Alchemical dictionaries and early modern lexicography
This project investigates the knowledge representation practices in early modern dictionaries through multiple computational approaches.
The project employs multiple computational methods and builds on a dataset of alchemical dictionaries that has been published as a data paper (Lang, 2025). Through a series of case studies, it investigates the knowledge representation practices in early modern dictionaries. One case study investigates early modern lexicography and related knowledge-organisation resources by examining how Arabic knowledge and Arabic terminology are represented within them (Lang et al., 2026). It seeks to contribute to a more global historiography of alchemy by exploring the inclusion of non-Western forms of knowledge in early modern systems of knowledge organisation. Another study uses word embeddings to trace the potential origins of terms that Ruland lists as headwords in his dictionary (Kaše & Lang, 2026). Drawing on a representative corpus of books from the preceding century that may have served as sources, the study aims to generate new insights into the compilation of the dictionary, a process about which very little is known. Another article critically reflects on the lure of plausibility when using large language models to investigate terms in a non-Western language, namely Arabic (Lang et al., 2026). It examines both the opportunities and limitations of these methods and highlights the risks associated with relying on technologies that are not be equally robust across different linguistic traditions, especially non-Western languages.
References
2026
Mediating Alchemical Language across Terminologies and Cultures in Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae: A Data-Driven Study of Arabic Terms
From the sixteenth century onwards, reference works emerged as means to transmit technical specialist knowledge to wider audiences. Authors, practitioners, and readers of early modern alchemy and chymistry had to navigate a terminological landscape that drew on Latin, European vernacular languages, and loanwords from languages such as Arabic. Martin Ruland the Younger’s Lexicon Alchemiae (1612) occupies a central position in the early modern efforts to organise alchemical knowledge through lexicography. Emerging from the Paracelsian tradition yet extending beyond it, the work combines Latin entries with vernacular glosses and incorporates terminology drawn from a wide range of intellectual traditions. Approaching Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae as a reference book, this article investigates how it mediates terminology across linguistic and cultural boundaries, with particular attention to Arabic-derived terms. Drawing on a digital edition, the study combines computational analysis and close reading to examine the structure and contextual use of these terms within the dictionary through selected case studies, such as entries relating to alcohol. The resulting dataset offers new insights into the construction of the lexicon and provides a foundation for further research on Arabic terminology and intercultural knowledge transmission in early modern alchemy.
@article{LangMahootianLashen2026,author={Lang, Sarah and Mahootian, Farzad and Lashen, Hazem},title={Mediating Alchemical Language across Terminologies and Cultures in Ruland's Lexicon Alchemiae: A Data-Driven Study of Arabic Terms},journal={Ambix},year={2026},volume={74},doi={10.1080/00026980.2026.2697142}}
Contextual Word Embeddings for Paracelsian Lexicography: Tangled Terminologies and Their Origins in Ruland’s Alchemical Dictionary
Martin Ruland the Younger’s Lexicon Alchemiae (1612) is one of the most influential alchemical dictionaries of the early modern period, yet its sources and compilation methods remain poorly understood. This study applies computational approaches to investigate the vocabulary underlying Ruland’s lexicon and to identify potential textual influences. Using a TEI-XML encoded version of the Lexicon Alchemiae, a standard data format for encoding textual data in the digital humanities, we extract its headwords and compare them against large-scale digital corpora of Latin literature, including the Early Modern Latin Alchemical Prints (EMLAP) dataset and the broader GreLa database. By combining frequency-based lexical comparison with contextual word embeddings generated through a Latin BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model, the analysis traces both the distribution and semantic behaviour of terms across earlier alchemical and scientific texts. The article is accompanied by an interactive web application allowing readers to explore additional case studies. Our analysis indicates that Ruland drew not only on earlier Paracelsian word lists, but also on large-scale contemporary compilations such as Andreas Libavius’s Alchemia (1597), suggesting that the Lexicon Alchemiae should be understood within a broader movement to systematise and professionalise alchemical knowledge in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
@article{KaseLang2026Ambix,author={Ka{\v{s}}e, Vojt{\v{e}}ch and Lang, Sarah},title={Contextual Word Embeddings for Paracelsian Lexicography: Tangled Terminologies and Their Origins in Ruland's Alchemical Dictionary},journal={Ambix},year={2026},volume={74},doi={10.1080/00026980.2026.2692190}}
Confabulated Transliterations? Managing the Lure of Plausibility in LLM-Detected Arabic Terms in an Early Modern Lexicon
Sarah Lang, Jonas Müller-Laackmann, Hazem Lashen, and 1 more author
In Critical Approaches to Automated Text Recognition, 2026
This article examines the problem of confabulated transliterations in the context of large language models (LLMs) used for automated text recognition (ATR) tasks. Focusing on a digital humanities case study, we analyse an early 17th-century Latin-German alchemical dictionary that also contains multilingual entries, including Arabic-derived terms. Our aim was to use LLMs in an OCR post-correction workflow to identify these Arabic terms, which may have been creatively transliterated into early modern Latin. The transcription was only partially clean, further complicating the task with the potential presence of OCR noise. Positioned between post-correction and multilingual retrieval, this use case highlights both the potential and the limitations of LLMs in historical multilingual settings. In particular, we explore the lure of plausibility and the difficulty of verifying LLM-generated outputs, especially when dealing with under-resourced or especially ambiguous languages such as Arabic. The article reflects on existing strategies for managing such challenges while demonstrating how LLMs can mislead through confident yet inaccurate suggestions. We argue for a cautious, critically informed approach to LLM use in the humanities and offer an illustrative example of some of the problems that emerge in historically and linguistically complex scenarios.
@incollection{LangEtAl2026Confabulated,author={Lang, Sarah and M{\"u}ller-Laackmann, Jonas and Lashen, Hazem and Mahootian, Farzad},title={Confabulated Transliterations? Managing the Lure of Plausibility in LLM-Detected Arabic Terms in an Early Modern Lexicon},booktitle={Critical Approaches to Automated Text Recognition},editor={Terras, Melissa and Gooding, Paul and Ames, Sarah and Nockels, Joe},publisher={Facet Publishing},address={London},year={2026},note={Forthcoming},}
2025
Towards a Data-Driven History of Lexicography: Two Alchemical Dictionaries in TEI-XML
Martin Ruland’s Lexicon Alchemiae, in its 1612 edition, and Sommerhoff’s German-Latin dictionary (1701) in TEI-XML format provide valuable resources for understanding the cryptic language of alchemy, characterized by its use of codenames, or Decknamen. Alchemical terminology, often allegorical and poetic, arose as a shared vocabulary for laboratory practices before the advent of modern analytical chemistry. Lacking precise measurements, chymists relied on these terms to describe sensory experiences and chemical processes, forming a language that, while obscure to outsiders, enabled communication within their community. Together, the two dictionaries contain some 20,000 entries in Latin and German.
@article{Lang2025JOHD,author={Lang, Sarah},title={Towards a Data-Driven History of Lexicography: Two Alchemical Dictionaries in TEI-XML},journal={Journal of Open Humanities Data},volume={11},number={20},pages={1--6},year={2025},doi={10.5334/johd.303},url={https://openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/articles/10.5334/johd.303},keywords={Text Encoding Initiativel, exicography, alchemy, chymistry, Martin Ruland the Younger, Johann Christoph Sommerhoff}}