Color: A Natural History of the Palette - Victoria Finlay

Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite colors. For example: Cleopatra used saffron--a source of the color yellow--for seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue ultramarine paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn't afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red--still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today--has come from the blood of insects.