Table of Contents
Introduction 7
An uncertain color (From the beginning to the year 1000) 11
Did the Greeks see green? 14
Green among the Romans 20
The emerald and the leek 26
Hippodrome green 31
The silences of the Bible and the church fathers 36
A middle color 40
Islamic green 46
A courtly color (11th-14th centuries) 51
The beauty of green 54
A place for green: the orchard 58
A time for green: the spring 65
Youth, love, and hope 71
A chivalrous color 78
A green hero: Tristan 83
A dangerous color (14th-16th centuries) 87
Satan's green bestiary 90
From green to greenish 97
The green knight 103
The dyer's vats 112
"Gay green" and "lost green" 118
Heraldic green 125
The colors of the poet 129
A secondary color (16th-19th centuries) 135
Protestant morals 138
The green of painters 142
New knowledge, new classifications 152
Alceste's ribbons and the green of the theater 155
Superstitions and fairy tales 159
Green in the age of the enlightenment 167
A romantic color? 172
A soothing color (19th-21st centuries) 179
A fashionable color 182
Return to the palette 186
Chevreul and the scientists did not like green 193
Neither did Kandinsky or the Bauhaus 200
Green in everyday life 205
Nature in the heart of the cities 209
Green today 217
Acknowledgments 223
Notes 224
Bibliography 235
Photography credits 240