Rich Spica Royal

Old French riche, wealthy, abundant — applied to color since the medieval period for hues that read as plentiful in pigment. Rich red, rich brown: the implication is depth combined with saturation, a color that gives the eye more to absorb. Sits at the saturated mid-light corner of the engine's grid, slightly warmer than bold and deeper than vivid.

Latin spīca, ear-of-grain. As a color modifier, spica implies a Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star quality, the visual register of Virgo-constellation-and-spring-Spica hand-Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star Virgo-constellation-and-spring-and-Bortle-1-sky spica-and-Virgin-and-grain-ear-and-blue-white-star surfaces under Virgo-constellation-and-spring-and-Bortle-1-sky April-and-May-spring-southern-vista grain-bearing-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and altair in usage.

The blue of European royal court dress and regalia from the late seventeenth century forward — the color of British peers' robes, French royal sashes, the lining of the crown-jewel cases. The color refers to a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of velvet or melton wool dyed to maximum intensity: deeper than cornflower, warmer than ultramarine, with the heraldic weight of a color reserved for monarchs and the official Crown.