Glass

GLA§§i\ VVorlJ lIistory

ALAN MACFARLANE

AND

GERRY MARTIN

Al~ M,cf,rl~~;$ profn$Or of ,nthropologie~1Kienc~" rn~ Uni~~rs;tyof

C.mbrid~and a f~1low of King'$ Colltg~,nd the British Aeadmty. His

~ boob inc:luM 1I'jtJwr.fi u. T..- -JS""", L,f-J. Tlu Onguu (If

&,'i.1r ft..liYii"(llis"',,,ld 71t RiJ4f~ (If ,Ir, MOIl"" WIN'd. Gerry M,rtin i$

former m,naging dir«1or,nd cofounder of Eur01herm LId. He hu long been,

hi$lorUn of gWs instruments., especi,Uy microseopn.

n. Uniwnityof Chicagop~ Chiago 606}7

Profile Boob, London. United KingdOrtt• .ECIN 8LX

Copyright C Alan Mac:fubM and ~rry Martin JOOI

AD rir;tm reo.o:rwd. Pub&hed UlOJ

Prirum in Creac Britain

For Sarah and Hilda

" 10 09 01 07 06 Of 04 O} 0'

laIC o-n6-sooJl..4 (cloth)I I } 4 I

~.m-publication <bllluo~ bftn~ed from tncLibruy of Congreu.

e 1lw paper \lMId in this p'b1ieation meetS tht minimum requinmmlli of tht­

AnlmcM NBiorW Son<brd for Wormarion ScieIc:c. ~M>CnCc of PipeT

lOr Printed Lbrlry hb~riall.-VIS! ZJ9.48-'?9',

Contents

Preface IX

List of lIIustrations XI

, Invisible Glass ,, Glass in the West - from Mesopotamia to Venic~ '0

) Glass and the Origin of Early Science '1

4 Glass and the Renaissanc~ \'

I Glass and Later Science 796 Glass in the EaSt 991 The Clash of Civilisations '"8 Spectacles and Predicaments '44

9 Visions of the World '1\

ApP~lldixu

I Types of Glass ~0.f

~ The Role of Glass in Twenty Experiments thatChanged the World

Further Reading ~'.f

Sources for QUOted Passages :I'.Bibliography uoIndex aM

Preface

THIS IS A BOOK about change, especially abouthow the presence of glass and the way in which

. humans have used glass has enormously accelerated

change (and conversely, the absence of glass has slowed it

down). There is a very strong human tendency when study.

iog the past to try to identify individuals who have madehistOry, to make them heroes, or at least key figures in

explaining how events have unfolded. This is particularlytempting in trying to understand discovery and innovation.This tendency always lead to distOrted hislOry for changearises out of the combined activities of dozens, hundreds, oreven thousands of individuals. Yet we often label a particularinnovation or invention with the name of an individual as ashorthand or convenience. It is within that framework thatthe mention of particular named individuals in this bookshould be interpreted.

This also applies to the writing of the book. Though twonamed authors have wriuen it it is impossible 10 disentangJetheir contributions. Likewise they are just part of a muchlarger network of friends, authorities and contacts who havecomributed to this single book. Among those whosr influ­ence is most direct and obvious fO us are the following. Pro­fessors Chris Bayly, Mark Elvin and Caroline Humphrq,and Drs Su Dalgleish, Simon Schaffer mel David Snruh

ix

"

II

,6

List of Illustrations and Credi's

,;

1 Early Egyplian glass, c. 1}70 Be

Reino Liefkes (I'd.), GltllS (V & A Publications, (997),

p. I}

1 An tighlccl1lh-cenrury English ICOld glassReino Liefkes (ed.), GltUS (V & A Publicalions., r997),

p. 90 1~

1 Glass, alchemy and chemislryJohannes Stradanus, 'The Alchemisl', Palazzo Vecchio,Florence. reproduced from William H.8rock., TAl!FOIItwtfl History of cn.l!mist'Y (1991), cover

.. Appar;,arus used by PricslleyPriestley, Experiments ;,and Observations on DifTerenlKinds of Air. vol. I (1774), reprinted in Aaron J. Ihde,Tlrl! DI!I'I!lopml!1I1 of ModUli CAl!mistry (DoverPublicalions, 1984), p. 41

1 Going up the river

C~~ng Test-man (aclin c. IIOO-tI}O), 'Going UpRiver 011 Ch'ing.ming Fesliv;,al Time'. Detail of ah;,andsctoll. Ink ;,and sligh[ colour on silk. PalaceMuseum, Peking. Reprimed in Michael Sullivan.TI'l! MI!I!/illg of EtUli!rn flM Wutl!rn An (Universityor C~lirornia Press, 1989), p. 160

6 Durer', draWing deviceDu 'u.ret' "Jtl'Wl!ysWlg, lSI edn., Nuremberg, 111'.

7•

,

m~d(' \~nous ~uggC'>lions whidl were p,articularly helpful.KIm Prendergasl cilrried OUI Ille ~urvcy f,f <;cho<,1 c1a~Sl:" andschoolteachers In $tmth Korea ,md :lrranged our visil ttl a

school there. ProfesVlr Tokoro, David Dugan ,md CarloMass.arrell~ helpffi spccificillly in rel<ltiun IfJ myopia in Japan~nd Iht Ialler tWO more generally in developing our ideas onglilSS. Our thanks also 10 Slephen Pollock-Hill of I azeing

ClilSS.The whole book w;,as arefully read and commel1led on

by John Davey, Sally Dugan, Iris Macfarlane and AndrewMorpn. John Da\'ey illso aCled as Ihe edilOr. f\tark Turinkindly checked the leXI in proof stage.

Sanh Harrison thought of lhe ide;,a of nurowing downour focus 10 glass. She inspired us to pUt the academic para·phc:rnalia and quotalions elsewhere (www.alanmacfarlane.rom/glass). She rud through Ihe lexi ;,and made many valu­able suggestions. To her, and 10 Hilda Mutin who has ;,alsohelped in many WilYS, we dedicale [his book in gnuitude forlhrir suppa" in our endless quesl.

