Josef
A salutory admonition!
Caveat Lector indeed!
I expect that Dante utlised the 'colour code' most
applicable to his purpose. Dream books seem like the sort
of material our Florentine poet-turned-philosopher would
have rated as sources!
Thanks for the bibliographical information!
Graham.
On Wed, 2 Feb 2000 02:04:54 -0500 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >Graham WM. worte:
> >What about a formalised 'mystic language of colours'? Would
> >Dante, connected by some with Alrchemy and Christian (and
> >not so Christian) mysticism have had access to a textbook
> >of colour symbolism, with meanings fixed by convention?
> >
>
> Graham:
> Caveat lector: Just speculating! As to the possible sources
> of "codification" for colours or colour symbolism,many of the
> Onomastica Sacra attached to Medieval Bibles fill by a kind of
> reverse analogical "etymology" certain colours with rather specific
> associations. These could feed into a commonly accepted convention or
> related set of conventions.
> Likewise, the Late Antique and Medieval "dream-books" (
> Oneirocritica), Greek, Arabic and Latin( particularly popular in
> Italy), often contain quite specific colour decodings. These too
> could feed into fixing of meanings.
>
> > Josef Gulka
>
> Josef Gulka
> [log in to unmask]
> Tel: 215- 732-8420
> Fax (215) 732-8420
----------------------
Graham Williamson-Mallaghan
School of Classics and Theology
Queens Building
Queens Drive
University of Exeter
EX4 4QG
01392-676239
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