The color purple’s symbolic meanings
Antique purple has been used in Tyre since 1200 BCE to dye clothing, and it is the most prestigious natural dye known to the classical world. It is mentioned in many ancient texts, such as a letter from Amenhotep III, as the most famous dye in antiquity. It is also called royal purple [3]. The name “Tyre Purple” refers to Murex and Purpura seashells collected on the Mediterranean seashores. The extract is composed of dark red–purple dyes, “The color of coagulated blood, according to Vitruvius” [4], from Bromos-Indigo [5]. The names of the Bolinus brandaris and Thaïs haemastona, or a combination of both are mentioned in the ancient text [6]: these mollusks’ hypobranchial glands feature the chemicals that turn into the famous color once in contact with air and light. Pliny the Elder mentions this process:
The purple have in the middle of the throat this juice so sought for the dye of materials. It is a very small quantity of liquid contained in a white vein… We try hard to take them living beings, because they reject this liqueur by dying. In the biggest, he is extracted having removed the shell; as the little they are crushed living beings… what makes her to them soak [7].
The use of purple dye on antique clothing has been largely researched, for instance by Guilia Motteran in her study of purple gospels in the Late antique period [8, 9]. The dye would have been used as a paint by fixating it to argil, as a red lacquer; this would be the Purpurissum Pliny mentioned [4], and that was later identified on paintings found at Pompei. In the Roman Republic, purple was the colour of the toga worn by senators and victorious generals. During the Imperial era, it becomes the official colour strictly reserved to the emperors, and as such, its use is entangled with the display of imperial power. In the first century, Caligula introduces the adoratio purpurae, a practice that Diocletian brings to its apogee with the complex ritual of “kissing the purple.” Under Nero, anyone but the Emperor wearing purple clothing or even buying purple dye could be sentenced to death [10]. Starting with Commodus (161–192), several emperors then bear the title of Porphyrogennetos, meaning “born in purple,” a title that endures during the Byzantine Empire. According to Pliny the Elder, the difficulties to extract the dye and its exorbitant price justify its status as a precious material [11]. It also explains many attempts to imitate or falsify this material [12].
In Biblical texts, purple also has symbolic meanings: it is mentioned several times in the Old and New Testament, as the sign of both human and divine sovereignty. Daniel received a purple garment and a gold necklace as a sign of his new condition.Footnote 1 According to MarkFootnote 2 and John,Footnote 3 Christ is clothed in a purple robe for his crucifixion. Purple then becomes the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, representing the blood Christ shed to redeem humanity. In the Christian church that forms in the first centuries AD, this double meaning of purple—both tied to the royalty and to the sacrifice—is materialized in dalmatics embellished with two purple stripes. This garment is then worn by the clergy on all hierarchical levels, despite saint Augustine and saint-Jerome’s protests against this luxurious piece of clothing that moves away from the simplicity of the first Christians. Using purple in liturgical garments is then maintained in the East and in the West, as literary sources and descriptions of churches’ treasures often mention purple clothing, a color the documents usually tie to blood or to the martyrs [10, 13, 14]. Also, Raban Maur writes on associating purple to the blood of Christ in De universoFootnote 4 and De laudibus sanctae crucis.Footnote 5 This type of ostentatious display often raised harsh criticism, as is suggested by Nokter of Saint Gall writing against a bishop wearing imperial purple: “Sedebat autem ipse mollissimis plumis preciosissimo serico vestitis exstructus, imperatoria purpura indutus, ita ut nihil illi nisi sceptrum illud et nomen regium deesset” [15].
The recognition of Christianity as state religion under Emperor Constantine enhances the indexical value of purple: it remains the imperial colour par excellence, in continuity with pagan Rome, but it also commemorates the blood shed by Christ and all the martyrs of the faith.
Purple was first reserved to clothing and fabric, but starting during Constantine’s reign, its use reaches imperial documents, which need to be signed with purple ink.
The use of purple ink in written documents increases during Late Antiquity to produce entire Gospel books, in both Greek Orient and Latin Occident. Purple has been identified in the Codex Rossanensis, Rossano Diocesan Museum, and in the Codex Argentus, Upsala University Library [5]. Using the most precious materials to make Gospels books is easily explained: they are the representation of the Revelation proclaimed by Jesus Christ, they tell the story of his life, his sacrifice and his resurrection, and so they also are the materialization of the divine Verb. As such, they play a central role in christian liturgy: the deacon carries the Gospels during processions, and puts them at the centre of the altar. In the East, from the fourth century, the Gospels are placed on an episcopal throne during ceremonies.
Purple in the manuscripts produced by the school of Charlemagne’s court
Saint-Médard de Soissons’s Gospels are incontestably from the school of Charlemagne’s court. They were made around 800, on non-purple parchment, but with purple title pages, script, and golden initials, and were offered to the éponyme abbey by Louis the Pious. They feature an illustration of saint Mark and his symbol the lion, both holding Gospel books. The two books in this illustration feature purple pages, and bear the first words of the Gospel. These two books are represented with such luxury and minutia that they immediately draw the viewer in, attesting the highly symbolic value of purple manuscripts during the Carolingian era.
This exceptional status of the Gospel leads to the production of ostentatious books. Their sumptuosity and richness are a tangible indication of Christianity’s triumph. These books are designed to impress those who see them, and thus they are produced using the most valuable materials, such as gold and silver inks, and purple to dye pages.
