Color-coordinate system from a 13th-century account of rainbows.
We present a new analysis of Robert Grosseteste's account of color in his treatise De iride (On the Rainbow), dating from the early 13th century. The work explores color within the 3D framework set out in Grosseteste's De colore [see J. Opt. Soc. Am. A29, A346 (2012)], but now links the axes of variation to observable properties of rainbows. We combine a modern understanding of the physics of rainbows and of human color perception to resolve the linguistic ambiguities of the medieval text and to interpret Grosseteste's key terms.
Hannah E
HE
Smithson
Philip S
PS
Anderson
Greti
G
Dinkova-Bruun
Robert A E
RA
Fosbury
Giles E M
GE
Gasper
Philip
P
Laven
Tom C B
TC
McLeish
Cecilia
C
Panti
Brian K
BK
Tanner
D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008092:Literature, Medieval; D008962:Models, Theoretical