Did you know that the Egyptians created the first synthetic colour? Or that the noblest purple comes from a predatory sea snail? Throughout history, artists' pigments have been made from deadly metals, poisonous minerals, urine, cow dung and even crushed insects. Humanity's experimental journey towards the discovery of colour, from grinding down beetles and burning animal bones to alchemy and serendipity, has led to the magnificence of medieval manuscripts, the art of the Renaissance and the expressions of 20th-century Modernism. *Chromatopia* reveals the origin stories of over 50 of history's most extraordinary pigments.#13;#13;Spanning the ancient world to modern leaps in technology, this is a book for the artist, the history buff, the science lover and the design fanatic.