Hollins University book; available weekdays via courier; use "Request" icon. (This title has strange, intriguing, and humorous stories of youir favorite colors and the science behind them.)
See pages on: Roman concrete [hydrated calcium aluminosilicate] ; Titanium; Viking steel; Bronze; Porcelain; Perkin's Mauve; Prussian blue and many more art & architecture materials. The "Notes & further reading" pages will provide key sources, too.
The "Trinity" fresco, painted in the 1420's, was hidden from view for nearly two centuries; info about its problematic state of conservation is included.
This volume is designed for those who care for "the cookery of art," for those who wonder about the natures and the sources of the materials out of which painters in the Middle Ages compounded objects that we still cherish... style and technique are inseparable.
The pursuit of the colour drove medieval alchemy and modern chemistry alike, and red has been found in insects, tree resins, tar, earths, and excitable gases. It is associated with earth, blood and fire, with the holy, with national flags and powerful ideologies
See the chapter on VISION, which explains "...it was a world that thought differently, one in which the luster of a color might be more important than its hue"