Földvári Books

Important Treatise on Colour Theory Influencing Goethe

Carvalho e Sampayo, Diogo de

Dissertação sobre as cores primitivas: [Dissertacao sobre as cores primitivas] com hum breve tratado da composição artificial das cores

Lisboa: Regia Officina Typografica, MDCCLXXXVII [1788]. First edition. In later paper. [I]–X [1]–148 [4] p., and two folding plates (one coloured by contemporary hand). Collection inscription on the title page in ink. Light foxing throughout. Quire I stained, more visible on its first 3 leaves. Page IX dusted towards the edges. Plate 2 with a light stain towards the gutter with no effect on the print area. Restored. Overall in fine condition.

First edition of Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo’s important treatise on colour theory which influenced Goethe’s famous work, Zur Farbenlehre.

In his 1788 book, the Portuguese nobleman and scientist Carvalho y Sampayo (1750–1807) describes his colour system, “the first fully coloured system of one-dimensional simple hue and tint/shade scales as well as a gray scale", in two main chapters. In the first chapter, he introduces its six simple colours (white, black, yellow, red, blue, and green), while in the second one, each simple colour is combined with the other five in three grades, resulting 15 linear scales with a total of 51 samples, presented in his book on a hand-coloured fold-out plate. Carvalho y Sampayo’s work served as a reference for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who dedicated a chapter of his influential 1810 book, Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) to it. Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), who met Carvalho y Sampayo in 1799 during his stay in Madrid, was also familiar with Carvalho y Sampayo's work, and he even sent Goethe a letter, stating the similarity between the theory of both Goethe and the Portuguese scientist.

Literature: Goethe, J. W. von: Zur Farbenlehre. Zweiter Band. Tübingen: Cotta, 1810. pp. 614–622.; Beau, A. E.: Goethe e a cultura portuguesa. In: Biblos 25. Universidade de Coimbra, 1950., pp. 389-437.; Ferrão, L.; Bernardo, L. M. A. V.: Views on Eighteenth Century Culture: Design, Books and Ideas. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. p. 299.; Kuehni, R. G. and Schwarz A.: Color Ordered. A Survey of Color Order Systems from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. p. 47.

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Price: €10,000.00