The AHRC Ordered Universe project has published an article, ‘All the Colours of the Rainbow’ in Nature Physics.
The AHRC Ordered Universe project and associated Science in Culture Theme research network ‘The Scientific Works of Robert Grosseteste: Lost Legacies and the Living Past’ brings together cosmologists and medievalists to investigate the writings of Robert Grosseteste, a 13th century English theologian and Bishop. The project is based at the University of Durham,
‘All the Colours of the Rainbow’, which was principally authored by Hannah Smithson and Tom McLeish, with Giles Gasper, provides the outline of the way in which Robert Grosseteste’s thought on colour moves between his publications De colore ‘On Colour’ and the De iride ‘On the Rainbow’, and the startling ways in which this can be mapped into contemporary models of human colour vision space.
The full article is available at Nature Physics: http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v10/n8/full/nphys3052.html.
The interlocking of Grosseteste’s creative imagination, and the wide range of sources with which he engaged, alongside keen observation (a skill which emerges in his rich use of metaphor and analogy), with modern thought on human vision and an equally creative and imaginative approach to science, produces a powerful kaleidoscope of ideas and possible interactions.
Further information about the project is available here.
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