"The book that coloured Charles Darwin's world" - The New Yorker

First published in 1814, Werner's Nomenclature of Colours is a taxonomic guide to colour that has been cherished by naturalists and anthropologists for more than two centuries.

In the late 1790s, Abraham Gottlob Werner devised his own standardised colour scheme, which allowed writers to describe even the most subtle chromatic differences with consistent terminology. His scheme was later adapted by an Edinburgh flower painter, Patrick Syme, who traced the actual minerals described by Werner and used them to create the colour charts found in the book.

In the pre-photographic era, almost every visual detail had to be captured by the written word, and scientific observers could not afford any ambiguity in their descriptions. Among them was Charles Darwin, for whom Werner's Nomenclature was an indispensable tool during his seminal voyage on the Beagle.

Werner's Nomenclature of Colours is a charming artifact of the age of explorers, still cherished by artists and scientists alike.

Publisher: Phaidon