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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 DictionaryKarena

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English Edition · Branch 715 of 740

Karena

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A Chymical Dictionary

p. 715

Karena

Language number and measures · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. A minute quantity measured as a fraction of a drop.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 28; facsimile PDF page 356.

Historical Definition

Karena is the twentieth part of a drop.

Meaning

The entry defines a relation of one part to twenty. Its unit is a drop, whose material size the dictionary does not standardise. The precision of the fraction must therefore be distinguished from the absence of a fixed volume for its base unit.

In This Edition

The fraction is retained without conversion into a modern volume. Such a conversion would require information about the liquid and the way drops were produced which this definition does not supply.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 28; facsimile PDF page 356 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymical Dictionary 1650, 1650 dictionary, facsimile PDF page 356, Karena

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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.