From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Impression and stamp
τύπος; τύπωσις
tupos; tupōsisTypos can name a mark, stamp, or pattern; typōsis emphasizes an impress or formation.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTypos can name a mark, stamp, or pattern; typōsis emphasizes an impress or formation.
- In StobaeusThe account of intellect describes form as an impress of being while explicitly denying that it is a body’s boundary.
- In this edition“Impress” or “imprint” preserves the image, with its local object and medium explained.
- A place to beginAn impress of being is distinguished from a bodily outline.
- English renderings
- imprint; impression; impressing
Meaning
Typos can name a mark, stamp, or pattern; typōsis emphasizes an impress or formation. The language can extend beyond literal marking of a surface.
Use in the book
The account of intellect describes form as an impress of being while explicitly denying that it is a body’s boundary. Porphyry’s afterlife account instead describes imagination leaving an imprint in the accompanying pneuma. The common image does not require one physical mechanism across the passages.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Impress” or “imprint” preserves the image, with its local object and medium explained.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 316, 429. The description of form in I.48.6.6 is difficult but explicitly resists interpretation as a mere bodily boundary.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Impression
impression; impressions; impressed; engraven
An impression is a mark made upon a surface, and by extension a durable effect upon the mind or affections.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn impression is a mark made upon a surface, and by extension a durable effect upon the mind or affections.
- In TraherneChrist’s wounds are impressions that must be read through the greater reality of his love.
- In this editionImpression does not here mean a tentative opinion.
- A place to beginThe wounds are inadequate signs unless the beholder perceives Christ’s person and love.
Meaning
An impression is a mark made upon a surface, and by extension a durable effect upon the mind or affections.
Use in the book
Christ’s wounds are impressions that must be read through the greater reality of his love. Their visible marks remain dim if the beholder does not perceive the person and the eternal generosity they express. The physical sign is indispensable to the meditation but cannot exhaust its meaning.
Conversely, divine goodness ought to impress itself so deeply upon the recipient that it becomes continually felt and remembered. The movement is from mark to meaning, then from perceived meaning to settled disposition. Traherne wants a truth to endure in the soul with the force of an engraving, rather than pass through it as a momentary observation.
Places to read
In this edition
Impression does not here mean a tentative opinion. Its material force survives in engraven and in the demand that goodness be deeply impressed.