From the book
The Golden Chain of Homer
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger) · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLixivium is a dissolved saline preparation, prominently a leached vegetable alkali in the sweetening argument.
- In the Golden ChainIt connects a solid residual salt with its usable liquid condition and exposes differences among kinds of saline water.
- TranslationThe Latin term is translated “lye” according to context rather than assigned one modern composition.
- A place to readB1C22S030: wine alkali is explicitly described as a lixivium.
Meaning
Lixivium names a lye or saline liquid preparation. In its clearest attestation the author means wine’s alkali, the salt obtained from its dead head, in a dissolved form. The passage immediately permits another pure, clear alkali, so the name describes a useful condition of the saline material rather than a uniquely defined ingredient available only from wine (B1C22S030).
Lye is not a guarantee that every liquid so called has the same relation to animals, plants, or minerals. Elsewhere the English speaks of a lye of vitriol and alum when contrasting specified mineral salts with universal nitre and salt. The word therefore identifies a liquid preparation whose actual subject still matters. It should not be made a synonym for every spirit, vinegar, or saltwater in the work (B1C23S007).
Use in the book
The vegetable chapter uses the lixivium to present an alternative way of correcting corrosives through alkaline fixation. The author describes a more violent conjunction and contrasts it with the gentler spiritual route he prefers. Its value for the lexicon is the distinction between two outcomes: suppressing corrosive action by forming a fixed saline body is not necessarily the same as obtaining the positively sweet and agreeable condition sought in the larger medicinal argument. His assertion of harmlessness is a historical claim, not an established property of the lye’s name (B1C22S029–031; B2C09S015).
A later discussion of salt-of-tartar tincture makes a lye part of the passage from calcined plant matter to a recovered fixed salt. The author distinguishes the white material produced by open heating from the black material left in an enclosed condition. Their different uses support his claim that a colour extracted after recombination need not originate inherently in the salt itself. The lye is thus one condition within a material history, not the whole tincture or the explanation of its colour (B2C05S062–065).
The broader argument about residues clarifies what this liquid condition does and does not imply. Recovering soluble salt from ash leaves an earthy part that practitioners often throw away. The author objects that such material may provide the basis of durable fixation and glassmaking. A liquid salt preparation consequently represents a selective separation from its residual context, not proof that whatever failed to enter it was useless. Lixivium belongs beside lixiviation and filtration as a product-name whose significance depends on the fractions retained and the intended later reunion (B2C05S057; B2C05S066–070).
Places to read
- Book I · Ch. 22 · §30The explicit Latin attestation identifies dissolved wine alkali as a lixivium.
- Book I · Ch. 23 · §7A vitriol-and-alum lye shows why the subject cannot be inferred from the name alone.
- Book II · Ch. 5 · §57Recovering salt from a residue is criticized when the remaining body is discarded.
- Book II · Ch. 5 · §64A lye occurs within the account of recovered fixed salt and disputed tincture.
- Book II · Ch. 5 · §67The fixed earthy remainder can be indispensable rather than useless dregs.
Translation in this edition
Lixivium is attested in B1C22S030; Lauge appears in B2C05S064. The term names the resulting preparation, while lixiviation names the action of drawing soluble material from a body. This distinction keeps the operation separate from the composition of its product. In particular the source’s lixivium, its recovered dry alkali, and a spirit made from a salt are different operative conditions, even where the author relates them through one matter and reversible degrees (B1C22S030; B1C23S020–022).