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.