A Chymical Dictionary

How to Read an Article

Begin with At a Glance for a short orientation. The word gives the central sense supplied by the article. Other lines, where present, identify a contextual distinction, an editorial issue or a place to begin reading. These lines summarize the fuller discussion; they do not replace the historical definition.

Historical definition is the complete modernised definition from the 1650 English witness. It includes the source’s alternatives, qualifications and unusual claims. A short definition remains short. When the original says sometimes, often, is said, properly or metaphorically, those words are preserved because they govern the force of the identification. Any substantive correction of a defective printed reading is identified in a note.

Meaning explains the vocabulary and the relation between the parts of the definition. In this dictionary or Use in the book follows that sense through neighboring or related entries. A comparison can reveal a shared feature, a distinction or an explicit equivalence. Only an actual equation in the source is presented as the compiler’s equation. A linked article can be useful precisely because its meaning differs.

Places to read provides linked routes into the historical definitions and their commentary. These are selected reading aids. A group of links is not an exhaustive concordance of every occurrence in every alchemical author. Where the source reference identifies a work outside this dictionary, its title and locator establish which text is being used.

In this edition explains a spelling, a modernisation, an uncertain identification or another interpretive decision. Such material belongs to the new edition. It should not be mistaken for an added clause in the seventeenth-century definition. Historical source identifies the witness and facsimile location; See also links to other articles.

The entries are grouped by subject and arranged alphabetically within each group, following the reading-companion layout of the Diotimos Lexicon. The Headword Index restores direct alphabetical access across the entire book. The Forms and English finding index also includes historical spellings, explicitly supplied synonyms and editorial search forms. A form listed for finding an article is not necessarily a word printed by the historical compiler.

The two definitions headed Iliaster remain separate records. Other closely related names likewise retain their own source identities. This lets readers follow the historical distinctions while using the cross-references to bring associated material together.