Kermes
Before cochineal, Europe's luxury red came from tiny insects on oak trees, mistaken for grain.
- Made from
- Kermes vermilio insects on oak
- Name
- Sanskrit krmija, 'worm-made'
- Replaced by
- Cochineal, 16th century
Kermes is a red dye made from the dried bodies of a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, that lives on the kermes oak around the Mediterranean. Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks and Romans used it, and jars of it have turned up in a Neolithic cave burial in Provence. Its color is a deep red, a true crimson.
The name traveled far. It goes back to Sanskrit krmija, 'made by a worm', then Persian and Arabic qirmiz, and from there to our words crimson and carmine. Medieval Europeans thought the dried insects were seeds and called the dye 'grain', so cloth dyed with it was 'dyed in the grain'.
In the Middle Ages, kermes-dyed scarlet wool and crimson silk were the most prized cloths in Europe, more desirable than the lost Tyrian purple. Wool dyed blue with woad and then dipped in kermes gave purples and near-blacks.
Then the Spanish brought cochineal from Mexico. It was several times stronger, so less was needed, and kermes faded from the market. The app's scarlet and crimson carry its legacy. The other great medieval red, vermilion, was a mineral, not a bug.
Swatches
- Kermes crimson (approx.)
- Crimson · named via Arabic qirmiz
Colors
Sources
- Munro, J. H. (2007). The anti-red shift: to the dark side. Colour changes in Flemish luxury woollens, 1300–1550. Medieval Clothing and Textiles 3.
- Cardon, D. (2007). Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science. Archetype.
- Wikipedia, 'Kermes (dye)'.
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.