The Dimensions of colour Robert Grosseteste’s De colore: edition, translation, and interdisciplinary analysis

Robert Grosseteste’s treatise De colore is presented here in an authoritative new critical edition, with translation, commentary on its context, and a functional analysis from the perspective of modern science. The volume emanates from a series of interdisciplinary meetings, involving medieval specialists (from history, literary studies, history of philosophy, and palaeography) and modern scientists (from psychology and physics). This unique combination of insights allows new and deeper appreciation of Grosseteste’s treatise and the significance of his methods and observations. Grosseteste builds a coherent mathematical model in his exploration of what colour is and how it is to be described. What he articulates is a three-dimensional model for the operation of colour, depending on three factors, the amount of light, its quality, and the quality of the medium in which light is incorporated. The importance of the De colore within Grosseteste’s scientific canon can be better established as a result of these investigations, as well as the enduring sense of the richness of the encounter between medieval and modern science.