Symbolic Colours

Baron Frederic de Portal (1804-1876) Born into a minor noble family from the Languedoc who could trace their ancestry back to the early medieval period. They were active during the wars of the Albigensian Crusade, although they seem to have opposed the French for local patriotic reasons rather than for their beliefs. But dissent did run in their blood and with the coming of the Reformation they embraced the Protestant faith, although after the collapse of the Huguenot cause some of the family fled to England. Frederic's branch, however, remained in South-Western France and, as a Jurist, historian and author, he became, perhaps, the most distinguished head of his family. He wrote one other book on symbolism, but it is for Des Couleurs Symboliques (1837) - which was utilised by Eliphas Levi in his studies of the Kabbalah - that he is deservedly best known