ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how colour is used in manuscript illumination produced in the Romanesque period. M. Pastoureau's approach is not primarily art historical, but is informed by ideas taken from anthropology and material culture, and he anchors the use of colour in its broadest social context. In his view, the interpretation of colour is conditioned by a complex array of social, ideological, and culturally specific factors. One development he isolates from the 12th century is the valorisation of colour blue, which can be seen in art in stained glass and enamels, in the emergent code of heraldry, and its adoption in France for coronation garments and regal dress. This development is reflected in Romanesque manuscript illumination with the emergence of a deep saturated blue as a distinctive colour in the illuminator's palette, to which the name appropriately "royal blue" has been given, leading to the switch from purple to saturated blue as the prestige colour in this period.
