Reading medieval colour: The case of blue in The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

Contemporary readers struggle with the terms of colour in medieval literary texts due to the difference in our colour systems. The current dominant colour model is hue-based. The approach of this model is to perceive colour as part of the electromagnetic radiation, which is measurable in wavelength. Therefore, elementary colour terms in contemporary language predominantly correspond with prismatic colours. As a result, interpreting medieval colour terms with a contemporary hue-dominated perspective creates numerous misunderstandings. In the Middle Ages, the fundamental guidelines for colour perception were luminescence, surface reflectivity, and colour intensity. In medieval literary texts, colour terms frequently described the materiality of the colour, the tactile qualities of the colour, and the general appearance (e.g. glittering or matt). In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, as discussed in this paper, there are four terms used to describe the colour blue, of which only one can be identified as a hue term. Accordingly, this paper will analyse the terms that portrayed blue in The Canterbury Tales from the perspective of medieval colour measures and explain how they are different from the colour blue, as we know it today.