Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Werner's Nomenclature of Colours: Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts

Werner's Nomenclature of Colours: Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts

Syme, Patrick
Werner, Abraham Gottlob

Hardcover

Art Criticism & TheoryColorNature Writing

Publisher Price: $14.95

ISBN10: 1588346218
ISBN13: 9781588346216
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
Published: Feb 6 2018
Pages: 80
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.80 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
A taxonomic guide to the colors of the natural world, with 13 palettes and 110 color swatches, cherished by artists and scientists for more than 2 centuries

Before Pantone, there was Werner's Nomenclature of Colours--Architectural Digest

This beautiful pocket-size facsimile is a charming artifact from the golden age of natural history and global exploration. In the pre-photographic age, almost all visual details had to be captured via the written word, and scientific observers could not afford ambiguity in their descriptions.

In the late 18th century, mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner devised a standardized color scheme that allowed him to describe even the subtlest of chromatic differences with consistent terminology. His scheme was then adapted by an Edinburgh flower painter, Patrick Syme, who used the actual minerals described by Werner to create the color charts in the book, enhancing them with examples from flora and fauna.

Werner's handbook became an invaluable resource for naturalists and anthropologists, including Charles Darwin, who used it to identify colors in nature during his seminal voyage on the HMS Beagle. Werner's terminology lent both precision and lyricism to Darwin's pioneering writings, enabling his readers to envision a world they would never see.

This new facsimile edition complete with ribbon marker brings the classic work back to life.

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