A Chymical Dictionary

Text and Modernisation

The governing witness is the 1650 English printing, not a newly translated Latin copy of Dorn. Spelling, ordinary capitalization and punctuation have been modernised where the meaning is clear. Historical headwords remain recognisable, and useful alternative spellings are supplied through the finding index. The change from Chymicall in the original title to Chymical in the present title follows this ordinary modernisation.

The full definition is preserved before new commentary begins. A headword’s apparent meaning is not allowed to cancel its actual gloss. Rebis, for example, receives a bodily identification here, while the separate Rebus is the last matter of things. Similarly, Silo is earth and Sylo the whole world. Their resemblance is an aid to finding and comparing them; it is not grounds for merging their definitions. See Rebis, Rebus, Silo and Sylo.

Decorative initial letters have been restored to the running words they begin. This matters at the end of the dictionary as well as its beginning: the last Z group opens with Zaidar, whose initial is supplied by the printed ornament. Line breaks and page breaks have been removed from continuous sentences. Where the printed text has an evident repeated word, defective spelling or missing letter, the source record retains the reading and the note identifies the editorial treatment.

The transcription aid rearranged the dictionary alphabetically and made some corrections. Our stable article identifiers follow its complete paragraph inventory, while a separate record preserves the original print order. These identifiers are finding aids created for this edition. They are not seventeenth-century numbers. Every definition has a checked source locator, so the original order and wording remain recoverable.

The witness’s initial V can serve where present-day English expects U. This edition keeps historical forms such as Vnitas Trithemii and Vndæ in the headword record while supplying corresponding U forms for searching. Such editorial variants are distinguished from synonyms explicitly named by the source. Both methods of access lead to the same stable article.

The dictionary sometimes supplies a technical name through another unfamiliar name. The modernisation keeps that relation visible. A confident modern chemical or botanical identification is not inferred from spelling resemblance alone. Where the source gives only a class, a color, a locality or a preparation, the commentary explains the information that is actually available.

Words associated with illness and remedies retain their historical scope. The articles explain the compiler’s descriptions and attributed effects; they are a guide to reading old texts. They do not establish modern diagnoses, efficacy or instructions for present treatment. This historical framing also applies to accounts of spirits, divination and celestial influence.