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 stone described through the clarity and origin of its tartar.
- In the bookDiaphanum defines transparency in general.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 24; facsimile PDF page 352.
Historical definition
Gemma tartarea is the stone generated from diaphanous and transparent tartar.
Meaning
Generation and appearance together distinguish this entry. The stone is said to be generated from tartar described as diaphanous and perspicuous, both rendered through transparency. The definition does not name a place where it forms or describe an extraction process.
Its stone language should not be used to assign a modern mineral identity without further evidence. The account is explicitly relational: the subject is understood through what it comes from and a quality attributed to that source.
Use in the book
Diaphanum defines transparency in general. Tartarum ranges from wine-vessel dregs to bodily stones or gravel, while Duelech describes dangerous spongy stone-like matter in the human body. These comparisons show why the word tartar alone is insufficient to collapse all the entries into one material. Gemma tartarea adds its own transparent qualification.
Places to read
- Gemma tartareaRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- DiaphanumA description of transparency.
- DuelechBodily tartar associated with a dangerous stone-like formation.
- TartarumA wine-vessel deposit whose name also serves for bodily stones or gravel.
In this edition
The modernised definition preserves the source’s claim of generation and leaves its mechanism unspecified.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 24; facsimile PDF page 352 — Facsimile