Английская Википедия:Alchemical symbol

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Файл:Alchemical table Valentine (1671).png
A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670
Part 1 Part 2
Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier

Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. Lüdy-Tenger[1] published an inventory of 3,695 symbols and variants, and that was not exhaustive, omitting for example many of the symbols used by Isaac Newton. This page therefore lists only the most common symbols.

Three primes

According to Paracelsus (1493–1541), the three primes or tria prima – of which material substances are immediately composed – are:[2]

Four basic elements

Шаблон:Main Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:[3]

Seven Шаблон:Vanchor

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Файл:Arms of the Royal Society of Chemistry.svg
The shield in the coat of arms of the Royal Society of Chemistry, with the seven planetary-metal symbols

The seven metals known since Classical times in Europe were associated with the seven classical planets; this figured heavily in alchemical symbolism. The exact correlation varied over time, and in early centuries bronze or electrum were sometimes found instead of mercury, or copper for Mars instead of iron; however, gold, silver, and lead had always been associated with the Sun, Moon, and Saturn.Шаблон:NoteTag The associations below are attested from the 7th century and had stabilized by the 15th. They started breaking down with the discovery of antimony, bismuth, and zinc in the 16th century. Alchemists would typically call the metals by their planetary names, e.g. "Saturn" for lead, "Mars" for iron; compounds of tin, iron, and silver continued to be called "jovial", "martial", and "lunar"; or "of Jupiter", "of Mars", and "of the moon", through the 17th century. The tradition remains today with the name of the element mercury, where chemists decided the planetary name was preferable to common names like "quicksilver", and in a few archaic terms such as lunar caustic (silver nitrate) and saturnism (lead poisoning).[4][5]

Mundane elements and later metals

Файл:Squared circle.svg
The squared circle: an alchemical symbol (17th century) illustrating the interplay of the four elements of matter symbolising the philosopher's stone

Alchemical compounds

Файл:Alchemical-symbols-1775.jpg
Alchemical symbols in Torbern Bergman's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities

The following symbols, among others, have been adopted into Unicode.

Alchemical processes

Файл:Alchemy-Digby-RareSecrets.png
An extract and symbol key from Kenelm Digby's A Choice Collection of Rare Secrets, 1682

The alchemical magnum opus was sometimes expressed as a series of chemical operations. In cases where these numbered twelve, each could be assigned one of the Zodiac signs as a form of cryptography. The following example can be found in Pernety's Dictionnaire mytho-hermétique (1758):[8]

  1. Calcination (Aries Файл:Aries symbol (fixed width).svg) ♈︎
  2. Congelation (Taurus Файл:Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg) ♉︎
  3. Fixation (Gemini Файл:Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg) ♊︎
  4. Solution (Cancer Файл:Cancer symbol (fixed width).svg) ♋︎
  5. Digestion (Leo Файл:Leo symbol (fixed width).svg) ♌︎
  6. Distillation (Virgo Файл:Virgo symbol (fixed width).svg) ♍︎
  7. Sublimation (Libra Файл:Libra symbol (fixed width).svg) ♎︎
  8. Separation (Scorpio Файл:Scorpius symbol (fixed width).svg) ♏︎
  9. Ceration (Sagittarius Файл:Sagittarius symbol (fixed width).svg) ♐︎
  10. Fermentation (Capricorn Файл:Capricornus symbol (fixed width).svg) ♑︎ (Putrefaction)
  11. Multiplication (Aquarius Файл:Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg) ♒︎
  12. Projection (Pisces Файл:Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg) ♓︎

Units

Several symbols indicate units of time.

Gallery

A list of symbols published in 1931:

Unicode

Шаблон:Main article The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.[9] Шаблон:Unicode chart Alchemical Symbols

See also

Other symbols commonly used in alchemy and related esoteric traditions:

Footnotes

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References

Шаблон:Reflist

Works cited

External links

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Шаблон:Alchemy

  1. Fritz Lüdy-Tenger (1928) Alchemistische und chemische Zeichen. Wolfgang Schneider (1962) Lexicon alchemistisch-pharmazeutischer Symbole covers many of the same symbols with a cross-index and indicates synonyms.
  2. Шаблон:Harvnb; cf. Шаблон:Harvnb. For the symbols, see Шаблон:Harvnb and Bergman's table as shown above.
  3. Шаблон:Harvnb.
  4. Шаблон:Cite book
  5. 5,0 5,1 5,2 5,3 5,4 Шаблон:Harvnb
  6. Шаблон:Cite web
  7. Explanation of the Chimical Characters from Nicaise Le Febvre, A compleat body of chymistry, London, 1670.
  8. See Шаблон:Harvnb.
  9. Шаблон:Cite web