The sixth century corresponds to the Golden Age of the production of purple codices, although a few examples can be found earlier and later. This technique is reserved to Christian aristocracy, and similarly to purple liturgical garments, these manuscripts are criticized by saint-Jerome and saint John Chrysostom who argue against this luxurious practice, far removed from the simplicity upheld by early Christians. These manuscripts are usually produced for cathedrals, where some of them have remained to this day. The exceptional Codex Argenteus was made for the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, who had re-established the imperial privilege on purple dyes [16, 17]. In the Latin world, the production of these ostentatious manuscripts seems to fade at the end of the sixth century. The Liber Comitis—BnF latin 945—of Monza or Verona is a late example, produced in the eighth century. Several reasons may explain this decrease: the clientele and the scriptoria working for it tend to disappear during that period, the material used to make purple becomes more and more scarce, and the techniques to create the dye seem to be forgotten.
The Carolingian dynasty reinvigorated the production of purple manuscripts. Again, this production is exclusively focused on Gospel books used during mass, for the same reasons as in the previous era, but also because Charlemagne’s reign marks the beginning of a series of liturgical reforms that follow roman rituals more closely. Biblical texts are reinterpreted in the Empire’s intellectual centers. The Gospels are scrupulously edited following saint-Jerome’s Vulgate, and the Capitulare evangeliarum—a list of pericopes giving the excerpts of evangelical readings following the liturgical calendar—is added to Gospel books. One of the results is the creation of the evangelistary: a liturgical book exclusively dedicated to rituals, that follows the liturgical calendar with extracts from the Gospel corresponding to each liturgical day.
The Godescalc Evangelistary is one of the rare examples of this liturgical reform. The dedicatory poem in the manuscript indicates that it was commissioned by the Emperor and his wife Hildegard, and made between 781 and 783 by Godescalc, Charlemagne’s servant. The text is entirely copied in gold and silver uncial letters, framed in purple parchment. It is illuminated with sumptuous full-page paintings representing the four evangelists, Christ in majesty, and a fountain of life inserted at the beginning of the manuscript. It is the first manuscript from the school of Charlemagne’s court to introduce the use of purple in order to enhance the text of the Gospels and their illustrations. Godescalc points out in the dedicatory poem—published in Latin or German [18] or French [19]—the symbolic value of purple in Gospel books: Godescalc’s verses underline the double meaning of purple, symbolizing both the divine and human nature of Christ. His visual analogy with blood ties purple to Christ and the martyrs’ sacrifice. Similarly to gold, purple is promising the Kingdom of God. In the later verses, Godescalc indicates that the manuscript was produced for Charlemagne and Hildegard, and evokes the Emperor’s visit to Rome for Easter in the year 781. In this specific political and religious context, purple also evokes imperial power. Using purple dye in a manuscript after a trip to visit the Pope in Rome clearly demonstrates that Charlemagne aims to create a continuity between him and Christian Roman emperors, who were using purple as a symbolic attribute.
Saint-Riquier’s Gospels follow the same principles (Fig. 1). Like Godescalc Evangelistary, it is a product of the school at Charlemagne’s court. Their presence at Saint-Riquier is documented in the early years of the ninth century. Charlemagne probably gifted this manuscript to Angilbert, abbot of Saint-Riquier, when the Emperor visited the abbey in 800 for Easter. The abbey had just been rebuilt and three sanctuaries had been consecrated to respond to liturgical needs. Like the Godescalc Evangelistary, Saint-Riquier’s manuscript is luxuriously transcribed in gold uncials on purple parchment. Only the list of evangelical pericopes is written in Caroline minuscule on blank parchment. The titles are transcribed in orange-red ink, or, more rarley, in silver ink. In Antiquity, it was common to associate minimum—the pigment yielding orange-red colors—with purple in manuscripts and mural paintings [20, 21]. The presence of this association in a manuscript from the school of Charlemagne’s court echoes the decorations, heavily influenced by antique art, and indicates how the ostentatious production of the era emulated antique productions and used them as reference. These two manuscripts are the only preserved specimens featuring fully purple pages dating from Charlemagne’s reign. It si is also the case of a third manuscript the Vienna Coronation Gospels because the legend says that they are discovered in the thousand year by Otton III, on Charlemagne’s knees, when he proceeded to the opening of its grave. Afterward, these Gospels were used during the ceremonies of the crowning of the Ottoniens emperors, in reference to Charlemagne. By their character of splendor and some lines of the decorative decoration, they are related to the school of Charlemagne’s court, but they distance themselves from it by their textual tradition and the style very different from the writing onciale and of the figurative decoration which are unprecedented in the production of the school of the court. The decoration translates a pictorial current illusionist stemming from the Hellenistic art. The Vienna Coronation Gospels manuscript—made in the very last years of the eighth century, also using the same noble materials that are purple, gold, and silver—were recently analysed [22, 23]. However, its style strongly differs from the other two purple manuscripts and would tend to indicate that it belongs to another group altogether. Still, these three Gospels manuscripts are the only purple manuscripts remaining from Charlemagne’s reign.
The luxurious Gospels book offered by Charles the Bald to the Saint-Denis abbey (Fig. 2) can be put in the same category, although its date is still debated [2]. Yet, the text in silver minuscule and rubrics in gold capitals tie it to the school of Charlemagne’s court.
In other manuscripts, purple was also used to highlight important parts, such as the canon of the Mass in sacramentaries or psalms and gospels in Theodulf’s bibles. Among them, the one kept in Paris was analysed [24] (Fig. 3). Purple may have also been used in framing some pages.
This tradition of using purple in liturgical manuscripts continues under the dynasty of the Ottonian emperors, who consolidate their image as heirs of carolingian emperors. Some rare examples emerge out of West Francia in the beginning of the eleventh century, for instance the Gaignières Evangelistary (BnF latin 1126), Beauvais sacramentary (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, 83 MF 76), or the Arsenal Gospels (BnF, Arsenal, ms. 592).