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 silver preparation characterized through blue colour and flower vocabulary.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341.
Historical definition
Calx Luna is the azure flower of silver.
Meaning
The definition explicitly identifies silver and gives a coloured flower expression for its prepared form. “Flower” should be read within that material account rather than assumed to mean a botanical part. The entry does not provide a process sufficient to identify one modern silver compound.
The Calx group is varied: Calx Solis is calcined gold, while this entry uses azure-flower language. Cheiri offers further examples in which flower expressions concern metallic elixirs. Such comparisons help decode the vocabulary without making every metallic flower the same preparation.
Places to read
- Calx LunaRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- LunaThe lunar name denotes silver.
- Calx SolisGold distinguished by calcination.
- CheiriA term whose sense depends on both subject matter and qualification.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 13; facsimile PDF page 341 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Calx Luna ; compare Luna, Calx Solis, Cheiri