88

96

lInvisible Glass

'... gu.uJing before demonstrating.! Do I

nud to remindyou. that this "'<ll' ho'"

ail important diJl;oyeritJ are mad~!'

H...m A..onnri

""'\ lOST Of US hiltdly give glass a thought, bUI\ imagine waking in a world where glass has ~n

-,L Stripped aWilY or uninvented. All glilss utensilshave vilnished, including those now milde of similar sub·stilnces such as plastics which would not have existed withoutglass. All objects, technologies and ideas that owe their exist­ence to glass have gone.

We feel for the alarm clock or watch: no clock or walch,however, for miniaturised clocks and watches cannO! existwi~hout the protective facing of glass. We grope for Ihe lightswnch. Butlhere can be no light SWitch, for Ihere is no glassfOr Ihe lighl bulb. When we draw back the cunains a blast ofair strikes us through the glassless windows. If we sufferfrom shOrt sight, we un 5e'C' clearly for about len inche. Ifw~ have long sight, as we probably do if we are over fifry, wew,ll not be able to read. TheTe are no cont~1 lenS6 or spec_tacles 10 help us.

There is no clear mirTOr in the bathroom to shave by, no

"

6,

'J'

",

reprimed in ~l3rtin Kemp. TJ,~ Scitnct of Art (Yale

Unin'rsity Press. 1990), p. 171-

7 Acompound microsco~ by Robert HookeFrom Hooke, MifflJgrap!rio, 1665

8 Pasteur's bonleU~ in his restarches on spontaneous generation

in 1860

9 Harrison's chronometer

Original in National Maritime Museum, Greenwich,

Inv.no.Ch'38, reprinled in William J.H.Andrews (ed.)

Tirt Quest for Longitu.de (Harvard University Press,

1996), p. 140

10 Pines and rocky peaks

un: 'Rain' by Sansetsu, British Museum. Right:'Pines and Rocky Peaks' by Ma Yuan. Collection ofBaron Yanosul.c, Tokyo. Reprim~ in l...aurC'n~

Binyon. PaintiJtg in rllt Far East (Dover Publications,

1969),pp·l06,IS<4. I)}

II Two views of De""entwalC~r

Top: Chiomg Yet, 'Cows in Derwenlil.ter', 1936.Brush and ink. Bottom: Anonymous 'Derwentwiuer• •looking toward Borrowdale', 1816. Lithograph.Rtproduced in E.H.Gombrich,Art tiM 11Iwion

(Phaidon, 1960), P. 7-4I;z. Corn:ave lens for myopiil.

jilll va.n Eyclt, 'Mildonnil i1nd Child wilh Canon vonder PilCk' (detail), 14}6. Oil on pilnelGroeningemuseum, 8ruga ,

I} MyopiccltildreninChinii

Photognpb rtproduced in Otto Rasmussen C"Uu.s~£yu~1u GIUl Spuuuu.. (1910), p. 18. '

bonles of ointments or glass for our toothbrush. There is notelevision in the living room. for with no screen it cannOI

,." \I:'hen We' look OUI of the windows we see no carsr ..1 • ,

bu~. trainS or aeroplanes, for without windscreens none ofthem can optratC' (and they almost certainly have not beende\.t!optd anyway). The shops in tOwn have no window dis­

plap and our gardens no glasshouses. In the evening themeets flicur with IOfCh-ligtll. The central healing owesmo~ to the Romans than the Victorians. We shiver in the'

darkness.Th~ are a few examples of what would be likely to

happm if glass lefl our Jives. Even mOTC' striking would be1M way in which almost everything else would be affected.There ,,'OUld almOSt cenainly be no tJecuiciry, since its firsl

gtmnrion de:pmded on gas or sleam turbines, which~red gins for th~ir d~vdopment. So th~r~ would be nondios, no comput~rs.., or emilil. There might well be norunning water. Clearly we could not cook with dectricitymd~ would be no freeurs or fridges. There mighl illsoM surprisingly little use of non-human energy in whatremained of industrial production. Our fidds would produceless dwl one twentieth of their current yield withoul the fer­tilisen discovered by chemists using glass lools.

In our hospitals medicine would be killing more peoplethan it cured. There would be no undemanding of the worldor bKteria and viruses., no antibiotics and no revolution inmol«ular biology from m~ discovery of DNA. As there..."OUId be little COOlrol of epidemic and endemic diseasesthese would ~verywhere be as rife as they were OIl the end ofthe eighteenlh cenlUry.

Our und d'. . eman mg and COntrol of space would be veryhmlt«l. We mig}<, L ."1 _"not even IH: .au e to prove thai the caw'

goes round the sun. Our astronomy wou.ld be ancie.nt ~ndw'ilther prediction haphazard. Long-distance navlgauon

our I .would Iilck accurate tools for measuring longitude ilnd 0111-

tude, and, of course, there would be no radar or radio com­munications, let alone the telephone and telegraph, to help us

when we were lost.The anistic ilnd aeslhClic world would illsa be entirely

different. NOI only would Ihere be no photographs, films andtelevision: our very concepts of space, perspective andrealiry would be radically different. There would have beenno Renai~nce discovery of how to represent thr~­

dimensional space and our systems of representation mightnot be far removed from those of Ihe twelfth century.

This book shows jusl how central glass is to every aspect ofour lives. It is true that other substances, such as wood,bamboo, stone and cby, can provide shelter and storage.What is special about glass is that it combines these and manyother practical uses wilh Ihe ability 10 extend the most potentof OUr senses, sighl, and the most formidable of humanorgans., the brain.

