(?? -- a guess based on symbols.com)
Sources: Wd1426, Wd1421A, Wv149, Ws2541A
Wd1426, a book of alchemical recipes, has caused us to add some additional symbols to our inventory of character entities: signs for substances antimony and sal armoniac; the elements fire and water; and the syllabics "subli-" and "precipi-" (found in sublimate, precipitate, etc.). We've also gone ahead and added the elemental symbol for earth, on the assumption that it will eventually appear in our books as well. The new symbols will soon (March 2002) appear in the latest online version of the primary keying instructions as reproduced below. (Examples of the symbols in context follow further on below.)
Addendum, June 2002: Wd1421A employs the same set of symbols.
Addendum, February 2003: Wv149 adds symbols for sulphur, oil, and ?tartar and one of as yet unknown meaning.
Addendum, December 2003: added two symbols found in a strange non-chemical book Ws2541A, viz. salt and saltpetre
Addendum, August 2007: added many symbols found in WN241 (img 195 for convenient table), and had also earlier been mostly found in another book (unidentified...)
Addendum, July 2008: added some symbols from a chart of abbreviations found in a Welsh dictionary (Wing J997), especially those confirmed by their presence in other books.
Addendum, Sept 2011: added some symbols from a chart of abbreviations from WB1088
| Alchemical signs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Example | Meaning | Record as |
|
|
antimony | &antimony; |
|
|
sal armoniac / sal ammoniac (in (al)chemical contexts only) | &salarmon; |
|
|
sal armoniac, sal ammoniac (alt. form) | &salarmon2; |
|
|
fire (in (al)chemical contexts only) | &fire; |
|
|
water | &water; |
|
earth (the element) | &earth; | |
|
|
subli- (forming words like "sublimate") | &absubli; |
|
|
precipi- (forming words like "precipitate") | &abprecipi; |
|
|
sulphur or sulphu- (forming words like 'sulphuris') | &sulphur; |
|
|
oil or oleum | &oil; |
|
oil (alt. glyph?) | [treatment pending] | |
|
|
oil (alt. form) | &oil2; |
|
|
tartar (tartrate? tartaric acid? potassium? potash?) | &tartar; |
|
|
vitriol (sulphuric acid) or vitrio- (forming words like 'vitriolata') | &vitriol; |
|
|
vitriol (alt. form) | &vitriol2; |
|
|
vitriol (alt. form); blue vitriol? | &vitriol3; |
|
|
salt | &salt; |
|
salt (alt. glyph?) | [treatment pending] | |
|
|
nitre or saltpetre (potassium nitrate) | &nitre; |
|
|
day | &day; |
|
|
night | &night; |
|
|
arsenic | &arsenic; |
|
|
arsenic (alt. form) | &arsenic2; |
|
|
alembic | &alembic; |
|
|
ashes | &ashes; |
|
|
glass | &glass; |
|
|
quicklime (calx viva) | &quicklime; |
|
lime? chalk? or quicklime? | [treatment pending] | |
|
salt gemme (rock salt) | &saltgemme; | |
|
|
urine | &urine; (assume that dotted and dotless forms are insignificant glyph variants) |
|
cinnabar | &cinnabar1; | |
|
|
cinnabar (alt. form) | &cinnabar2; |
|
|
cinnabar (alt. form) | &cinnabar3; |
|
|
alum | &alum; |
|
|
alum (alternative form) | &alum2; |
|
|
potash or 'ashes of hart's ease' | &potash; |
|
|
"purify(-ies)" | &purify; |
|
|
aqua fortis | &afortis; |
|
|
aqua regis | &aregis; |
|
|
talc | &talc; |
|
|
wax | &wax; |
|
|
blood | &blood; |
|
|
vinegar | &vinegar; |
|
|
vinegar, distilled (or 'spirit of vinegar') | &vinedist; |
|
|
Orpiment or auripigmentum | &orpiment; |
|
|
retort (chemical equipment) | &retort; |
|
|
Bezoar minerale (antimony oxide?) | &bezoarMin; |
|
|
skull, caput mortuum, death's head | &skull; |
|
|
verdigris (identical to alt. form of sal ammoniac) | &verdigris; |
|
|
magnesia or magnesium (?? -- a guess based on symbols.com) |
&magnesia; |
Note that the interpretation of some of these symbols is necessarily contextual. That is, it is the fact that they are in a book of alchemy (and maybe even the fact that they are within a particular book) that causes us to interpret "*" as "sal ammoniac" as opposed to "asterisk" or "sextile", or the upright triangle as "fire" instead of "delta" or "trine". If such interpretation is too much too ask, capture as one of the other look-alike symbols, or a generic character that describes the appearance (e.g. ▵ (upward-pointing triangle)) will be acceptable. If the capture is consistent, we can always convert later to a semantically more precise or more appropriate rendition.
