Caput mortuum

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Alchemical symbol for caput mortuum Caput mortuum.svg
Alchemical symbol for caput mortuum

Caput mortuum (plural capita mortua; literally "dead head") is a Latin term used in alchemy to signify a useless substance left over from a chemical operation such as sublimation and the epitome of decline and decay (alternatively called nigredo ). Alchemists represented this residue with a stylized human skull, a literal death's head. [1]

The symbol shown on this page was also used in 18th-century chemistry to mean residue, remainder, or residuum. Caput mortuum was also sometimes used to mean crocus metallorum, i.e. brownish-red metallic compounds such as crocus martis (ferrous sulfate), and crocus veneris( copper oxidule ). [2]

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References

  1. Eastaugh, Nicholas (2004). Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments . Butterworth-Heinemann. p.  81. ISBN   0-7506-5749-9.
  2. Liungman, Carl G. (2004). Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms. Ionfox AB. p. 236. ISBN   91-972705-0-4 . Retrieved January 20, 2023 via Google Books.