The second set of pigments suggested for women’s shadows are given at 66r_2.
The original, middle French, version is: <head>Umbres</head> <ab>Pour femme <m>Aspalte</m> <m>terre dumbre</m> & un peu de <m>laque</m></ab>. This has been translated as: <id>p066r_2</id> <head>Shadows</head> <ab>For woman: <m>asphaltum</m>, <m>umber</m> and a bit of <m>red lake</m>.</ab> </div>
‘Terre dumbre’ – This is not necessarily Umber pigment as we know it today. Umbre and ombre seem to be alternative spellings of the same word in the Ms. While at 66R_2 the author practitioner uses ‘Terre dumbre’ at 065r_1 he uses ‘Terre dombre’. Spellings were not standardized in this period and therefore such differences can be expected.
Cotgrave: ‘Terre d’ombre. Beyond-sea Azur; an earth found in silver mines, and used by Painters for shadowings.’
This raises questions about what colour ‘terre dumber/ dombre’ was. Is Cotgrave arguing that it was ‘azur’, as in a blue colour? Or is the reference to ‘Beyond-Sea Azur’ an indication of the location it was to be found in? Cotgrave does refer to it as an ‘earth’, and his statement that it was ‘used by Painters for shadowings’ is in keeping with what is found in BnF Ms Fr640. Would he call it an ‘earth’ and would it be used for shadowing if it were an ‘Azur’ coloured pigment? What earths were found in silver mines?
DMF- Dictionnaire du moyen francais: I have not found ‘terre d’ombre/ terre dombre or terre d’umbre/terre dumbre Quickly one gets to umbre and ombre in the sense of shadow ‘La forme umbre est connue du lemmatiseur avec l'analyse suivante : OMBRE1, subst. fém. et masc.’ [T-L : ombre ; GD : ombre ; GDC : ombre ; DÉCT : ombre ; FEW XIV, 21b : umbra1 ; TLF XII, 482b : ombre1] A. - Au propre 1 "Espace plus ou moins privé de lumière, situé à l'abri du soleil" 2 "Figure sombre projetée par un corps qui intercepte la lumière, et reproduisant plus ou moins exactement le contour de ce corps" 3 Loc. / B. - P. anal. 1 [P. allusion aux croyances de l'Antiquité et au séjour des morts] 2 "Image, reflet (dans l'eau)" C. - Au fig. 1 [À partir de l'idée d'obscurité] 2 [À partir de l'idée que l'ombre est la trace, l'image de qqc. 3 [À partir de l'idée que l'ombre protège du soleil] 4 [À partir de l'idée que l'ombre n'est qu'une apparence]
TLFi XII. The Few reader. ‘The etymological and historical dictionary galloroman (French and dialects d'oïl, francoprovençal, occitan, gascon) Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch’. From Atilf.
Under Umbra schatten. ‘Nfr. Ombre, “endroit le plus obscure d’un tableau” (seit 1667, Brunot 6), un ombre au tableau “Leger defaut qui n’efface pas le merite” (seit 1667); terre d’ombre “ocre brun qui sert a ombrer” (cotgr 1611; seit Fur 1690)”. The rest of the entry is predominantly on shadow. The dictionaries quickly take one towards definitions of ‘umbre/ ombre’ concerned with shadow.
OED -Umber umber, n.1 Forms: ME–16 vmbre, umbre, ME–16 vmber (16 vmbier), ME– umber; ME owmbre, ovmbre, ovmbere; dial.16 oumar, 16–18 oumer, 18 oumber, oomer, etc.(Show Less) Frequency (in current use): Etymology: < Old French umbre (ombre) or < Latin umbra shade, shadow. Compare French ombre, Provençal umbra, ombra, Italian ombra, Italian ombria, Spanish ombria, umbria, Portuguese umbria.(Show Less) a. Shade, shadow. Again first usage is connected to shadows. ˈumber, n.3 Forms: Also 15–18 umbre, 15–16 vmber, 16 vmbre. Frequency (in current use): Etymology: <
French ombre (also terre d'ombre ) or
Italian ombra (also terra di ombra ), either meaning ‘shadow’ (see umber n.1) or from Latin Umbra, feminine of Umber, belonging to the province Umbria (compare Umbrica crēta, Pliny). Hence also German umbra, umber-erde, Danish and Swedish umber, umbra, Dutch omber, but Spanish sombra, Portuguese sombra (= shadow) and tierra (Portuguese terra) de sombra.(Show Less) 1. a. A brown earth used as a pigment; also, the colour of this.
