Fireworks and Color in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12619600 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Simon Werrett (0000-0002-4074-5264, 1University College London [email protected], corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 4-6 |
| Pages | 458-477 |
| Publication date | 2015-12-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early Science and Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1383-7427 • E-ISSN: 1573-3823 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15733823-02046p07 |
| OpenAlex | W2217161199 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
It has commonly been assumed that there were no colors in fireworks prior to the early nineteenth century. This essay argues that there were a variety of color recipes in early modern manuals on fireworks, though the nature and value of color in displays differed quite significantly from later periods. Color was used in pyrotechny in production practices, and carried alchemical, medical and other associations. Colored fire was not the principal or exclusive location of color in early modern displays which gave much weight to colorfully painted scenery, decorations and costumes. That modern authors place so much emphasis on colored fire is due to the promotion of color in pyrotechny by writers working in the age of the Chemical Revolution
Alchemy · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Colored · Early Modern Europe · Fireworks · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Classics · Historical and Literary Studies · History · History of Science and Natural History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |