The word 'Spagyricci (a Paracelsian neologism) inscribed upon the remaining half of Browne's coffin-plate in the care of the church of St. Peter Mancroft, has two meanings according to Martin Ruland's 1612 lexicon of alchemy.
SPAGIRIA --- The Spagyric Art, is that which treats of the separation of the pure from the impure, so that after the refuse matter has been rejected, the virtue which remains can operate. It is the Art of Distilling and Separating. But a much better definition, more appropriate for a Coffin-plate and Browne's exemplary character is -
SPAGIRUS– Any man who can separate the true from the false, set the good apart from the bad, and the pure from the impure, rejecting duality and cleaving to unity.
SPAGIRIA --- The Spagyric Art, is that which treats of the separation of the pure from the impure, so that after the refuse matter has been rejected, the virtue which remains can operate. It is the Art of Distilling and Separating. But a much better definition, more appropriate for a Coffin-plate and Browne's exemplary character is -
SPAGIRUS– Any man who can separate the true from the false, set the good apart from the bad, and the pure from the impure, rejecting duality and cleaving to unity.
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