Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · English Edition
A Chymical Dictionary
An Expanded Diotimos Lexicon of Paracelsian and Alchemical Language
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English Edition · Branch 390 of 740
Calx lignorum
A Chymical Dictionary
p. 390Calx lignorum
Plants animals and natural materials · A Chymical Dictionary
At a Glance
The word. A direct identification of a calx as ash from wood.
A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341.
Historical Definition
Calx lignorum is wood ash.
Meaning
The starting material is explicit, making this a useful anchor within the broad Calx vocabulary. Here the term does concern ash, whereas other compounds in the dictionary identify spirits, precipitates or different prepared materials. Read the complete expression rather than assume one meaning for every Calx.
Alcali provides the next operational connection: salts can be extracted from ashes or calx in its account. The ash and the salt obtained from it remain distinct materials or stages, even when one leads to the other.
Places to Read
Alcali. Salt defined through extraction from ash or calx.
Cinificatum. A material reduced to ash by burning.
Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Calx lignorum ; compare Alcali, Cinificatum
See also. Alcali; Cinificatum
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
- Governing English witnessGetty Research Institute facsimile: A Chymicall Dictionary (1650)
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