Purple. Materiality and Symbolism in the Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages the term purple identified a chromatic concept ranged among red, violet and blue, at the same time that it could designate a specific type of textile. Nevertheless, it was not associated, as it had been in Antiquity, to the murex dye, for it was gradually replaced by other dyestuffs as exclusive and expensive as the kermes. Purple was related to power and social excellence, and its symbolic value was linked to the dyes with which textiles or manuscripts were dyed, and to materials such as porphyry, appreciated for its materic qualities and its purplish colour.