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Alchemical symbol

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This article contains Unicode alchemical symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of alchemical symbols.

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-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.

A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670
A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670
Part 1 Part 2
Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier

Three primes

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

Four basic elements

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Main article: Classical elements

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

Seven planetary metals

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Main article: Classical planets in Western alchemy
 
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.[note 1] 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

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

Alchemical compounds

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Alchemical symbols in Torbern Bergman's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities

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

Alchemical processes

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

Units

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Several symbols indicate units of time.

Unicode

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Main article: Alchemical Symbols (Unicode block)

The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.[9]

Alchemical Symbols[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1F70x 🜀 🜁 🜂 🜃 🜄 🜅 🜆 🜇 🜈 🜉 🜊 🜋 🜌 🜍 🜎 🜏
U+1F71x 🜐 🜑 🜒 🜓 🜔 🜕 🜖 🜗 🜘 🜙 🜚 🜛 🜜 🜝 🜞 🜟
U+1F72x 🜠 🜡 🜢 🜣 🜤 🜥 🜦 🜧 🜨 🜩 🜪 🜫 🜬 🜭 🜮 🜯
U+1F73x 🜰 🜱 🜲 🜳 🜴 🜵 🜶 🜷 🜸 🜹 🜺 🜻 🜼 🜽 🜾 🜿
U+1F74x 🝀 🝁 🝂 🝃 🝄 🝅 🝆 🝇 🝈 🝉 🝊 🝋 🝌 🝍 🝎 🝏
U+1F75x 🝐 🝑 🝒 🝓 🝔 🝕 🝖 🝗 🝘 🝙 🝚 🝛 🝜 🝝 🝞 🝟
U+1F76x 🝠 🝡 🝢 🝣 🝤 🝥 🝦 🝧 🝨 🝩 🝪 🝫 🝬 🝭 🝮 🝯
U+1F77x 🝰 🝱 🝲 🝳 🝴 🝵 🝶 🝻 🝼 🝽 🝾 🝿
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
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A list of symbols published in 1931:

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]

See also

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Other symbols commonly used in alchemy and related esoteric traditions:

Footnotes

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  1. ^ For example, Mercury was tin and Jupiter was electrum in the Marcianus manuscript attributed to Zosimos of Panopolis.[4](p 236)

References

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  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. ^ Holmyard 1957, p. 170; cf. Friedlander 1992, pp. 75–76. For the symbols, see Holmyard 1957, p. 149 and Bergman's table as shown above.
  3. ^ Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
  4. ^ a b Crosland, Maurice (2004). Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry.
  5. ^ a b c d e Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  6. ^ Newman, William R.; Walsh, John A.; Kowalczyk, Stacy; Hooper, Wallace E.; Lopez, Tamara (March 6, 2009). "Proposal for Alchemical Symbols in Unicode" (PDF). Indiana University. p. 13, 2nd from bottom. Unicode: 1F71B.
  7. ^ Explanation of the Chimical Characters from Nicaise Le Febvre, A compleat body of chymistry, London, 1670.
  8. ^ See Holmyard 1957, p. 150.
  9. ^ "Unicode 6.0.0". Unicode Consortium. 11 October 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2019.

Works cited

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  • Friedlander, Walter J. (1992). The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine. Contributions in Medical Studies, 35. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28023-1.
  • Holmyard, Eric J. (1957). Alchemy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 2080637.
  • Reutter de Rosemont, Louis (1931). Histoire de la pharmacie a travers les ages. Vol. II. Paris: J. Peyronnet. 4 plates after p. 260 and 2 plates after p. 268 – via Internet Archive.
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  Media related to Alchemical symbols at Wikimedia Commons

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