Color is a power that directly affects the soul. (Wassily Kandinsky)
The Treccani voice on Color starts from physical and scientific definition, the one elaborated by Newton and his companions as early as the eighteenth century, and then linger on the various consequent meanings. Defining what color is may seem obvious at first sight but in reality it is not at all: "... speaking of a color (or designating the particular color of an object), we refer to the visual sensation that one has when observing that object at natural light: rapid light It rains from thing to thing, And the varî colors it arouses wherever one rests (Manzoni); in this sense we speak of a gray, yellow, red cloth, of green, blue wool, of light blue, blue silk, etc., and less properly of white, black color. Not infrequently for the definition of color in the various shades, tones, intensities, we use the names of well-known objects or substances: orange or orange color, havana, coffee, canary, cinnamon, ash, cyclamen, cream, strawberry, mallow, brick, hazelnut, violet or purple or violet, etc .; (...) "(Treccani, on line ) There is no color or color at all, but it exists as the result of an association with certain objects, things, substances , even sensations or emotions, Sweet color d'orïental sapphire (Dante). In this sense, the technical-scientific production collected with painstaking patience by the collector who put this lot together is truly the systematic and classificatory attempt to circumscribe the Universe of Color. Because what can be the most reliable form of color determination if not the exemplum, the exhibition, the specimen? Colors exist as visible and tangible, and this set of books, brochures and various publications attest to the existence of colors THROUGH concrete objects: scraps of fabric, cardboard, milk, sheets ... the whole kaleidoscope of shades of color, of colors , condensed on supports of various sizes. The oldest issue of the collection is entitled La numerica dei colori, by Zeffirino Scarenzio, published in Pavia in 1865. Zeffirino is a drawing teacher at the Technical School of Pavia and the purpose of the publication, intended for its students, is to illustrate the nature of primary colors in relation to the light and heat they produce. These are theoretical arguments that will leave "the place to another more practical argument the profile of these theoretical declarations." & Nbsp; The theory must necessarily leave room for practice, which is declined in the many publications collected here. The lion's share is made up of the numerous samples and pantones of hundreds of companies, of the most diverse products: paints, fabrics, inks, papers, enamels, paints, yarns etc. Impossible to list all of them in detail these rare publications, more than rare that cannot be found because they are the product of ephemeral publishing that exhausts its purpose in the moment of practical use without ever falling into the category of "objects to be preserved". Industrial literature suffers from this adverse fate, it is not made to be preserved and preserved, its consumption inexorably decrees its end ... unless merciful hands like those of the present collector do not preserve it. For what purpose? First of all as a timely and accurate testimony of an incredible typographic-editorial expertise, because these printed products are not at all easy to make: among their pages they had to host color essays in the form of strips of fabric, cardboard etc., heterogeneous elements which had to harmoniously find space in small brochures, without losing clarity and sharpness. Some are really small typographical jewels, which once opened reveal refined samples of infinite varieties of colors: from the Super-Iride company in Prato, to the Pigmente di Inchiostri of Badische Amilin, and to Filo Tre fiori to the Ripolin enamels, from the Filofort of the Tre Cerchi red, to the Litolatta inks of ICI, from the colors of the Giovanni Bocelli firm of Milan, to those of Fratelli Maineri, from the Vulkeol Brillante colors of the Max Meyer color factory in Milan, to the inks of Icificis, from the enamels of the Fratelli Corti, to the colors of Tintal whose motto is "give it with your hands!". The most fascinating of all is perhaps the great leather album by Berrycraft, the Counter Book by the Berry Brothers of Detroit but with branches all over the States, where in addition to advertising the various products useful for painting home, practical instructions are given for DIY. A unique and fascinating whole.