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 liquid preparation named through the ash of wine lees.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 5; facsimile PDF page 333.
Historical definition
Aqua fecum vini is made from the ashes of wine lees, dissolved on marble like oil of tartar.
Meaning
The entry gives a sequence of material transformations rather than merely another name for wine. Lees supply the starting matter; their ash is then described as dissolving on marble; oil of tartar supplies a comparison. Keeping those stages visible prevents a reader from treating the product as unchanged wine or as spirit of wine.
The comparison explains a manner or appearance of preparation without providing quantities or a complete protocol. The ash origin also connects the term with the dictionary’s broader accounts of salts and calxes. For interpretation, its relation to residue and dissolution is more informative than a modern guess based on the word Aqua alone.
Places to read
- Aqua fecum viniRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- AlcaliSalt defined through extraction from ash or calx.
- TartarumA wine-vessel deposit whose name also serves for bodily stones or gravel.
- DeliquiumDissolution of a coagulated body in a cold setting.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 5; facsimile PDF page 333 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Aqua fecum vini ; compare Alcali, Tartarum, Deliquium