Alchemy and Its Genres: Possibilities for the Quantitative Study of Medieval Latin Alchemical Texts [Alchemical dictionary]

Latin Alchemical dictionary (conceptual glossary of unigrams) It explains the complex and symbolic language used by alchemists, primarily during the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Alchemists often used coded language, metaphors and symbols, and other esoteric means to describe their work, both to protect their practical knowledge and sometimes to express deeper hermetic meanings. Many Arabic and later Greek terms also had an important impact on the formation of the Latin glossary. This glossary supports the ongoing analysis of Latin alchemical medieval texts and is based on previous secondary literature (mainly analytical works, lexicons, editions and supporting materials), as well as my own textual analysis from lemmatised texts and their frequency dictionnaries. Technical notes This is still a work in progress. For now, it contains unigrams, which can have different meanings in different contexts and embeddings. It is planned to expand it with bigrams. The terms are in NLP lemmatised form via UDPipe and are ready to be imported as a Python v.3+ module. Warning: Some of them do not conform to typical Latin dictionary forms because the lemmatisation forms provided by this tool can be specific. Main concept groups Groups Group name Details ELE Elements Basic elements, or parts of material names COL Colors Basic and advanced colour names connected to stages of alchemical work MST Main stages Actual names of main alchemical stages and their derivations. OPS Operations Working processes and methods INS Instruments Working inventory of main instruments and vessels MAS Material substances Basic ingredients from inorganic (stones, metals, compositions), organic and mythological materials STO Scientific concepts Concepts related to the notion of high "ars" and proto-scientific literary production TIT Titulations and roles Actual role of the persons and authorities in question of alchemical transmission and instruction AUT Authorities Names of alchemical authorities. MEC Metaforical concepts Includes specific cosmogonic and spiritual concepts, and the core concepts of alchemy SYU Universal symbolism Broader than purely alchemical symbolism, based on cultural and anthropologic notions QAN Quantifiers Determinants of quantity. QAL Qualifiers Determinants of quality and specific properties, Secondary literature drafted upon Analytical works Crossland, M. P. (1962). Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry. Heinemann. Holmyard, E. J. (1926). Alchemistische Decknamen. Nature, 177, 155–156. Karpenko, V., & Norris, J. A. (2002). Vitriol in the History of Chemistry. Chemické Listy, 96, 997–1005. Lippmann, E. O. von. (1919). Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte. Zweiter Band. Eine Lese- und Nachschlage-Buch. Springer. Ruska, J., & Wiedemann, E. (1924). Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften. LXVII. Alchemistische Decknamen. Sitzungsberichte Der Physikalisch-Medizinischen Sozietät Zu Erlangen, 56–57, 17–36. Siggel, A. (1951). Decknamen in der arabischen alchemistischen Literatur. Akademie-Verlag. Lexicons and dictionaries Abraham, L. (2003). A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery. Cambridge University Press. Gettings, F. (1981). Dictionary of Occult Hermetic Alchemical Sigils and Symbols. Routledge, Kegan Paul. Newman, W. (2005, 2025). Index Chemicus: The Chymistry of Isaac Newton Project. https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/indexChemicus.do Preisner, C., & Figala, K. (Eds.). (2006). Lexikon alchymie a hermetických věd. Vyšehrad. Editions and supportive glossaries Colinet, A. (2020). Les recettes alchimiques du manuscrit Vatican Palatin lat. 978: Étude, édition et traduction. S.É.H.A.; Archè. Ferrario, G. (2009). Understanding the Language of Alchemy: The Medieval Arabic Alchemical Lexicon in Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms Sprenger 1908∗. In Digital Proceedings of the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age. http://repository.upenn.edu/ljsproceedings/vol1/iss1/2/ Lacaze, G. (Ed.). (2018). Turba philosophorum: Congrès pythagoricien sur l’art d’Hermès: Edition critique, traduction et présentation. Brill. Loužecký, L. (2018). Sněm fi losofů: Turba philosophorum (M. Schwingerová, Trans.). Vodnář. [165-169] Moureau, S. (2016). Le De anima alchimique du pseudo-Avicenne (Vol. 1). SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo. [239-334] Newman, W. R. (Ed.). (1991). The Summa perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A critical edition, translation and study. E.J. Brill.