Yellow. The history of color

The French historian Michelle Pasturo continues his large -scale project dedicated to the history of color in Western European societies from ancient Rome to the present day. The Publishing House of UFOs already published the books “Blue”, “Black”, “Red” and “Green”, as well as “devilish matter. The history of stripes and striped fabrics. ” The new book is dedicated to the yellow color, which is little present in the daily life of modern Europe and is scarcely represented in official symbolism. However, this was not always the case. The people of the past saw in it the sacred color - the color of light, warmth, wealth and prosperity. The Greeks and the Romans devoted him a special place in religious rites, and the Celts and Germans associated him with wealth and immortality. A decrease in yellow status occurred in the Middle Ages. On the one hand, it became the color of bitter bile and demonic sulfur - a sign of lies, stinginess, sometimes even illness and madness. At the same time, there is a good yellow: gold, honey and ripe ears - a sign of power, joy, abundance. The book is devoted to these and other semantic metamorphoses of yellow. Michelle Pasturo is a medical historian, a professor of practical school of higher research in Paris