Werners Nomenklatur der Farben

A cultural-historical treasure, presented bibliophilically: Before the Pantone color fan, there was Werner's Nomenclature of Colors. This book was used by Charles Darwin for color descriptions during his journey on the HMS Beagle. From snow white to the shimmering blue of the kingfisher: with this work, painters and naturalists once determined the colors of nature. What color is the marigold, the lemon butterfly, or flint? To accurately describe nature, a binding naming of colors is essential. For this reason, Abraham Gottlob Werner developed a nomenclature in the 18th century that precisely describes 79 shades based on fossils. To make this color system applicable to other fields of knowledge and art, the Scottish botanical painter Patrick Syme expanded Werner's color nomenclature by 31 shades in 1814 and supplemented it with examples from zoology, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, and anatomy. With his color plates and colored examples, Werner's nomenclature served as the standardized reference long before Pantone fans existed, providing a basis for describing any object.