Through mirrors and lenses glass makes us f~1 differ­en.dy about ourselves and about Ihe world. Tdescopes,lTl1croscopes and spectacles lei us see the distant and the ~arin ways which the human eye unaided cannot do. Throughbarometers, thermometers, vacuum Rash, rcrons and a~hole panoply of other instruments, glass enables us ro~50late chemicals and test theories about their propl!'rtla and1Oleraclions. Glass allows a represenrarion of nillU~ 10 be­captured aCCUrately and Stored and then lnnsmined 0Vft'

)

IN\'IS1~LF. GL~SS

long distances without diSlOrlion. Glass, in shon, influences

every sphere of our lives.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, ahematives 10

glass have been developed and it now seems less irreplaceable.

The windowsof Chanresor King's College Chapel maynever

be exchanged for coloured perspex nor fine wine drunk from

plastic, but glass is wideIy being superseded by Olher transpar­

ent materials. The time may come when our world would not

collapse if glass disappeared as it undoubtedly would now, but

this has no bearing on the degree to which glass technology

was an important faclOr in improving wellbeing and know­

ledge in the millennia when modern civilisations evolved.

We live in a glass-soaked civilisalion, but as for the bird in

the Chinese proverb who finds it so difficult 10 discover air,

the substance is aimosl invisible 10 us. To use a metaphor

drawn from glass, it may he revealing for us 10 re-focus, to

SlOp looking through glass, and let our eyes dwell on it for a

momenlto contemplate its wonder.

When we do notice glass we may find it difficult to place, for

it tends to slip between categories. This is one source of its

ilIUraction and power. Glass is slrange. Chemisls find it defies

their classifications. It is neither a true solid nor a ITue liquidand is often described as ill 'fourth state of matter'. For a long

time it baffied scientists., who could not find any crystallineStructure within it. Glass is brillle, which is one of ils weak­

n«$«, but it is also enormously durable and flexible and, inthe creative h;mds of an experienced and knowledgeablecraftsman, it is almost infinitely mallubII.'.

Glm, wrote Raymond McGrath and A. C. Frost in 1961,

INVISIBLE GL~SS

can lake any colour and, though possessing no texture inthe ordinary sense of the word, any surface treatment. Asfor responsiveness 10 light and shade, it has no seriouscompetitor. It is capable of extreme finish and delicacy, isdean, durable and compaCl, and may be graduated almostimperceptibly from transparency through translucency toopacity. from perfect reflection through diffusion to thecompletely mall surface. There is, in fact, hardly anysurface quality that it cannot assume. Yet at the same timeit has a highly characteristic nature and in whatevermanner we treat it or whatever surface we impose upon it,it still relains that unmistakable 'glassiness'. Whether it isembossed, engraved, painted, sand-blasted, mirrored,impressed with any pattern we choose, moulded, blown,flashed and so on - there is almost no limit to what it willendure or to the possible permutations and combinationsof the different treatments - its vitreous qualities remainits decorative raison d'icrt.

In the early days of glass ~ople were concerned less with its

utility, which only later became apparem, Ihan with its

beauty. Glass was developed first to satisfy our aesthetic

delight, later for its use in magic and then, through one of

those great accidents of history, its light-bending capacitiesturned it into the most importam avenue to [ruth about the

natural world - a good illustration of John Keats's famous~ssertion that 'beauty is truth, truth beauty'. The awe­

Inspiring nature of glass was captured nearly sixty years agoby One of its great hislOrians, W. B. Honey:

Glass is nowadays tOO familiar to arouse all U11' 'IllOndl'r irdeserves. Intrinsically wonderful as the product of mel"l'sand and ashes it may br thl' occasion of funher miradl'Swhen made inlo vessels. for its brau[y never _ms [0 br

,~---

INI'ISIILE CLASS

wholly rhe rl$utr of calcul:nion. Its forms may be designed

and controlled, irs colour may be named and secured by a

peT("emage of oxides; but beyond all these there is a quality

in the maleriallhal defies prediction, and the play of light

and colour within ii, its insubslanrial air, and die 'pal1ern of

a gesture' which its form so often quite literally records,

are only the chief e1emeols, perhaps, in Ihe beauty it may

assume at the "'<ill of Ihe anisl.

The history of glass as a technology of thought has amacted

surprisingly linle sustained attention from scholars. Its

development is commonly assumed to have been toughly

similar over most of the world. If we think about glass at all,

most of us assume that, having been invented some thou­

sands of years ago., its making spread over Europe and Asia.

It was then used everywhere in more or less the same ways

and to the same extent, and that it has so continued up to the

present. We may be dimly aware that it reached a peak in

Venice during the Renaissance, but otherwise it mainly

seems a very useful and available substance.

One purpose of this book is to give serond thoughts to

such assumptions and received wisdom. We wam to share

our surprise at discovering, for example, that glass was prac­

tically non-existent in most civilisations and that, where it

was prese.nt, its role has varied enormously. We were equally

Sl.irpri5ed to find that it docs not follow that once glass has

hem invented it will be used and also that some civilisations

used glass and then gave it up. We hope also to recapture the

sense of the astonishing nature of glass SO vividly expressed

by Dr Johnson in Ino:

Who when M firsl saw the nnd and ashes by a c;asualimenWcnew of heal melftd infO a melalline form, rugged

•

II'lVISIBLE CLASS

willi esc;n-sc;ences and clouded with imPUril;eS. would ha\eImJgined lhat in this shapeless lump lay concealed s<> manycOlwenie-llces of life- as would, in lime. con~tilUle a gre~t

part of the happiness of the world. Yt't by some- <;uch iflr·lUilOU$ li(IUefaclion ""as mankind laught to procure a bod)Jt once- in a high d~r~ solid aod transparent: u,llIch mighladmil the liglll of the sun. and esclude the violence of lhe\\ tnd: which mij;hl extend Ihe sight of the philosopher tonew ran~es of e-~IStcnce. and charm him alone lime u ithlhe unbounded extenl of materi"l creation. and af anolher""lth the endless subordination of animal life: and. u hal b

of yet more- imporlance-, might supply the decays ofnalure. and succour old age with subsidiary sight. Thuswu the first a«incer in glass employed. lhough ""imoul htskno,,'ledge or expeetalioo. He was facililating and pro­longing the enjoyment of light. enlarging tOe ave-nues oiscience, and conferring lhe highesl and mosl lasting pleas­uru: he ....'35 enabling the slUdent to comempl31e nalUre.

and the beauly 10 behold herself.

