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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 DictionaryCafa

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English Edition · Branch 388 of 740

Cafa

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 388

Cafa

Plants animals and natural materials · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A historical name identifying camphor.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341.

Historical Definition

Cafa is camphor.

Meaning

The short entry resolves an unfamiliar name without adding a preparation. A passage employing Cafa may qualify the material or describe something made from it; those details should be read as additions supplied by that passage. The dictionary does not establish a source plant, place of trade or therapeutic purpose here.

For a reader’s edition, keeping both the historical headword and the familiar identifying name findable is more useful than replacing one completely with the other. That preserves traceability while allowing straightforward recognition.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341 — Facsimile

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

388

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.