Congelation (from
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
: , ) was a term used in medieval and early modern
alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
for the process known today as
crystallization
Crystallization is a process that leads to solids with highly organized Atom, atoms or Molecule, molecules, i.e. a crystal. The ordered nature of a crystalline solid can be contrasted with amorphous solids in which atoms or molecules lack regu ...
.
In the ('The Secret of Alchemy') attributed to
Khalid ibn Yazid
Khālid ibn Yazīd (full name ''Abū Hāshim Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān'', ), 668–704 or 709, was an Umayyad prince and purported alchemist.
As a son of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I, Khalid was supposed to become ca ...
(), it is one of "the four principal operations", along with ''Solution'',
''Albification'' ('whitening'), and
''Rubification'' ('reddening').
It was one of the twelve alchemical operations involved in the creation of the
philosophers' stone as described by
Sir George Ripley () in his ''Compound of Alchymy'', as well as by
Antoine-Joseph Pernety in his ''Dictionnaire mytho-hermétique'' (1758).
[.]
See also
*
Alchemical process
*
Magnum opus (alchemy)
In alchemy, the Magnum Opus or Great Work is a term for the process of working with the prima materia to create the philosopher's stone. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual chrysopoeia, transmutation in the Hermeticism, Hermeti ...
References
Works cited
*
*
Alchemical processes
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