To follow Dr Johnson's vision we travel widd)' in lime and

space, going back len thousand years and moving over the

whole known globe. The journey has not al""ays been easy.

To understand Ihe enigmatic history of glass requires the

insighls and methods of many ans and sciences each of

which has perceived a pan of rhe story bU!. like the blind

philosophers who each touched only one pan of th<' e1e­

pham, CantlOl imagine the whole.The lack of a rounded overview is well iIIustraled by the

treatment of glass in the museums we examined when re­

searching this book. The Victoria and Albt!'n Mu~m inLondon and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge displa)'

nne drinking glasses and mirrors. The National Scil!'nceMuseum shows lenses and prisms and the British Museum

7

C LAS S

archarological and art objecls. By assembling these coll«.

rions in a virtual memory museum, we began to pUI together

the shanerd hislory of Ihis eXlraordinary subslance. But

none dealt with windows. II was King's College Chapel, a

few yards from where we wrOle, wilh ils medieval slained

glass., Ihat reminded us of one of the cemral rolei of glass in

history.

We found the fragmems of an accoum scattered in the

work of historians of an, technology and science, and of

3n1hropologists, biologisls, chemists and op!halmologists.

Anyone who hopei to bring glass into focus thus has to !ravel

lightly through many disciplines despite Ihe warning5 of

good sense to remain within one '5 compelence, We have thus

~ heavily depmdmt on uperts in other fields, some of

whose work is listed in the $«[ion of funher reading al the

end of the book. Because glass is such a complex substance

and its inftum~ so liule srudied, it can be difficuh to prove its

effects. We may sense, for example, that Ihe mirror shaped

our notions of the individual, or that lenses changed 0plics

and profoundly affected the Renaissance. Yet i! is hard to

prove these conneClions beyond all lngument. We suggest

links and hope they are plausible and satisfying. People are

wary of 100 much gu«swork; this book contains a fair

amount of it. However, we have nOI disguised our gue~when we have had 10 make them. 11 can also be fairly said thar

dilccwery lOmetimes occurs after a firsl rough set of gunses

has~n to seem plausible enough [0 justify detailed exam­ination. We hope OUt reasoning he~ willitimulate others 10

~veu:igarc the degree: to which our arguments and condu­MOM are right Or "'rong.

. During the lUI thouund years IOmelhing quile extraor­dinary ha5 hiippened in the world, The population of human

•

I'<ou 'mmensely yet rhere is far more food to feed

beings las n"" " f-ull of changes in agricuhure. The resources 0

Ihem as a r..~"bl 'uer<n.< have vasdy expanded. Life expectancy

aV,1I a e.. 'bl . hhas generally increased ilS understanding of dIsease as, _, 10-" and many OIher changes are pan of rheImprovcu. ...... .inc~ase in reliable knowledge. ThaI increase, we thlOK,

would Itot have been possible without glass. In relling some­

thing of its fascinating SlOry we hope also 10 have shed some

light on how our world came 10 be as it is and how we have

come 10 be as we are,

,

r.L~SS 1'" 11lli W6\1

"

t. EQrI) EV.,..iQIIlloJUAn un)' Egypnan gb~....~ in:aOOul 'J10~ for sronng 1iqWd. Mowuri)' glu. Will oJ»qu., tik., ,hi, and 'I ,,'as ",.,11 0"'" a lno..$IInd y.,anb..fo,., dur glass b..cam., popular. Gla!lS w;u thll'!ong rqpotdftl ti an

a1r"""",ri~ fO pOCt"'y, or as a..",y of makingf~ofopaqutpr«irn.o. 'fOn<O'S.

'0

Hail, Itoly Light, offipring of H~a ... n:' jim-horn,Or of tA' EUT1l0!~urnolbtDm

May J txpress tntt W161omtrl? Since God is liglll,Anti ntvtr hut in W1approarhU lightDwelt from eternity, dwelt I"ttl in (latt,

Briglll tfflUltlCl of Imelt, tJUlI(t illcuott.John Milton. P.ntJU. u....IIoolIIll, 1u>e<.-6

Glass in the West­from Mesopotamia to Venice

o ONE IS CERTAIN WHERE, when or howglass originated, but for the purposes of this bookthis does nOl mancr greatly. The where can

broadly be answert'd by suggesting origins in the MiddleEast, perhaps in more than one place, including Egypt andM~tami ... As to when, some eslimale the origins of glass.t ktween }OOO and 1000 Be, while others suggest hints ofglazing on ponet)' as early as 8000 Be. As 10 how, all is com­plete guesswork. and we can only say that it was originallymade by accident.

The earliest forms of glass were nOI transparent. Wecan see this when tht: numbt:r of r«ovt:red glass objt:C1S

suddt:nly incruSt:s. in aboUI I~oo Be. This was also Ihe

GLASS IN TilE WEST

timle whlen the 'co~le-forme~' techniqule was developed.

Onle of mle two major lechmques was as follows A ° c. Sl1c~

was co\'lered in day, mien dipped into a crucible of heated

glass and withdrawn so that it was covered in glass. Theglass was smoothed with a slalle and made 10 cover one end

of thle day lump. After cooling, the stick was pulled OUI

and the day scraped away. Thus a hollow tube of glass,

with whatevler decorations had 1>«n scraped on thle

surface, could be made. At that point glass making

lextended along much of the leaStern end of the Meditler.

ranean and, through Phoenician merchantS, was $(:t to

spread through the G~k islands and North Africa. It was

seen as a substance which could mimic others, il was like

day, or could be u$(:d to imilate precious swnes. It was not

transparlent. In this period glass was used for three pur·

poSIeS: to glaze pottery, for jewlellery and to make small

containers, mainly for liquids.