So here the OED offers terre d'ombre as a synonym for umber. It connects the etymology both to ‘ombre’ as in shadow OR the Latin ‘Umbra’ as in Umbrian. Given the connections of this Ms. to Spain, it is also interesting that in Spanish it is ‘sombra’ (shadow). According to the OED the earliest usages of ‘umber’ in this sense are: c1568 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 116 Ye paynter for vmber coller. 1612 H. Peacham Gentlemans Exercise 80 Vmber is a more sad colour.
Henry Peacham, Gentleman's Exercise
Going to Peacham, as apparently the first usage of the term ‘umber’ in reference to this as a coloured material for painting in English. Peacham lists it under the section: ‘Of Yellow’. ‘Your principall yellow bethere. Orpiment. Pinke yellow. Massicot. Oker de Luce. Saffron. Umber. Orpiment’… ‘Umber. Umber is a more sad colour, you may grinde it with Gumme water or Gumme lake: and lighten it at your pleasure with a little Ceruse, and a shive (?) of Saffron.’
Written just one year after Cotgrave, Peacham’s Gentleman’s Exercise seems to imply a yellow colour for Umber. What does he mean by calling it a ‘sad colour’?
ARTFL ENCYCLOPEDIE PROJECT Ombre, terre d', (Hist. nat. Minéral. & Peint.) [Peinture , Histoire naturelle , Minéralogie] d'Holbach (Page 11:465) [Is this from the 1774 Encylopedie Ombre, terre d'(Hist. nat. Minéral. & Peint.) umbra, creta umbria.]
C'est une terre d'un brun plus ou moins foncé; elle est légere & en poussiere; elle a la proprieté de s'enflammer dans le feu, & de répandre une odeur fétide. Son nom paroît venir de l'Ombrie, pays d'Italie, d'où il vient sous ce nom une terre d'un brun clair. La terre de Cologne est une terre colorée plus foncée. La propriété que la terre d'ombre a de s'enflammer & de répandre une odeur désagréable, fait voir qu'elle contient une substance bitumineuse de la nature du charbon de terre. M. Emanuel Mendez d'Acosta, dans son hist. nat.des fossiles, p. 101. & ss. met la terre d'ombre au rang des ochres; il parle d'une terre d'ombre trouvée en Angleterre qui produisit un phénomene très - curieux. Une personne ayant pulvérisé cette terre d'ombre & l'ayant mêlée avec de l'huile de lin, pour la broyer & s'en servir à peindre, en fit un tas, après quoi il sortit de sa chambre, & à son retour au bout de trois quart - d'heures, il trouva que ce tas s'étoit enflammé de lui - même, & répandoit une odeur insupportable. La même expérience a été réiterée à Londres avec le même succès. Cette terre d'ombre avoit été tirée d'une mine de plomb de la province de Derbyshire, à environ dix brasses de profondeur au - dessous de la surface de la terre; on dit qu'il y en a une couche fort épaisse. Il y auroit lieu de croire, que cette inflammation spontanée est venue de quelques portions d'alun, contenues dans cette terre, qui a fait avec l'huile de lin une espece de pyrophore. ( - )
So in this entry it is described as an ‘earth brown more or less dark’. He then mentions M. Emmanuel Mendez d’Acosta’s natural history and says that he puts it in the categories of ochre.
I am not finding any further references, other than the Cotgrave, that suggest a blue colour for umber. Both the Peacham, and then 18th century French sources, suggest an ochre or brown colour, as one would more expect from earth pigments.
Palissy, Bupuy 1902, Vocabulaire Appendice No note on terre d'ombre or indeed on umbre/ ombre or similar.
Palissy: I have searched through Palissy on Gallica and do not find a reference to umbre/ombre or terre dombre/umbre or similar.
I am searching for an earlier reference, before Cotgrave, for the use of this term for a pigment in French.
Pigment Glossary Umber (Ombra, Schatenfarb, terre d’Ambra di Venetia, terra d’ombra or di umbra, Umbrae): Iron oxide pigment containing about 5-20% manganese oxide and 45-70% iron oxide with quartz, clays and other minerals. The iron oxide is often the quite yellow oxide hydroxide goethite, as in yellow earths (q.v.), thus the raw umber is a yellowish or olive-greenish brown; burnt umber, in which the yellow oxide hydroxide is converted to the red oxide by burning, is a dark red-brown colour.’
