![]() |
|
Product Description
In the sixteenth century, one of the world's most precious commodities was cochineal, a legendary red dye treasured by the ancient Mexicans and sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. As the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans joined the chase for cochineal -- a chase that lasted for more than three centuries -- a tale of pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies unfolds. A Perfect Red evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- Mauve: How one man invented a colour that changed the world (Canons)
- Red: The History of a Color
- Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World
- Color: A Natural History of the Palette
- Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
- Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World
- Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
- Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe
- Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (Publications on the Near East)
- Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused
*If this is not the "A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link