From the book
Nine Books on the Nature of Things
Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordLiquor is a liquid or fluid substance, not necessarily an intoxicating drink.
- In the workBook IV distinguishes several related cases.
- In this edition“Liquor” is retained for the source's broad material term, not modern beverage usage.
- A place to read“liquor terrae”
Meaning
Liquor is a liquid or fluid substance, not necessarily an intoxicating drink. Resina is resin, but the work also uses the name among gold's arcana. In the plant and wood passages these terms identify life-bearing fractions and sources of characteristic powers. A liquid fraction, an oily fraction and a resin may be named together; their coexistence should not be translated away as mere repetition.
Use in the book
Book IV distinguishes several related cases. Herbs, roots, apples and similar fruits live through the liquor of earth, lost when they lack water and earth. Wood lives through a certain resin. Resins themselves live through a mucilaginous, shining fatness and are judged by their capacity to yield varnish and retain shine. The same word can therefore name a thing and one of another thing's life-bearing resources, without the text requiring an exhaustive botanical classification.
The parallel mortification catalogue in Book V describes plants through removal of oil, water, expressed liquor and alkali; wood becomes coals or ashes; resins and similar materials become oil or varnish. These outcomes are not identical. In particular, the production of varnish can mark the effective potential of a resin in one passage and the transformation of its former nature in another. Mortification does not simply mean that all usefulness has ceased.
Book VI's claimed restoration of wood explicitly adds the resin, liquor and oiliness of the same tree to its burned remainder. Their presence is essential for interpreting the later rhetoric of something returning from nothing. The procedure is imagined as a reunion of material resources, not a creation without inputs. The text then groups phlegm, fatness and ash under the three principles. The reader should retain both descriptions rather than silently identifying every listed liquid with Mercury or every resin with one fixed modern chemical constituent.
Places to read
- Book 4 · Life · Passage 14Latin“liquor terrae” The life of plants is related to earth and water.
- Book 4 · Life · Passage 15Latin“resina quaedam” Wood’s life receives a qualified resin description.
- Book 5 · Death · Passage 29Latin“in oleum vel vernicem redigantur” The useful product and the mortification of its former material are compatible descriptions.
- Book 5 · Death · Passage 30Latin“liquor exprimatur torculari” The liquid fraction is distinguished from distilled oil and water.
- Book 6 · Resuscitation · Passage 9Latin“resina, liquore & oleitate illius arboris” Restoration adds specified materials belonging to the tree.
Translation in this edition
“Liquor” is retained for the source's broad material term, not modern beverage usage. The translation differentiates resin, liquor and oiliness. Note 62 relies on this enumeration when explaining why the ensuing “from nothing” cannot be taken literally as absence of material inputs.