ao6 H'tjhry of the Art of Dyeing, 



d*ecar!ate) a fcarlet colour*, called in the Bible thotaat 

 Jchani {coloretn coccwerdm), which they held in high eftima- 

 lion f. Whether the fcarlet of the antieuts was the fame 

 as ours, cannot be ealily determined, but we are told by Pliny 

 that it was a very agreeable rofe colour. 



All thefe dye.>!, the pn'paration of which I have here de- 

 fcnbed, are frequently confounded by antient authors, who 

 often give the name of purple to all red colours X ; and from 

 this circumflance, and from that of various other colours 

 being produced by the mixture of the before-mentioned four 

 kinds of dye, the confulion and uncertainty which prevails 

 on this fubjccl have, in my opinion, arifen. But this uncer- 

 tainty might perh^s be in fome meafure removed by making 

 the following diftin6lion. The purple colours of the antients 

 were : 



I. Simple Purple Colours, 



I ft, The Tyrian § or twice dyed purple, purpura Tyrta 

 d'lhapba ; becaufe, as above faid, it was neceflary that the 

 cloth or wool (l^ould be immerfed in two different liquors. 

 This was the purple properly fo called. The colour was a 

 dark red, like that of curdled blood ; but it dione with moll 

 fplendour when one looked at the cloth from the bottom up- 



"■'- Whether thisjpe the fcarlet mentioned in Genefis, xxxviii. 17 — 30, 

 I cannoi determine. It is thus tranllitcd \a the Septuaginr. 



f I (hall hdve occafion tv^ (peak further of this d vc-ftufFi I (liail lierc 

 only obferve that the Romans procured their kcrmes chiefly from Galatia, 

 the African provinces, and Lufuania. 



1 It was in general a proverbial mode of exprelfion arrone; the antients, 

 %yhea they wilhed to dcfcribe any thing red, to compare it to the Tyiian 

 fiye. Frequent inftances of this nnay be found in the Greek and Latin 

 dramatic wiiters. See Le Clerc's Liblioth. Choifie, torn. xx. p. 186 — 194, 

 We a-.e told bv TElian that the Lacedemonians ufcd purple clothes in war 

 to prevent the blood from being fcen : but from the impollibility of giving 

 purple dreffcs to a whole arniy, on account of the dearntfs of that colour, 

 iElian, no doubt, alludes to (bme cheaper Vind of red dye. — Far. lllji, 

 hb. xvii, chap. 6. 



§ This dye was not diftingniihcd by the abovp name merely on account 

 of its being prepared by the Tyrians, but becaufe thefe people obtained the 

 bcft purple i.\olI-fifii fiom the neighbouring fea, and becaufe they under- 

 jIooJ beft, according to the tcftimony of all antient authors, the art of ^ 

 dyci:)^ it. 



,4 wards^ 





