color

Carmine

Colors & materials

A vivid red lake from cochineal or kermes, prized in manuscript and cloth. Not cochineal the raw dye alone, and not minium.

  • Carmine is used in Medicine.

    Pliny’s Natural History treats deep insect reds among dye and pigment speech. A Roman-era dye use of carmine-red, not cochineal as the New World scale already filed and not kermes as the Old World neighbor alone.

    from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

    used in · sourced · documented

sources