Abstract
Here we discuss the De Colore, one of the short scientific treatises written by Robert Grosseteste in the mid-1220s. In this treatise, Grosseteste continues the discussion on light and colours he started in the De Iride. The medieval scientist describes two manners of counting colours: one gives an infinity of tones, the other counts seven essential colours. In both cases, colours are created by the purity or impurity of the transparent medium when light is passing through it. This was the medieval explanation of colours that survived until Newton’s experiments with prisms.
Highlights
In a recent paper [1], I proposed a translation and discussion of the De Iride, On the Rainbow, a treatise written by the medieval scholar Robert Grosseteste [2], probably in the early XIII Century
On Colours Colour is light incorporated in a transparent medium
In the Latin text, he is defining the intensity as the “lux multa”, because he is clearly referring to the focus of the mirror, where we can have a "radiorum multiplicatio", multiplication of rays, because in the focus we collect several rays of light
Summary
In a recent paper [1], I proposed a translation and discussion of the De Iride, On the Rainbow, a treatise written by the medieval scholar Robert Grosseteste [2], probably in the early XIII Century. Let us tell that, to Grosseteste, the colours are created by the purity or impurity of the transparent medium when light is passing through it.
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