This book (Wd1426) is singularly helpful in that it provides a key to most of the symbols in the book within the first few pages of the book itself:
The actual form of the symbols is quite consistent throughout the book, and the printing is generally clear. As well as the symbols listed, we find the usual "ounce" symbol; the standard doubled "ss" for "semis" ('half'), and other common characters. The planetary signs are used mostly in their alchemical senses, to designate metals.
Noteworthy are the three representations of chemical processes (precipi-, sublimi-, and amalgama-) that act sometimes more like ordinary Latin abbreviation symbols and less like planetary or elemental signs, inasmuch as words are built on them. Two are symbols, one is simply three "a"s with dots over them to indicate abbreviation. The symbols will need to be captured as distinctive entities; the abbreviation can follow the usual rules and retain only the actual letters, placed within <ABBR> tags.
| Looks like: | Means: | Capture as: |
|---|---|---|
 |
precipitate | &abprecipi;tate |
 |
to sublim | to &absubli;m |
 |
sublimate | &absubli;mate |
 |
sublimed | &subli;med |
 |
sublimation | &subli;mation |
 |
amalgama | <ABBR>aaa</ABBR> |
 |
amalgamate | <ABBR>aaate</ABBR> |
CAPTURE AS: Then add more of the fixed Salt to it which hath not &subli;med, making it one third to the &salarmon;, which humect with Spirit as before, cir|culate and &subli;m, and the &salarmon; will be increased. Do thus till all the fixed Salt be &subli;med. Cir|culate the remaining Volatile Spirit with the &salarmon;, till all the Spirit be converted into &salarmon;,
CAPTURE AS: TAke reddish rich Virgin Earth in &Aries;, im|pregnate it with &Sun;, &Moon;, serene and dew, till the end of <HI>May:</HI> Then imbibe sprink|lingly with dew gathered in <HI>May,</HI> and dry in &Sun;, expose all Night to the &Moon; and Air, securing it from Rain. Still when it is dry, imbibe and turn the Earth often. Continue this till &subli;mation. The hot &Sun; (especially in the Dog-days) will make a pure Salt shoot up, which mingle back into the Earth, by turning it all over. Then distill by gra|duated &fire; as <HI>A.F.</HI> forcing all the Spirits
CAPTURE AS: the words of <HI>Helmont:</HI> when (&s;aith he) I di&s;tingui&s;hed be|tween the &Merc;ies, and Salts and &sulphur;s of <HI>Concretes,</HI> by an analytical re&s;olution of them, I wondred at the &s;luggi&s;h, in|active nature of the &Merc;ial com|pared to the dignity and ex|cellent activity of the other two principles (to wit Sul|phurous and and Saline) More|
 |
CAPTURE AS:
<P>
<LIST> <ITEM>℞. <HI>Rob. de Ribes.</HI></ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Rob. de Berber. an.</HI> &ounce;j.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Spir. &sulphur; g.</HI> iij.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Salis perlar.</HI> &scruple;.j.</ITEM> </LIST> <HI>Misce.</HI> </P> |
 |
CAPTURE AS:
<LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Extract. santal.</HI></ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Extract. Chelid.</HI> an. &ounce;ss.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>&tartar;ri &vitriol;lati.</HI> &dram;iij.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Tinctur. croci &Mars; cum &oil; &sulphur;ris praep.</HI> &dram;ij.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Salis Corallor.</HI> &ounce;ss.</ITEM> <ITEM><HI>Essentiae</HI> &Mars; &dram;j.</ITEM> </LIST></P> |
Note: The 'Medicinal characters' are from Wj997, a Welsh dictionary, which also contains the same characters glossed in Welsh (vid 101101).
