The Colour of Angels uncovers the gender politics behind our attitude to the senses. Using a wide variety of examples, ranging from the sensuous religious visions of the middle ages through to nineteenth-century art movements, this book reveals a previously unexplored area of womens history.

Constance Classen is a cultural historian whose previous publications include Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures and Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell (with David Howes and Anthony Synnott).

Introduction PART I Cosmology 1 On the color of angels: the sensory cosmologies of St. Hildegard, Boehme, and Fourier 2 The breath of God: sacred histories of scent PART II Gender 3 The scented womb and the seminal eye: embodying gender codes through the senses 4 Pens and needles: writing, women's work, and feminine sensibilities PART III Aesthetics 5 Symbolist harmonies, Futurist colors, Surrealist recipes: crossing sensory borders in the arts 6 A feel for the world: lessons in aesthetics from the blind