Purple Parchment Legacy
This ambitious research project aims at conducting an in-depth investigation and a complete cataloguing of the so-called codices purpurei, i.e. purple vellum manuscripts, to increase knowledge of their figurative repertoire, meanings, uses and patronage. With a focus on Europe and the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age, PURPLE will include a wide area of research in the exploration of the manuscripts, expanding both the approaches and the scopes which have been adopted thus far.






Graeci vocant phycos….circa Cretam insulam nato in petris purpuras quoque inficiunt
– Plinio il Vecchio
Aurea purpureis pinguntur grammata..
– Godescalco