Today, I had the pleasure to observe examples of Murex snail shells at the Natural History Museum of Milano. Phoenicians (and later Roman) loved the reddish purple dye that they could extract from the murex rock snail they found in the Mediterranean . It took 12000 snails to dye one toga in Tyrian Purple which was super expensive. Only the highest Roman magistrates could sport a “toga praetexta” which has a stripe of Tyrian Purple over their white togas. Roman generals would wear a solid purple togas with a gold stripe called the “toga picta”, and which would later be worn by Roman emperors. Needless to say, wearing Tyrian purple was a sign of power and success. The term “purpura” in Latin lead to the shade “pourpre” in French which is the color reserved for cardinals. The term also lead to the more generic term “purple” in English. For those seeking to quench their fascination for the Murex snail and this little piece of history, Diamine makes a lovely ink called Tyrian Purple. 🐌💜 . . . #TyrianPurple #TyrianRed #CardinalPurple #Murex #Pourpre #Purpura #Caracol #Snail #Escargot #PigmentHistory #DyeHistory #ColorHistory #HistoireChromatique #ChromaticHistory #NaturalHistory #Antiquity #Phoenicians #Romans #DiamineTyrianPurple #NaturalHistoryMuseumOfMilan #HistoriaChromatica (at Museo Cívico de Historia Natural de Milán) https://www.instagram.com/p/B03nsbdiLJg/?igshid=1ad3kuh7rppus