Foreword Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Sources and methods ‘Another book on the Italian Renaissance?’ Why blue? Limitations of written and illustrated sources Examination of original artefacts Close looking Desiderata Chapter 2 Early modern European blue papermaking: fibres and colorants The main constituents of early modern blue papers Fibres Hemp Flax/linen Cotton Wool Silk Colorants Woad Indigo Woad, indigo and indigotin blue Chapter 3 Making and distinguishing early modern blue papers Water Mills making coloured paper Organisational systems Rags Recycled textiles Ships’ sails Ropes Recycled (waste) paper New textiles The procurement of papermaking rags Quantities Rag sorting How paper became blue: fabrication of blue paper sheets Prepared blue paper Paper dyed blue in the vat or after sheet formation Blued paper Variegated (mixed fibre) blue paper The fading of indigotin-dyed paper Chapter 4 Drawings on blue paper: the fifteenth century Primary evidence Written sources Drawings Assumptions and possibilities Chapter 5 Drawings on blue paper: the sixteenth century Revival and diffusion of interest in Venetian drawing practice Single sheet prints on blue paper Drawings heightened with coloured chalks on blue paper Portrait drawings on blue paper c.1600 Chapter 6 Blue book text blocks, notebooks, album pages and wrapping paper Early sixteenth-century Venetian books printed on variegated blue paper Paper for printing Aldus Manutius, Christophe Plantin and blue paper The decoration of printed books Blue paper text blocks: the reanimation of the achievements of antiquity Publishing of blue text blocks after Aldus Manutius The Badile album The Vicenza notarial sheet Ephemeral uses Ream wrappers Blue wrapping paper Conclusion Bibliography