eremetic: like a hermit or recluse
esurient: hungry, voracious, greedy
eunuch: a castrated man; Paracelsus was rumored to be one; he expressed little or no interest in women throughout his life
fabulist: one who makes fables; a storyteller, or one who invents falsehoods
famulus: a private secretary or attendant, especially for a scholar or magician
febrile: of or pertaining to fever
florin: an old gold coin first struck at Florence in 1252 weighing about 54 grams and noted for the purity of its gold
frangible: capable of being broken
fructify: to bear fruit, become fruitful
fustiness: mustiness; a stale-smelling state
Galen (c. 129–199 A.D.): Greek physician; considered founder of experimental physiology; last great scientist of antiquity, courtier of rank, and the fashionable doctor of imperial Rome; demonstrated that arteries carry blood, not air; believed in the theory of the four humors of the body; of his many theories, about one hundred are extant; his works were accepted for many centuries as authoritative in Greek, Roman, and Arabic medical practice; Paracelsus violently attacked Galen’s ideas because he believed that absolute acceptance of them was hindering medical progress
gasconade: a boast or a bluster
geomant: one who practices divination by means of configurations of earth or by means of figures derived from even or odd numbers of dots jotted down hastily at random
gnostic: an adherent of Gnosticism, the thought and practice of any of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries; Gnosticism was declared heretical by the Church and chiefly distinguished by the pretension to mystic and esoteric religious insights and by emphasis on knowledge rather than faith
grimoire: a grammar book of witchcraft, or a magician’s manual for invoking demons and spirits of the dead
Hermes Trismegistus: Hermes thrice greatest, a Greek version of the Egyptian god Thoth, identified as founder of occult science, first noted in 150 B.C.
hermetic: relating to or dealing with occult science, especially alchemy from Hermes Trismegistus
hermeticism: a system that incorporates both theory and magical practice, with the latter presented as natural and therefore good magic, in contrast to the evil magic of sorcery or witchcraft
homunculus: a “little man”; Paracelsus was said to have fathered a “little man” without the aid of a woman
ichor: the ethereal fluid, not blood, supposed to flow in the veins of the gods; a watery, acrid discharge from certain wounds and sores
insalubrity (pl., insalubrities): something not conducive to health
joskin: a bumpkin
kabbalists (or cabbalists): followers of Jewish Neoplatonism of the Middle Ages; originated in Gnosticism and the apocalyptic writings of the first century A.D.; popular during Paracelsus’s time
kickshaw: something dainty or elegant, but unsubstantial, frivolous
Kunckel von Löwenstjern, Johann (1630?–1702): German chemist who discovered processes for making artificial ruby glass and preparing phosphorus; studied putrefaction, fermentation, and the nature of salts
lapidify: to become or to make into stone
laudanum: a tincture of opium
legerdemain: sleight of hand; jugglery; conjuring tricks
limbus: a border or an edge
lincture: a syrupy medicine to be licked up with the tongue
lodestone: an imaginary stone; a magnetic oxide of iron; a piece of this used as a magnet; something that attracts
luculent: full of light, bright, shining
Lull (Llull), Ramon (c. 1235–1316): Catalan mystic, philosopher, poet, and missionary; reared at court of Majorca, where he wrote troubadour poetry; experienced mystical visions (c. 1263), abandoned courtly life, and devoted himself to philosophy and missionary work; traveled throughout Asia Minor and North Africa attempting to convert Muslims; according to legend, he was stoned to death at Bougie; as a philosopher, he was influenced by Neoplatonic Augustinianism and opposed Averroism; his chief work, Ars magna, set out his theosophical attempt to encompass all knowledge in a Neoplatonic schema and to resolve all religious differences and establish a tranquil world
magi (sing., magus): Zoroastrian priests or members of a hereditary priestly class among the ancient Medes and Persians, whose doctrines included belief in astrology
magisterium: the Church’s teaching power or function
malapert: presumptuous, impudent, saucy
mandrake: a Mediterranean herb with whitish or purple flowers having emetic and narcotic properties; with its forked root, it resembles the human form
manumit: to release from slavery; to set free
marcasites: crystallized forms of iron pyrites used in the eighteenth century for ornaments
mucor: a fungus belonging or allied to the genus Mucor, originally including all molds
nacreous: consisting of or resembling mother-of-pearl
Nilotic: of or relating to the Nile or the peoples of the Nile basin
nitre: a supposed nitrous substance or element occurring especially diffused through the air
numinous: relating to a spirit believed by animists to inhabit a natural object or phenomenon; of or relating to a dynamic or creative force or an unseen but majestic presence that inspires both dread and fascination and constitutes the nonrational element characteristic of vital religion
obnubilate: to make cloudy of mind; to cover or obscure by or as if by clouds
ontogeny: the history or science of the development of the individual
orpiment: a bright yellow mineral substance, the trisulfide of arsenic, also called yellow arsenic, naturally occurring in soft masses resembling gold in color; also known as king’s gold
Ourobouros: the tail-eating serpent, a symbol of the unity of matter
palliative: something that lessens, abates, or eases without curing
phial: a vessel for holding liquids; a small glass bottle, especially for liquid medicine
philosopher’s stone: an imaginary stone, substance, or chemical preparation believed to have the power of transmuting the baser metals into gold; much sought after by alchemists
phlogiston: the hypothetical principle of fire or inflammability regarded by the early chemists as a material substance
piebald: of different colors, or composed of incongruent parts
pillory: a wooden framework erected on a post or pillar, having holes through which the head and hands of an offender were thrust, in which state the offender was exposed to public ridicule and molestation
Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.): Roman naturalist, revered encyclopedist of antiquity; known today as an uncritical collector of factual reports and tall tales
Plotinus (205–270 A.D.): chief exponent of Neoplatonism; philosopher of Roman parentage born in Egypt
porphyry: a beautiful and very hard rock quarried anciently in Egypt, composed of crystals of white or red feldspar embedded in a fine red groundmass
protyle: proposed name for the hypothetical original undifferentiated matter, of which the chemical substances
