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 bodily stone distinguished through a comparison with marble.
- In the bookMagneticus tartarus uses another hard material, the lodestone, and adds sponginess.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 32; facsimile PDF page 360.
Historical definition
Marmoreus tartarus is a stone in a human being as hard as marble.
Meaning
Marble supplies the comparison of hardness, while the location is the human body. The wording should not be read as a claim that an ordinary block of marble has entered the body. Nor does it give a cause or an anatomical location beyond that general setting.
Use in the book
Magneticus tartarus uses another hard material, the lodestone, and adds sponginess. The two descriptions differentiate kinds of bodily stone through properties and comparisons within the book’s account of tartar.
Places to read
- Marmoreus tartarusRead the complete historical definition and its commentary.
- Magneticus tartarusA bodily stone described by hardness and a spongy structure.
- TartarumA wine-vessel deposit whose name also serves for bodily stones or gravel.
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 32; facsimile PDF page 360 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymical Dictionary 1650, 1650 dictionary, facsimile PDF page 360, Marmoreus tartarus