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Overview & Synopsis

Controlled Colours. Colours, Professional Dyers and Natural Dyes in Europe, 1300–1850 is a multidisciplinary volume whose twelve chapters examine the use and meanings of colours, along with the production, trade and regulation of natural dyes and dyers, from the fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. This collection offers the first extensive Finnish-language study of the history of natural dyes in the contexts of textiles, everyday life, and commercial exchange. It highlights the changing regulation of colours and natural dyes, colour terminology, knowledge transmission, and material technologies across the centuries, and demonstrates how colours and dyes have been deeply embedded in social, economic, and cultural processes. The volume is structured into four thematic sections that follow the chronological progression of its chapters. The three main colours of yellow, blue and red have been given their own chapters, through which the history and use of other colours are also present. In addition to social, cultural, and economic history, the volume offers perspectives from the history of philosophy and ideas, philology, art history, and the history of science. This multidisciplinary approach provides a more comprehensive picture of our research topic and highlights the social change brought about by the better knowledge, use, and wider availability of natural dyes.