A Little Book on Colors

...If it is permitted to compare, just like a little moon,
The Bruttian land gave it the nickname "Horse of the Moon."
But if a war-horse had shone in such a way,
Not one Semiramis would have been captivated by it; there would be
Centaurs, and more of them than there is a race of men.
Outstanding among the colors that are green is Prassinus (leek-green), highly praised in the songs of many; it is now called uiride porrum (green leek) by dyers.

EPILOGUS (EPILOGUE) CHAP. XIII.

Color uarius (variegated color)

I wish to add an epilogue: that "variety" is properly said of colors, from which a garment is uaria, discolor, and sewn together from diverse colors. Everyone now calls it Diuisam, and a horse is uarius if it is not entirely white or black, but distinguished by these or other colors: thus also the sky is uarium, of which the clear parts shine through, and the cloudy parts make it sad. And poets often use one color for another if there is an affinity between them; Virgil called the light of Minerva Flauum instead of Glaucum (sea-green/grey), so that he might also show that there was charm in the eyes of the Goddess, just as he did with the mantle of the Tiber, whose water he called Flauam elsewhere. The same poet sang that it was Glaucum: for there is a similarity and, as it were, a neighborhood between these colors. Just as has already been said, Albus is used poetically for Pallido, and Cæruleus for subuiridi (greenish), and also for subnigro (blackish); and many others yield to one another in turn. But of all things, Albus and Niger are the most contrary: therefore nothing appears as clearly as ink on white paper. The ancients used—which is still observed today—when they noted the titles of books, a puniceo color in honor and memory of the Phoenicians, who they say were the inventors of letters.