Crimson

The crimson is a red dyeing purplished deep, discovered by the Phéniciens, but it is also one of the major cultural elements of Mediterranean Antiquity.

The word comes from the old Greek πορφύρα / will porphúra . The Latin word is will purpura , from where the adjective “purpurin”, of color crimson.

History

It was probably drawn from the murex , a Gastéropode with oval or oblong shell. The Murex trunculus or “fascié rock” provided purple amethyst or violet. Its composition is made of a substance blued with indigo blue, the cyanic oxide. The Murex brandaris does not contain, him, that only one radical, the oxide tyrien called “the purple of old”.

The shells were in quantity on the edges of the Mediterranean, they were taken at old times of the cananéens on the coasts of Phénicie, that of the Peloponnese and the north of Africa. According to whether they were collected in the north of the Mediterranean, they were darker, passing to purple in the average areas, and offering a red well crimson in the southernmost areas. Its very high cost price held its use with fabrics intended to the gods and for the leading classes of the companies surrounding the the Mediterranean.

With Rome, it is the Symbole capacity: the bandwidth crimson related to the toga ( clavus ), and the more or less sharp color of red clothing indicate the social status of the carrier of clothing (See Laticlave, Angusticlave). Only the imperatores wore entirely dyed clothing of crimson. Vitruve evokes the manufacture of crimson starting from the “snails”.

With Constantinople, the room of the emperor was crimson (the walls were covered with porphyry, a stone crimson), and the son of an emperor born whereas his father reigned, i.e. in this room, profited from prestige to carry the nickname of Porphyrogénète .

The rarefaction of the Murex caused the disappearance of the techniques of manufacture of the dyeing crimson.

The cardinals of the Roman Catholic church wear a clothing of color crimson.

Heraldic

In Héraldique it is a varying enamel of a color of the Gris - Brun with the red purplished. Rather rare, this enamel meets especially in the blazons of ecclesiastics. In monochromic representation, it is symbolized by hatchings “in bars” (either from right to left and from top to bottom).

Biochemistry

In Biochemistry, crimson of Ruhemann (λ  =  570  Nm) is the color characteristic of the product of reaction of the amino-acid with the Ninhydrine (used to color the digital fingerprints).

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • pourpre.com - Site devoted to the colors
  • Article Crimson on the reasoned Encyclopedia of sciences, arts and trades.

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