From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA compressed expression naming a source or origin of disease.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 4; facsimile PDF page 332.
Historical definition
Anatomia Essata is the mother of diseases.
Meaning
The explanation works through the metaphor of a mother: the term is associated with the generation or source of diseases. It gives no description of anatomy as dissection and no list of individual illnesses. A reader should therefore resist replacing the unfamiliar phrase with the familiar modern discipline merely because the words resemble one another. The entry is most useful as a signal to examine how the surrounding author explains the arising of disease. Its brevity leaves the exact technical mechanism unresolved.
Places to read
- Anatomia EssataRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- Essatum essentialeAn essential power attributed to vegetable and mineral subjects.
- Matrices rerumThe elements considered as matrices of things.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 4; facsimile PDF page 332 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Anatomia Essata ; compare Essatum essentiale, Matrices rerum