Somlewhere between 1500 Be and thle binh of Christ,

perhaps a.round Sao Be, glass-making techniques spread 10

east Asia and wlere known w the Chinlese. Thus by about 100

Ie much of Eurasia had a common knowledge base of how

10 mm coloured and plain glass. its use continued 10 blemainly for the same purpose:s, glazing pottery, jlewlellery andcontainers.

Glau-blowing, which opened up endless nlew possibil.

ities., 'Was dleVeloped a.t some point in the century before thebirth of Christ. Somnmlere in Syria or Iraq, a revolutionary

""' techniqule of miling glass anefaets was introduCled. Upto this point glass objectS Wlerle made by casting and grinding.Then came the invention of glass-blowing. This involvedthe use of a long iron tube of at lleut a metre in length whichwas dipped into the mollen glass to pick up a lump. The

h bl"'w the glass inlO a bubble. We lend to think ofblower I en ... . h

ho n obvious devdopmenl but it needed a hIghly sop IS-

tlS asa . I° d -, of rnle prollf"nies of glass and liS pollenuaucate awaren",,, r - . .

to reach this point. Technically it required healing glass to a

much higher lemperaturle than for moulding or casting. Itnee-ded 10 be very liquid. This required a knowlledgle and

experience of furnaces Ihal had developed in the glass indus­

tries of thle Middle East. With the inlroduction of glass­

blowing, really rhin, transparenl glass could be made. This

nello' technique enormously increased Ihe versatiliry of glass

and, in particular, opened up polentially new uses.It is really jusl over twO thousand years ago that [he

great divergence in ils use in east and wesl Eurasia began.

In order 10 trace Ihe causes and consequences we ha\'1e to

examine the various civilisations separately. We shall do soin relation to ti\'e major uses of glass. The firsl three are

usefully distinguished using the more specific French terms

for forms of glass inSllead of the collective English noun

'glass': 'verrOlerile' fOr glass beads, counllers, lOys and jC'w­

ellery, 'verrerile' far glass vessels, vases, boules and othler

utililariiin warleS; and 'vitrail' or 'vitrage' for window glass.

To Ihis Wle may i1dd two more. There arle mirrors, and

Ihlere are lenses and prisms, including such applications asspectaelleS.

Thle Romans have a clenua! place in the hisrory of gJ.ns-::iey provided nOI only the technical s.k.ills, bul abo a 5m5e

la~;S$ as an imponant material in 11$ own righr. RouYng tthnology was in rnilny Wilys unrivalled until .L.. .

teenth ce y 0 ---nrury. ('I It was the revolution in aw'n.A hidt_. __ I •

'J

, , T It [

•'" , 1I'£5r

\\'35 the most imponanr feature in the develo. . pmem of thf

p«Uhar place of glass In the west. It is this atrirudI

. .. . e to....i1rdsg ass wluch dlsungUlshes the history of glass .

In ....'~ernEuro~ from irs history in Asia.

The possibilities for innov.uion coincided wilh the ak

of Roman civilisation, which placed glass at the cemre ::itsinterior decorative development. With Ihe development of

glass blowing it was possible to produce glass vessels cheapland in large quantities. Glass was such a versatile, dean an~beautiful substance that fine pieces became highly prized and

symbols of wealth. 115 success was so great lhal it began to

undermine irs main competitor, ceramics. Glass w.s princi.

pally used for containers of various kinds: dishes, bonlts,

jugs, cups., plates,. spoons, even lamps and inkwdls. It wasalso used for pOilV~ments, for coaring walls, for forcing framC1for ~Iings, and even for drainpi~. II is no exaggerationto say that glass was used for a wid~r rang~ of objcc15 than.lIfany other tim~ in hislory, including th~ present. It was espe­cially appr~ated for the way it enhanced th~ anractivcnessof th~ favourite Roman drink, wine.

In order 10 appreciate the colours of wine it was neces­sary to $Ce through Ihe glass. Thus another development,with great implications for the future, was the realisation thatclear g1ass ..as both useful and beautiful. In all civilisationsup to Rome, and in all other civilisations oU15ide westernEurasia, glass ..as chiefly valued in its coloured and opaqueforms, particularly as an imitation of precious ston~ Thekxlc-fftm~ of the perfccting of clear glassft· aeture ... the dneLopmcnt of glass as a thinking0001, ......"., ....... on<! op«UClo.

"their cwDns. ft19aving, painting, gilt decoration andtr 'r me &man. were grutly advanced. They knew all

"

tricks of the glass blower'S tude and many of their fi~et~ u,ood as anything produced for many cenrunesPI~were as tt

..fter. f kThe technic..1 ability of Roman glass cra t war. e~

h· ~ of both the dive~itv of the objectsmtant t at m termJ '/.

which they made, and the quantity, it could be claimed thatRoman civilisation was mor~ glass.soaked than any otheruntil the very recent past. This was panly due to the cheap­ness of the product. Every part of the huge empire could besupplied with glass. Rubbish heaps and middens suggestthat glass utensils were thrown away when only !ilightlydamaged as it was cheaper and easier to buy a new one than

repair the old.Of the five major uses of glass which we have suggested.

the Romans developed twO in panicular, verroterie (glassbeads, etc.) and venerie (glass vessels and other domesricware). But the othet dlr~ uses, which would be the greatdevelopments of medieval Europe, although perf~y prac·ticable and indeed known about, were not adopted to anygreat extem. These were viuail (window glass), mirrors andlenses.

