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A high-resolution, page-by-page scan of A. Boogert’s 1692 color manual is available through the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence. The one-copy, roughly 900-page Dutch manuscript includes more than 700 pages of color swatches and instructions for mixing watercolor, though there is little evidence it influenced artists or color theory in its own time.
A complete, high-resolution scan of A. Boogert’s roughly 900-page color manual, made in 1692, is available online through the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence. The sole known copy includes more than 700 pages of color swatches and handwritten guidance for mixing watercolor, offering readers direct access to an unusually detailed record of 17th-century painting practice.
The manuscript is known by its Dutch title, Klaer Lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst, and the French title Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau, which refers to water-based paint. Open Culture’s October 12 report describes the book as a manual created by an author and artist identified as A. Boogert. Its pages pair color samples with written instructions, including guidance on changing a color’s tone by adding one, two or three portions of water.
Medieval historian Erik Kwakkel located the book in a French database and described it as an unusual view into the work of 17th-century painters and illustrators. According to his account, Boogert wrote more than 700 pages of instructions in Dutch. The Méjanes library holds the manuscript and provides full-page, zoomable scans, allowing readers to inspect the samples and handwriting without handling the original.
The online report calls the volume a pre-Pantone guide because its pages of painted color samples may recall modern color-chip catalogs. That comparison is visual, not evidence of a direct line of influence: the source says there is little evidence Boogert’s book shaped color theory or practical painting in its own period. It was a single copy, and the report says it is unlikely that many working artists knew of it.
A Rare Record of Watercolor Practice
The scan makes an exceptionally detailed historical object available to readers, researchers and artists who otherwise would have had to consult the physical manuscript. Its combination of painted swatches and mixing instructions documents how one 17th-century author organized and explained color for watercolorists. The pages can be studied as both a practical manual and a material record of the pigments and methods represented in the manuscript.
The book’s significance is not that it established a color standard used by later generations. The source reports no clear evidence of such influence. Its value instead lies in access and documentation: the digital copy lets viewers examine an early, highly developed attempt to describe and arrange paint colors, while keeping claims about its historical reach appropriately limited.
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Color Theory Before Newton and Pantone
Boogert completed the manual in 1692, before Isaac Newton’s Opticks set out his account of the color spectrum more than a decade later, according to Open Culture. The report says the book draws on an Aristotelian system of color rather than the newer spectrum-based understanding associated with Newton. That places it at a point when older approaches and emerging theories of color overlapped.
More widely circulated color guides came later. Open Culture points to Goethe’s 1810 Theory of Colors and Werner’s 1814 Nomenclature of Colour, followed much later by Pantone, founded in 1963. Those later works provide context for the long effort to describe and organize color, but the available account does not establish that Boogert’s manuscript influenced them. The source also notes that a previous version of the online report appeared in 2019; the current development is the renewed report and the availability of the library’s complete scan.
“It turns out to be quite special.”
— Erik Kwakkel, medieval historian
historical watercolor manual reproduction
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The Manual’s Historical Reach
The source does not establish how many people, if any, consulted the manuscript when it was made, or whether it circulated beyond its single known copy. It says there is little evidence that Boogert influenced color theory or painters’ working methods, and suggests artists of the time may not have known the book existed. The manuscript’s intended audience is described as watercolorists, but the available material does not document its readership.
The report also does not provide a detailed account of the pigments, materials or conservation history behind the swatches. Nor does it identify an exact publication date for the library’s digital scan; it confirms that the high-resolution pages can be viewed online. The connection to modern color catalogs should be understood as a resemblance in format, not a demonstrated historical relationship.
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Viewing the Digitized Manuscript
Readers can view the zoomable scans at the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence, where the original is held. The source does not announce a new publication, exhibition or research project tied to the scan, so no further milestone is confirmed. The immediate next step for readers is to consult the digital pages directly and assess the manuscript’s color samples and instructions for themselves.
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Key Questions
What is A. Boogert’s 1692 book?
It is a roughly 900-page handwritten manual about watercolor, known by the Dutch title Klaer Lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst. It contains more than 700 pages of color swatches and instructions for mixing paint.
Where can I see the scan?
The Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence, which holds the manuscript, provides full-page, zoomable high-resolution scans online.
Was this an early Pantone color guide?
It predates Pantone by centuries and has pages of samples that can look like modern color chips. Calling it a pre-Pantone guide is a comparison of appearance and function; the source does not show that Pantone or later color systems descended from Boogert’s work.
Did the manual influence artists or color theory?
That is not established. Open Culture reports little evidence of influence and notes that the book survives as a single copy, making it unlikely that many artists of the period knew about it.
What does the manual say about mixing watercolor?
According to historian Erik Kwakkel, it explains how to make watercolor paints and alter a color’s tone by adding one, two or three portions of water. The source does not provide a full inventory of its pigments or materials.
Source: hn
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