From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordA “star” understood as a material’s enhanced power through preparation.
- In the bookCompare Arcanum, which concerns a hidden virtue in natural things that the spagyrical art can multiply.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 8; facsimile PDF page 336.
Historical definition
Astrum here means the virtue and power acquired through the preparation of things. Thus the star of sulphur is its ignition, by which it is turned into an excellent oil; the star of salt is its dissolution into water or oil, through which it receives more virtues than it had before; and the star of Mercury is its sublimation, by which it acquires a wonderful power and virtue greater and subtler than its natural state.
Meaning
The opening words restrict the sense: “in this place” means that the dictionary is explaining a particular technical use, not abolishing every other meaning of a star. Here Astrum is identified through a power gained by preparation. The term therefore directs the reader toward an altered condition of a thing and the virtue attributed to that condition. It need not denote a visible body in the sky.
The three examples are deliberately parallel. Sulphur is linked with ignition and oil; salt with dissolution into water or oil; Mercury with sublimation. Each example names a starting subject, a preparation and a claimed improvement. Keeping that three-part structure visible is the most useful way to follow the entry. It prevents the philosophical name from concealing the material action described beneath it.
The last clause compares prepared Mercury with its natural condition. That comparison gives a baseline for the historical claim: the preparation is said to make its power greater and subtler. In the salt example, the source similarly says that more virtues are received than were present before. The definition thus treats preparation as an enhancement of efficacy, not merely a change in outward name.
Use in the book
Compare Arcanum, which concerns a hidden virtue in natural things that the spagyrical art can multiply. The overlap is substantial, but the emphasis differs. Astrum is explained through specified preparations and the powers gained through them; Arcanum begins with a hidden incorporeal virtue and its heavenly life. Those differences can matter in a philosophical argument.
Sublimatio is a particularly useful cross-reference because it gives a direct operation term for the Mercury example. Compare it with Aquila, where a bird image is explained through sal ammoniac’s lightness in sublimation. Both entries show how an operation can motivate elevated or aerial imagery without making all such images names for one substance.
The three examples also belong beside Archeius, where sulphur, Mercury and salt appear within an account of natural differentiation. A shared threefold vocabulary can connect passages, but the function changes. Archeius concerns the ordering and production of kinds; this Astrum entry concerns the virtue attributed to prepared things. A reader should identify the question being answered before deciding that both texts make the same claim.
Places to read
- AstrumRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- ArcanumA hidden virtue in natural things, capable in this account of enhancement through art.
- SublimatioAn operation defined by the upward movement of heated dry matter.
- AquilaAn eagle-name with more than one stated material meaning.
In this edition
To use the entry in reading, write down the material, the operation and the attributed result. Then ask whether the surrounding writer is speaking of a heavenly star, a sidereal influence or the kind of prepared virtue explained here. The dictionary itself supports this discrimination by preserving other stellar and sidereal senses under Ascendentia signa.
Our commentary reports the promised increase in virtue as part of the historical account. It does not turn “excellent oil,” “greater power” or “subtlety” into measured modern properties. The value of the explanation is that it makes the author’s reasoning visible: an artful transformation is understood to disclose or intensify what a natural thing can do.
The adjective or material attached to a star-name can be decisive. A passage naming the star of a prepared substance has already supplied a more specific subject than a bare reference to the stars. Preserve that qualification when comparing the technical and celestial senses.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 8; facsimile PDF page 336 — Facsimile