From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Translation, unfamiliar words and correction — John French
Translations; uncouth words; sense; Errata’s; English tongue
French’s account of translation contrasts verbal elegance with fidelity to sense, explains unfamiliar words and invites correction of scribal or printing errors.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordFrench’s account of translation contrasts verbal elegance with fidelity to sense, explains unfamiliar words and invites correction of scribal or printing errors.
- In the workFrench says he translated for readers whose minds are drawn toward knowledge, not to add another volume to an already excessive mass of books.
- In this editionThe source apparatus distinguishes French’s historical wording, its modernisation, and the independently prepared translation of the Latin corpus.
- A place to readto translate them into the English tongue: French states his vernacular purpose.
Meaning
French’s account of translation contrasts verbal elegance with fidelity to sense, explains unfamiliar words and invites correction of scribal or printing errors. It is an explicit statement by the historical English translator.
Use in the book
French says he translated for readers whose minds are drawn toward knowledge, not to add another volume to an already excessive mass of books. This social purpose supports the otherwise paradoxical act of producing and marketing a book while criticising book multiplication. His invitation to buy and repeatedly read the work is therefore part of a selective claim that these writings deserve attention.
The final address excuses the lack of elegant English because he judges the matter resistant to it. Uncouth words are defended either because meaning could not properly bear another expression or because no better one came to mind. The second possibility is a modest limitation on the first: not every unfamiliar wording is asserted to be uniquely necessary.
He asks a candid reader to repair errors arising from his pen or the printer, and challenges disapproval to produce a better translation. This does not make all later corrections authorial; it establishes a historical willingness to have wording improved in service of truth. The present edition’s modernisation remains separately labelled and is not the source of its fresh Latin translation.
Places to read
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 6Historical English · 1650to translate them into the English tongue: French states his vernacular purpose.
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 7Historical English · 1650the sense, to which I kept me close: He explains his priority in difficult wording.
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 7Historical English · 1650or at least better came not at the present into my mind: He acknowledges the limits of his available expression.
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 7Historical English · 1650be thou candid, and mend them: The invitation concerns textual errors.
In this edition
The source apparatus distinguishes French’s historical wording, its modernisation, and the independently prepared translation of the Latin corpus. “Uncouth” here concerns unfamiliar expression, not a warrant to modernise technical words without contextual checking.
From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Unfamiliar words
uncouth words
French explains that unusual expressions may be required by the sense or may simply reflect his inability to think of a better one at the time.
- Useful equivalents
- unfamiliar words
Meaning
Phrase.
French explains that unusual expressions may be required by the sense or may simply reflect his inability to think of a better one at the time. The second explanation limits any absolute defence of his wording. The phrase introduces a candid translator’s account of difficulty and fidelity, not a command to retain every awkward form regardless of evidence or to replace historical technical terms indiscriminately.
Places to read
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 7Historical English · 1650used uncouth words.