Alchemy and the Hermetic writings in their prints: the chemists’ signs, Maier’s emblems and fugues, the Emerald Tablet’s versions, the Chymical Wedding’s riddles, Dee’s monad, Agrippa’s squares and sigils.
Alchemical Signs
The table of the Medicinisch-Chymisch- und Alchemistisches Oraculum (Ulm, 1755): 385 entries, their Latin and German transcribed from the first edition, and 1,812 signs traced from the reissue of 1772, printed from the same blocks. Looked up in any of the three languages, the print’s spellings and its dittos read; a recipe written with the first sign of each name. The English glosses are Unveil’s.
About this tool
History
The Medicinisch-Chymisch- und Alchemistisches Oraculum was printed for Gaum at Ulm and Memmingen in 1755, without a compiler’s name, and reissued in 1772 and 1783. Its preface, dated 16 January 1755, says the signs and abbreviations of chemists and physicians were scattered through their books, so they were gathered into one table; it also advises writing the words out in recipes, since an unpractised reader could mistake a sign and do great harm.
How it works
The table’s 385 entries stand in its own order, the Latin and German transcribed from the first edition, each with an English gloss of Unveil’s. Its 1,812 signs were traced from the Wellcome copy of 1772, page by page, each sign on its own and at one scale, so a sign keeps its printed size. A word is looked up in any of the three languages, the long s, umlauts, the Latin’s u for v and the German’s tz and ck folded, and the print’s dittos read as the words above them. Words are written in signs by their Latin names, each with the first sign its entry prints.
How it was checked
The 1772 issue was printed from the 1755 blocks: every strip of each page’s sign column of 1772 was found again in the 1755 page of the same number by correlation, and pages 1, 20, 27 and 34 were compared by eye. A second reader checked twelve entries against both prints and found a misread word and commas traced with three signs; every sign was then searched for such fragments, and 198 pieces of commas and specks were removed. The tests confirm that every sign of every entry is traced, that every trace belongs to an entry, that each page’s scan is the pinned file, and the look-ups and the writing of a recipe.
Limits
Whether two shapes printed without a comma between them are one sign or two is sometimes a judgement; each such case is noted with its entry, as are signs a comma touches, which lose a few pixels. The words were reset between the issues; those given are the first edition’s, with the differences noted. The four pages of additions after the table give abbreviations in type and no signs. The signs are shown as printed, without modern equivalents.