It is quite evidem that the Romans could make goodwindows of glass, and occasionally did so. Window gla!iS,:,as apparemly made by casting, and pieces of considerableStze could be made. There is evidence for this from theRoman IOwn of Pompeii. Other examples have been found inRoman hou5CS in Italy and elsewhere. Yet most expf'n5 Me'

su~~sed at the slow development of window glass in Iwy.This IS usually explainccl by the warm MeditetT'3.M'anc1~a.nd the use of mica, alabaster and shells as cbeapu ahuna­IIYes. It may be that the large, Rat panes of glass were r.mn

crude ilnd the imperfeaions m~ant that mo. who ........W

.,

~---G L .. S S

afford lht"1II did not realty see lhem as nttessar r hy lOr en an

ci~g the beauly of I~eir houses. For whalever reason:"''1ndows were nOI a major development in Ihe SOuth A. "'n<moves IOwards nonhern Europe Ihere is more evidence ofglass windows, suggesling Ihat Ihe climate argument is

correct. In Britain they were quill' common after the Rotruln

invasion and even reached beyond Ihe frontier of the HamilnEmpire into southern Scolland. It was in northern Europtthat window technology developed and flourished ilfter lhefall of Rome.

The Romans knew how to make glass mirrors., yel melalmirrors were preferred. Archaeological investigations haveuncovered only a few examples of the former. The glass wasgenerally coaled with lin or, more rarely, silver. il was usedin hand-mirrors but larger mirrors in which a man could seehimself from head 10 lOe have also been found.

Likewise, the use of glass 10 magnify objects was prob­ably known. A little glass ball filled with water may havebeen used for fine work, such as engraving gems, but IheRomans did not develop lenses, prisms and spectacles. Glassas a tool for ohaining reliable knowledge, either in optics orin chemistry, does not sum 10 have been developed to anysignifiQflId~. The Romans hiod laid the foundations for• ~rld of glass, but the philosophical effectS of this slTangeIUbstana: "ere nol yet felt.

Our dif6cuJ.ty in undenl20nding the influence of g1i1SS isputly caused by a 'Widespread, bUI mislaUn, impression.Mo.t of us would assume thaI however wonderful lheRonan glass was, all this was more or less lost 10 the We51

,6

Il of lhe Roman Empire. This m..kes su~rfl-afler lhe co, apse ftsmen would have been killed or dIspersedcial sense; I Ie cra F hI.'h k-' fo' glass would vanish. urI ermore, oranulemar.. b h

long period lhis assumption seemed 10 be borne out y l eh logical record. far l~s glass daling afler "bout

::~:was dug up and whatlhere was seemed 10 be of infe­. \. Thopparenf dearlh of glass seemed a ch.. rac­nor qua uy.

leristic of Europe until as laiC as qoo; the deslructlon ofRome appeared to have left a glass vacuum for nearly a Ihou­Silnd years. Even expertS on glass believed Ihis until aboul

IWO decad~ago.Wilh such a piclure if is very difficuh fO su fhat gl.ss

could be a lechnology which made a greal difference. Ifwestern Europe more or less lost glass for a thousand years,it could hardly be in advance of OIher civilisations in thisrespecl. And if there was little glass in western Europe by1100, we would tend 10 lhink thaI il would lake some cen­turies for it 10 revive, making its inAuence fell only fromabout lhe sixteenth cemury. This piclUre needs to be reviseddrastically. This will provide a very differenl link in theatgUment, for it can be shown Ihat while there was cenainlya d.edi~e in manufaclure, much of the Roman legacy wasmalnlalned ilnd in ~""m' . d

' '7V .. ways., Improve upon e"en by 1100.

Archae:ology can be misleading. Undoubledly there W<lS

~ very rapid loss in tnc qualiry ilnd qUilOtiry of glus obj«tS'ound after about tnc fi~ hincr' I century, and mere se-ems 10~ litlleE easc In Ihe quantity even .fler the «onomic recovery of

ti~~o:;. :~:II~eeighlh cenlUry. But this may nol be a rcfl«_Fi aj>pened, bUI rather of three othe f;~r:sdy, t,he development of Christianity meilOl thai r itCl;'rs.

o 1~1s, Including gl very e...major SOurce of Ro;us on~ were no" placed in gnves, the

m1l.n g ass artefacts. Secondly, we knoW'

'7

G L A 5 S 's TIt[ 111'[51 , , T II [

that broken gl3ss was collected for recycling. Thirdl

f h I . E ·.L y,mucha leg ass In urope alter Ule ninth or tenth

c~ntury 1l~

made using potash mad~ from th~ ashes of ~'oodl d Ian P ~tS

such as bracken and beechwood. rath~r than fro .m manntplams. The result is that glass objects made in .L·,.

• ill ~ way ;rTt

much more likely to decay than Roman glass. ~peci;rlly

when buried in acid soils.

A final laci is that the assumption that glass had disap.

peared meant thai those who did do some digging did nOt

always notice what gl3ss there was. This was compounded

by the fact that until quite recently there was linl~ serious

archaeological work. on ~arly medieval Europe. The situ­

ation has now changed and the relatively young disciplint of

medieval ;uchaeology has revealed a wealm of medin"l1

glass. Exca\"3oons have transformed our knowledg~ and

shown. as we might have guessed when we loond .u thtglOrlow; sWncd glass in medieval churches.. that it waswidespread, made' by craftsmen with great technical skill ;md

confid""",.What then is the new picture that is emerging for the

pcoriod bt-tween AD ~oo and about lZoo? It firsdy incorporalts

a lime of the old StOry, a half-truth which should not btmtirdy lost. It is ind~ true that, particularly nonh of tht~ the collapse: of the Roman Empire led 10 a conside'rablt

'oM of technica1 skill and quantity of output for a while. YetraMr than a complC'te bren, we can now~ a picture of a

eke!. combined with continuity. 'There was a diminution cJquality _ quantity, but glass techniques were maincainedaad l:be high repnl for the subst:ana was ncK lost.

