Caput mortuum
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Caput Mortuum is a Latin term whose literal meaning is "dead head" or "worthless remains"[1], used in alchemy and also as the name of a pigment. It has also been used as a synonym for deadhead, in the sense of a freeloader.
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[edit] Alchemy and chemistry
In alchemy, Caput Mortuum (alternately called nigredo) signified a useless substance left over from a chemical operation such as sublimation and the epitome of decline and decay; alchemists represented this residue with a stylized human skull, a literal death's head.[2]
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 sulphate), and crocus veneris (copper oxidule).[3]
[edit] Pigment
Caput mortuum (variously spelled caput mortum or caput mortem), also known as Cardinal purple, is the name given to a purple variety of haematite iron oxide pigment, used in oil paints and paper dyes. It was a very popular colour for painting the robes of religious figures and important personages (e.g. art patrons).
The name for this pigment may have come from the alchemical usage, since iron oxide (rust) is the useless residue of oxidization. It was originally a byproduct of sulfuric acid manufacture during the 17th & 18th centuries, and was possibly an early form of the copperas process used for the manufacture of Venetian red and copperas red[4]
Caput mortuum is also sometimes used as an alternative name for Mummy brown (alternatively, Egyptian brown), a pigment that was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from ground-up mummies, and whose use was discontinued in the 19th century when artists became aware of its ingredients.[5]
[edit] Popular culture
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Caput Mortuum is a legacy weapon; it is a grim, somber-looking scythe with a haft of wood charred so badly that it resembles little more than charcoal. The blade is made of lusterless gray metal and is wholly unadorned, except for a lone glyph engraved on each side - a circle with three small dots arranged in a "V" shape.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Stone, Jon R. (2005). The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 0415969093.
- ^ Eastaugh, Nicholas (2004). Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 81. ISBN 0750657499.
- ^ Liungman, Carl G. (2004). Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms. Ionfox AB. p. 236. ISBN 9197270504.
- ^ Harley, R.D. (2001). Artists' Pigments: c. 1600-1836. JG Publishing : Archetype Publications. ISBN 1-873132-91-3.
- ^ Church, A. H. (1901). The Chemistry of Paints and Painting. London: Seeley and Co..
- ^ Cordell, Bruce R. (2005). Weapons of Legacy (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0786936886.
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