Supplying Roman Italy with black and white pigments

The composition of pigments and their provenance have been addressed by both the Authors of classical antiquity and modern archaeologists and archaeometrists. In particular Vitruvius, Pliny and Theophrastos provide precious information on both topics, although their versions do not always coincide nor are they always readily confirmed by the archaeometric analysis of pigments. The commercialisation of pigments is not as well documented, neither by the classical Authors nor by modern research, and this contribution hopes to provide a summary of the current state of the art. However, the topic I am about to address is so vast that, for the moment, I will focus on black and white pigments used in the classical period for architectonic decoration, only briefly commenting pigments used in cosmetics and medicine. This work will also present a methodology that may be used to study the provenance and technology of materials; some original work tools derived from its application will also be illustrated.