One of me rusons for our mig-akrn assumptionS Lid inthe faa dw much of the continued production oa;:u.rted on

.... ...... of "'" old Roman Emp;n. The un.... of rJ-,i

. ., up intO Gtrmany, nonh~rn France' andmaking mOVn> f

I nd The' Roman love of glass had spread as ;rr as

~gh:ni~tanand me central S;rhara, and as far nonh as Sc.OI­

lan~ and Scandina\·ia. Whe'n th~ barbarians overran the'

Roman Empire', they had already absorbed glass. as an essen­

tial pan of their lives, and this tradition continued. Thus

rtCe'f\( rese'arch suggestS that the Roman collapse had far less

tffect on me glass-makers north of the Alps than was once

Ihough!.The Romans had learn I from the originators of glass in

Iht easlern Mediterranean, but had then rerurne'd the gifl by

tnriching glass-making there. Even before Rome collapsed,

nonh~rn Europe:an glass-making was benefiting from the

easlern influC'llce' and it continued to reinvigorate' glassmaking after the collapse of the' Roman Empire. A reservoir

of skills and knowledg~ was maintained in Syria, Egypt MM:Ithe East~rn Empir~ after the fall of me' Roman Empire and it

is quite dear th;rt this had a dramatic efTw on northernglass-makers. Immigrant glass-romrs from the eastern

Mediterranean spr~ad across Europe: and improved the tech­

niques, panicularly in nonh-wesfe'rn France.

Thus, after the fall of Rome fhe siruation was (ar from

smic. Much of the old Roman technique was preserved, but

through tht cmruries in the' nOM the mUing of glasschanged. For coxample', Roman techniques were repbaed by~tW styles of glassware, mainly drinking v~ls,known var­Iously u Frankish, Meroving:Wl or Tauonic. h is WOldtnoting three c:speciOllly imponam influences which bmt dieearly Roman uecUence in new directions as well • h k' •

.Co •to preserve UMe gnat tradition..Ont of these wu Christianity and die . ,

glaud windows. particularly in du I .....

o.~ ..

., r II [ ••

d~\'e1opmt'nl of paimed and stained gl'55 manu{~

There arc~ references 10 such windows fro fi' h ".m II Century

France at Tours, and it little later from north-easl E I .ng and In

Sunderland, followed by developmems at Monkwearmou'th,and in the far north at Jarrow dating 10 the period ~rw~

681 and c. 870- By AD HXlO paimed glass is mentioned quitef~ently in church r«ords, for example in those of the firstBenedictine Monasll~ry at MOnte Cassino in 1066. If was theBenedictine order in particular that gave the impetus for

window glass. It was they who saw the use of glass as a way

of glOrifying God through their involvement in its 3cru.ilproduction in their monasteries, injecting huge amounts ofskill and money into its development. The Bmedictineswere. in many ways, the transminers of the ~al Romitnlegacy. The panicular emphasis on window glass would leadinto one of the most powerful forces behind the extraor­dinary explosion of glass manufacture from the twelfth

century.Apart from the addition of window glass, uncil 1100 the

twO main uses for glass had been for verroterie (beads, IOys,

jewellery) and verrerie (vessels). The period between 1100

and 1700 saw the continued development of the tWO earlieruses., especially in relation to fine drinking glasses. Wind0v.:s.both of stained glass in religiow buildings and of pl,unwindow glass for ordinary homes, became increas~Ycommon. Similarly, there were improvements in both quilhty

and Au of glass mirrors as luxury items for the home. :mene... use for glass was in the development of lenses, pnsms

and 5peCUC16, thaI is glass for optical purposes. WindowS,minors and optical glass would change the knowledge bast

__ .J esttt1tof Europe. NGnl." of lhew ...ere manufactUrn> to anyelwwbete in this period..

l'k 1,- lh:u the lr..dillon of glas'>-mOlklOg ne\oer11 ~In,>Ie.11 h

. 1"ly after lilt: fJl1 of Rome. espeel:t Y 10 I ed'c<! vUI III a 11 r, Ad '·t'e area around Venice, Yel il was rca y rr,mnorthern na I • , I I V .

. 1 lhat Italian. and P;Jr(lCU lH y enelLan.he t1urlcenll cenlury B h

' k' ,begiln 10 influence Ihe whole of Europe. y I eglass-mil mg 'd d

_ Ih cenlury ...lass production was WI e"Preaearly lourleen l> • edi1nd in the following century lhe techniqu~ lmprov

h C-b1y heilvil" influenced by events 10 the ea'>lernfurlc~pro~ " fMeclitcrranciln. In particular Ihe destrucnon of the city 0

DamascuS (a great glass centre) by the Mongolian war-lordTimur Ihe Greal in LtOO probably led to an influx of crafts­men to haly. as may also have happened in I1n when Con-

stantinople finally fell 10 the Turh. . .Two particular lechnical developments III glass making

laid Ihe foundalion for glass of a high enough quality 10

underpin the Knowledge Revolution. The firSI of them alsoshows how Ihe recovery of the skills of ancient Roman glass­makers was an importam inAuence. The glass-makers on theisland of Murano, nNr Venice. experimented ....·ilh Romanglass techniques and towards Ihe end of Ihe fifteenth cenrorylhey developed a method of making glass in which Ihin canesof multicoloured glass are embedded, known as millljiQri.Even more important was the development of cryslal or(cristallo glass), a word firsl memioned in 1109. It can bethin, almosl weighdess. free from Aaws and colourless and ilenabled the glass-makers 10 make wonderfully eJ~1 andintricate forms. hs purilY and thinness ....·as an object offascinalion and desire. Thus it fed imo the :mistic renais­sance thaI was occurring in nOrthern haly 011 this lime.

There is circularity in the development of glass in anyc,iVili5ation that depends mainly on how il is perceived, butILkewi~, how il is perceived is dependenl on irs qu;tli()' and

1 U I

>'

. I L --ause il was their prllicy II)I , .nRuenlla ~ h......ere p,lrtiCu ar y ~ 'ddy as possiblc, r"lher t an II). I 1(lues as WI d N

Pl't-"ad ,heIr leC 111 1,_ "'lurane\C attemple . I (Jr) d seCrt'lS as I ..retain them as Ira e . d these IWO famouS centres.ok' , reslncle to F .wa) glass rna mg 0' 0 I dO r Padua M..nlua, errara.o other !IJ!ian CIlICS. Inc u 109 .'