Artists’ Pigments, c.1600-1835, R.D. Harley Umber is mentioned commonly in sources. ‘When discussing umber some past writers comment on the colour name and a few, including the anonymous author of the Practical Treatise, 1796, state that the pigment is called umber after the district of Umbria in Italy, whereas others, such, as the French writer Watin, suggest that the name means ‘shadow’ because it is derived from the Latin ombra. The latter suggestion seems very likely, as umber is often described in documentary sources as being very suitable for shadow or for shading other colours, and, although the earth is found in a number of places in Europe, north Africa and the Near East, most umber was imported from Turkey, not from Italy. The statement that most umber is imported from Turkey, which is made in the Practical Treatise is borne out by customs records that show that several tons of umber were imported from Turkey in as many years whereas the raw material is not listed as coming from any other country. Some of the best umber is reputed to come from Cyrprus, which would have been classed as part of Turkey in the eighteenth-century customs records.’ P148 On the difference between raw or roasted (burnt) umber – ‘The distinction between raw umber and burnt umber is often ignored in documentary sources of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; for example, it is listed merely as umbra in V. & A. MS. 86. EE. 69. A little later, however, writers, including de Mayerne and Gyles, make the distinction, and umber burnt and unburnt are also listed in Academica Italica. It is possible that burnt umber is meant in any place where it is listed without further description, for burnt umber was of greater use and easier to work with according to Norgate. Umber appears in his colour list without qualification, but a subsequent description makes it clear that the artist used only burnt umber.’ P149 ‘Umber is very quick drying, imparted by the manganese content. De Mayerne remarks that it dries in two hours’p.149 Also in Harvey: p. 30 ‘The customs legers are ostensibly written in English, but it is often possible to trace the survival of an old form of spelling in official documents, the customs records included. They contain a certain number of references to pigments by Latin names: Armenian bole appears as bolus Armeniacus…In all cases the same pigment appears under its English name in some ledgers and in Latin in others, so that one must be prepared to encounter both forms. Italian occurs in the names terra verde and terra umbra.’ V. & A. MS. 86. EE. 69. Is late 16th century. Thompson Brown Colours ‘It is a striking feature of the medieval palette that it contained few if any of the nondescript dark pigments, such as the umbers, which became so important in later days. The umbers seem not to have been introduced into general use in Europe before the close of the fifteenth century. Vasari speaks of them as rather new in his time. And many of the brown earths which play an important part in later painting seem to have been largely disregarded by medieval painters, or even unknown to them.’ P.88-89
Pigment Compendium ‘Terra Ombre Brown Synonym, variant or common name Synonym for ‘raw’ umber (q.v.; Mayer, 1991) Umber Mayer (1991) 58 Pigment compendium also states that Umber is now generally accepted to have derived from the Latin ombra for shadow, rather than Umbria, because Umbria is not actually known as a source for the pigment. ‘Due to its sometimes earth like appearance, there are many variations on the name umber earth (Terre d’ombre, terra d’ombra, tierra de sombra).’ The terminology is supposedly reviewed in Johnston-Feller, currently unavailable but should be able to read this soon.
De Mayerne -
[ Quick note on de manuscript. 'Mayerne, physician to James I and Charles I. Many are written by his own hand, however Mayerne also drew on the services of amanuenses (such as John Colladon) and inserted leaves of notes written by other, miscellaneous hands.Many of the notes were gathered from Mayerne's first-hand contact with both major and minor artists and artisans of his day, including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. The manuscript also contains letters from artists, such as Jean Petitot.For a complete English translation of the manuscript, see: Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting: Including the First Complete English Translation of the de Mayerne Manuscript, B.M. Sloane 2052, ed. by Donald C. Fels and others (Floyd, VA: Alchemist Inc., 2004).'
Sloane MS 2052 at British Library, Folio 4r.
A list of pigments includes 'Terre dombre' or 'Terre d'ombre' (I can't quite see if there is an apostrophe.
“The British Library MS Viewer.” Accessed March 30, 2016. http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=sloane_ms_2052_fs001r.
Summary – I am yet to find an earlier reference to ‘terre dumbre’ or similar than Cotgrave. I can find umber in English sources (Norgate, Hilliard) but want to find this specific terminology in French sources. In the secondary literature, it seems well established that similar terms were used to describe yellowish or brownish earth pigments, that terre d’ombre can serve as a synonym for ombre/umbre in the sense of the pigment umber. I would still like to find earlier French references to this specific combination of terms.