Thursday, June 23, 2011

A List of Old Dyeing Books Available On-line


Here is a list of older texts related to natural dyeing available for reading and download on-line. Since I started this project the list grew considerably and I would like to thank the people who helped me along the way and brought to my attention the texts that were missing.

This list tends to favor French and English texts, partially because I am familiar with them and partially because the work in these languages is well documented and distributed. If anyone can help me with Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Persian, Japanese, German, Russian, Spanish and other sources, I will include them here as well.

The whole list is organized chronologically and color coded by language. Since these are only links to the source texts some titles have been shortened.

Please note that the links to U of A archives will open a PDF file. I tried to indicate the PDFs and those files are always small.

A word on copyrights. It is my understanding that all works published before 1923 are in the public domain. After that things get more complicated and when it comes to translation it is still more complicated. Here is some clear info on this complex subject: Copyright and Public Domain
































































Translation of: Éléments de l'art de la teinture.
I am having trouble finding vol 1. in Eng. If someone finds the link please let me know.






Translation of: Éléments de l'art de la teinture.








2e of the 1787 work



































Translation from French.






































































8 comments:

  1. There is another book by Merritt that is available online. Liles refers to it in his book. It Is called the Application of dyestuffs to textiles, paper, leather and other materials (1920). I have looked at some of the other references mentioned - the issue is that the chemicals used are often not what we would use today.

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  2. thanks diane. i will add that one, since marritt's book on fibers is one of my favorites on the subject.
    all other issues apart, they do make interesting reading for many reasons. davi already mentioned 'throwing the baby out with the water'.
    i personally like to understand the historical development of this craft and science in general and apart from that always learn something new when i put the effort into reading these books. i just wish i had more time to commit to them.

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  3. diane,
    i found it, and i guess his last name is matthews not merritt. it was published in 1920 so it is towards the end of the list.
    jarek

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  4. Jarek I have an additional list of some 8 texts, 1st C to 1902. How should I get them to you? It was great to see old friends on your list Hellot was my introduction to all this. Davì

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  5. thanks davi,
    in that case hellot will be the next one i will read.
    you can email it to me in private or paste it in the comments box on the blog.
    all best,
    jarek

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  6. What a fantastic resource. Thank you for posting. Helen

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  7. thanks helen, i am very happy to have your feedback...
    on another note, it is becoming more and more evident that there is still quite a few important texts missing. since this list is the product of sleepless nights preceding and following the summer solstice of 2011 i hope to update it every three months, around the equinox and the solstice.

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  8. Great resource, thank you so much for compiling it. Could you possibly add an image to this post, so that it can be pinned on Pinterest? I like to keep tabs on things by pinning to my natural dying board. I can't pin this post since there is no image.

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