an attributed celestial virtue, and something known by reason are not declared identical merely because all complicate ordinary bodily language.

Places to Read

Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum. Celestial bodies of the spagyrists understood as astral virtues in matter.

Corpus invisibile. The soul described through both bodily support and spiritual invisibility.

In This Edition

The edition keeps the contrast between sense and reason. Describing these bodies as imaginary would decide a question the definition itself does not settle.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 18; facsimile PDF page 346 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Corpora supercœlestia

See also. Corpora cœlestia Spagyrorum; Corpus invisibile

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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.