Succesively, blue became a basic colour term, most likely in the early fifteenth century. The colour term blue, instead, comes from the French ‘bleu’, which was introduced in England after the Norman Conquest and became well established in Middle English by the late thirteenth century, that is, at the extreme chronological limit of the present research. The lemma λαζούρ was already present in the Greek literature in the fourth century AD at least, as it is attested by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. Lazurin is attested for the first time in the so-called Compositiones lucences transmitted by manuscript 490, Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare (787-816 AD). Secondly, the Western colour term lazurin is the apparent transliteration from the Greek lemma λαζούρ. All this data indicates that lapis lazuli and ultramarine blue did not originate in the “the opposite shore of the sea”, as its medieval name suggests (ultramarine), but further away. Firstly, ultramarine blue was at least used since the fourth century AD as a wall pigment in Central Asian caves devoted to Buddhist rituals (Kizil grottoes), and Afghanistan was more likely the mining region for lapis lazuli. The initial premise under our argument is that the phrase “ultramarine blue” is itself misleading in two ways. The present work aims to validate the hypothesis that the Western use of the pigment ultramarine blue largely preceded the first three thirteenth century recipes, which describe the production of the pigment from lapis lazuli. This study paves the way for the study of the intricate social utilisations of an 'azure' pigment that was successively called ultramarine 'blue', and on the first linguistic evidence of the term 'azure'. The latter stemmed from the Persian colour term lājvard, which denoted lapis lazuli and other 'blue' substances. transliteration of the Greek λαζούρ (lazour), attested since the 4 th century A.D. Instead, the Medieval Latin word 'lazurum' and the corresponding Vernacular terms drew from lazurin, a 9 th century A.D. The term 'blue' became a basic colour term most likely in the early 15 th century England. Available chemical data refutes the hypothesis of a single mining supply source for archaeological findings of lapis lazuli, and new evidence demonstrates also that the phrase ultramarine 'blue' is strongly misleading. This enormous time gap requires a new interpretation of the social mechanisms that transmit practical arts. The oldest Western use of the pigment ultramarine 'blue' preceded of about seven centuries the first three 13th-14th century recipes, which describe the production of the pigment from lapis lazuli. New data is extracted from the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, and Medieval Latin manuscripts (MSS) devoted to colour making.
The present work collects well-established pieces of information from a multidisciplinary standpoint with the aim of highlighting the various social utilisations of ground lapis lazuli, or better, its 'blue' mineral called lazurite. This is the case of the colour term 'azure' and 'lapis lazuli' that denotes today an aggregate of minerals from which the pigment ultramarine 'blue' was extracted in the course of the Middle Ages.
Unfortunately present literature often separates these phrases from the techniques in which the same phrases are used. The social man creates or borrows practical procedures, and with them specific phrases. This enormous time gap requires a new int.
The oldest Western use of the pigment ultramarine ‘blue’ preceded of about seven centuries the first three 13th-14th century recipes, which describe the production of the pigment from lapis lazuli. The present work collects well-established pieces of information from a multidisciplinary standpoint with the aim of highlighting the various social utilisations of ground lapis lazuli, or better, its ‘blue’ mineral called lazurite. This is the case of the colour term ‘azure’ and ‘lapis lazuli’ that denotes today an aggregate of minerals from which the pigment ultramarine ‘blue’ was extracted in the course of the Middle Ages.
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