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Alchemical symbol#Three primes

{{Short description|Symbols used in pre-19th-century chemistry}}

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Image:Alchemical table Valentine (1671).png's The Last Will and Testament, 1670|alt=A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670]]

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File:ElementsymboleLavoisiers1.jpg

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colspan="2" | Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier

Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. Lüdy-TengerFritz 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. 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:{{harvnb|Holmyard|1957|p=170}}; cf. {{harvnb|Friedlander|1992|pp=75–76}}. For the symbols, see {{harvnb|Holmyard|1957|p=149}} and Bergman's table as shown above.

Four basic elements

{{main|Classical elements}}

Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:{{harvnb|Holmyard|1957|p=149}}.

Seven {{vanchor|planetary metals}}

{{main|Classical planets in Western alchemy}}

File:Arms of the Royal Society of Chemistry.svg, 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.{{NoteTag|For example, Mercury was tin and Jupiter was electrum in the Marcianus manuscript attributed to Zosimos of Panopolis.{{rp|style=ama|p= 236}}}}

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).{{cite book |first=Maurice |last=Crosland |year=2004 |title=Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry |publisher= |isbn=}}{{harvnb|Holmyard|1957|p=149}}

  • Silver, corresponding with the Moon ☽ or ☾ (24px or 24px) [also 🜛 in Newton]{{cite web |last1=Newman |first1=William R. |last2=Walsh |first2=John A. |last3=Kowalczyk |first3=Stacy |last4=Hooper |first4=Wallace E. |last5=Lopez |first5=Tamara |date=March 6, 2009 |title=Proposal for Alchemical Symbols in Unicode |url=https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/fonts/Alchemy%20Unicode%20Proposal---March%2031%202009.pdf |website=Indiana University |at=p. 13, 2nd from bottom |id=Unicode: 1F71B}}
  • Gold, corresponding with the Sun ☉ 🜚 ☼ (24px 24px 24px)
  • Quicksilver, corresponding with Mercury ☿ (24px)
  • Copper, corresponding with Venus ♀ (24px)
  • Iron, corresponding with Mars ♂ (24px)
  • Tin, corresponding with Jupiter ♃ (24px)
  • Lead, corresponding with Saturn ♄ (24px)

Mundane elements and later metals

Image:Squared circle.svg of matter symbolising the philosopher's stone]]

Alchemical compounds

Image:Alchemical-symbols-1775.jpg's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities]]

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

Alchemical processes

Image:Alchemy-Digby-RareSecrets.png'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):See {{harvnb|Holmyard|1957|p=150}}.

  1. Calcination (Aries 16px) ♈︎
  2. Congelation (Taurus 16px) ♉︎
  3. Fixation (Gemini 16px) ♊︎
  4. Solution (Cancer 16px) ♋︎
  5. Digestion (Leo 16px) ♌︎
  6. Distillation (Virgo 16px) ♍︎
  7. Sublimation (Libra 16px) ♎︎
  8. Separation (Scorpio 16px) ♏︎
  9. Ceration (Sagittarius 16px) ♐︎
  10. Fermentation (Capricorn 16px) ♑︎ (Putrefaction)
  11. Multiplication (Aquarius 16px) ♒︎
  12. Projection (Pisces 16px) ♓︎

Units

Several symbols indicate units of time.

Unicode

{{main|Alchemical Symbols (Unicode block)}}

The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/ |title=Unicode 6.0.0 |publisher=Unicode Consortium |date=11 October 2010 |access-date=21 October 2019}}

{{Unicode chart Alchemical Symbols}}

Gallery

A list of symbols published in 1931:

De Rosemont (1931) plate 1.jpg

De Rosemont (1931) plate 2.jpg

De Rosemont (1931) plate 3.jpg

De Rosemont (1931) plate 4.jpg

De Rosemont (1931) plate 5.jpg

De Rosemont (1931) plate 6.jpg

Basel 2012-10-02 Mattes (90).JPG|(all 6 plates, large file)

An 1888 reproduction of a Venetian list of medieval Greek alchemical symbols from about the year 1100 but circulating since about 300 and attributed to Zosimos of Panopolis. The list starts with 🜚 for gold and has early conventions that would later change: here ☿ is tin and ♃ electrum; ☾ is silver but ☽ is mercury. Many of the 'symbols' are simply abbreviations of the Greek word or phrase. View the files on Commons for the list of symbols.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Marcianus gr. 299 fol 6.jpg

Marcianus gr. 299 fol 7.jpg

Marcianus gr. 299 fol 7v.jpg

See also

Other symbols commonly used in alchemy and related esoteric traditions:

  • {{Annotated link |Astronomical symbols}}
  • {{Annotated link |Astrological symbols}}
  • {{Annotated link |Planet symbols}}
  • {{Annotated link |Suns in alchemy}}
  • Circled dot (disambiguation)
  • {{Annotated link |Monas Hieroglyphica|Monas Hieroglyphica}}
  • {{Annotated link |Rub el Hizb}}
  • {{Annotated link |Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|}}
  • {{Annotated link |Seal of Solomon}}
  • {{Annotated link |Rose Cross|Rosy Cross}}
  • {{Annotated link |Eye of Providence}}
  • {{Annotated link |Sigil}}, as used by Hermetic theurgists
  • {{Annotated link |Sigillum Dei}}

Footnotes

{{NoteFoot}}

References

{{Reflist}}

=Works cited=

  • {{cite book|last1=Friedlander|first1=Walter J.|date=1992|title=The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine|series=Contributions in Medical Studies, 35|location=New York|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0-313-28023-1}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Holmyard|first1=Eric J.|author1-link=Eric John Holmyard|date=1957|title=Alchemy|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin Books|oclc=2080637}}
  • {{cite book|last=Reutter de Rosemont |first=Louis |date=1931 |title=Histoire de la pharmacie a travers les ages |location=Paris |publisher=J. Peyronnet |volume=II |at=4 plates after p. 260 and 2 plates after p. 268 |url=https://archive.org/details/BIUSante_141959x02 |via=Internet Archive}}

External links

{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Alchemy|state=expanded}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alchemical symbol}}

Category:Lists of symbols