Many I had glass faclOnes.Ravelll1a and Bo ogna. r lass Icchniques, as well as the

The influence of lIa Ian g Eurorw p.. rticularly. f read OUI all over weslern r-' .gla'is 11)('1 : SF One imparlanI centre to whlChfrom Ihe ...Ixlcenth cenlUry.. d waS the Netherlands. and itI 'w ::.kills were transmme 'It Ie ~ more Ihan a coincidence Ihat one of Ihe ma,ar non I·",m. r fine "lass should be the olher famous centre ofern cemre'> a 0

0 • t dRenaissance painting. Cryslalline glass making rea~ Ie

A. '\17 and in 1\4' a Venetian founded a mIrrornlwerp III •

factory Ihere, .Yel. although Ihe Italian, and panicularly Venellan.

developments are of enormous importance afler aboul 14~,they tend to distort Ihe piclure, especially fo~ the penod1100--1400. Glass making was well developed III Germanyand France al the end of the Roman Empire and Ihis Ifaditioncominull'd. finding ils highesl development in Bohemia.Hecelll developments in medieval archaeology have nowallowed us 10 see Ihal fine glass was not an Italian preserve.There were. in facI, tWO differenl glass-making traditions inEurope, That in Ihe north. in Germany, France, Flanders,Britain and Bohemia. was, certainly until the early fift«'nthcemury. JUSt as sophisticated as that in haly, even if il useddillerem lechniques and produced olher styles of glassware.

In Bohemia. lhe wealth crealed by Ihe silver minebroughllhe prosperity Ihal enabled people 10 buy the excep­tionally fine, colourless <lnd Ihin glass, which was beingm*lhere by Ihe middle of the founeemh cenlury. This was the

1 It f., ,CLASS

vt'rs.nilily. As glass-making improved, so did Ihe desire fOr itand hence money Rowed into fUflher improvements. Thuslhe glass-making explosion in Italy is nOI merely an aUI(l­matic resuh of the increasing weahh of Europe from IheI'~velfdl century onwards. It is linked to many other forces,inlellecrual and cultural.

One of Ihese was the growing fascination with curtausand precious substances. panicularly among Renaissanccpatrons. Rock crystal was especially prized, since it wasIhought 10 have magical propenies. But it was available onlyto the rich. Fine glass b«ame a cheaper substitute, jusl asbtautiful and more versatile. The Venetian glass-makers alsobegan to imitate many of lhe other btauliful hardslOnes suchas agate, jade, jasper and lapis lazuli and to use them in allsorts of forms from cups to candlesticks as well as for beads.

The aSlOunding versatility of Ihe glass.makers ofMurano was described by Georgius Agricola in his accountof a visit in 1~50. 'Glassmen make a variety of objects: cups,phials., pitchers, globular houles, dishes, saucers, mi.rrors.animals, tree, ships. Of so many fine and wonderful ob1ects Ishould take long 10 tell, I have seen such al Venice, and espe­cially allhe feasl of Ihe Ascension when Ihey were on sa~e a~Murano., when a~ the most famous of all glass faclones.Glass making had become <In imporlant art form, an inlellec-

, "fi andtual and cultural fashion, and this fed back mtO SClenll canistic experiml!:nts. Rich men began 10 sel up glassh01l~for their own ust, OUt of curiosity and a desire to produabeautiful things. ClaM-making became a noble pursUil. .

Much Stl'6S has been laid here on Venetian glass, but It_l.___

' orl2nlWlUUld be remembered Ihat there were ocher Imppa.malr.ingccnu-n in haly, particularly the nonhern to......nof Ahare. Although smaller than Murano, the Ahare works

C~A$S I'" TltE WEST

2

,. I A .; ,, , r II I

continuation of an earlier tradition and in due COUTSt' theBohemians would even outdo the Italians.

The development of glass did nOI come 10 a halt Wilh the

superb glass of Venice in the fifteenth cenrury. Nor did glass_

making remain basically an !lalian and German activity. Its

hislOry from the sixteenth century was lhe gradual mo'.e_

ment nonh until, by the end of the seventeenth cemury. the

most advanced glass-making area in the world was England.

From being a relatively backward area, England benefited

from the inftux of skilled refugees from the Catholic

Counter-Reformation on the Continent. Thus. improved

techniques and knowledge were fed into English

glass-works.. Glass-making on any scale needed enormous

quantities of fuel to fire furnaces. From the early seventeenth

cmrury the shortage of wlX>d led to another imponant

d~·elopment- the use of coal in English glass furnaces. This

produced higher temperatures and lowered the COSt of prC)­

duction of glass. These developments led into what was to beEngland's greatest contribution to the art of glass manufac­

tu.re. This was the remarkable lead glass, patented by George

Ravenscroft in the late seventeenth century, made frompotaSh, lead oxide and calcined flints. It was to rival Venetian

gins and could be mass-produced. It also had different

liglu-bending propenies from Venetian glass, but when usedin combination with it enabled the development of powerfultelescopes in the eighteenth century. The glass industry gTt:w.i.pac.c. In 1696 Houghton listed 88 glass factories making:bottles (J9), looking-glass plates (1), crown and plate_glass(,), window glass (11), liint and ordinary glass (17)·T wenty-lix of theM: were in or near London.

The industrialisation of glass production in England,parUc:ularly through the use of coal of which there was

•••

-~. A.. ~'84IU",!l-U>lt ..'Y EJtglu4/~""g{1UI

D~vdopnl in Enl!il~nd in l~ I..Sl qu~"erof me, !levenl~n1h «fiN.,.

Iud gl.lK, b.,nll!le of il! IOllgh~u and brilliante. bcamel~_

:adv~nc:rd form of gl~15 in Europe. By <In UlWltp«led xcidenl. lhn Lrildgl<lSl ~1!IU evemu~lIy permillrd lhe developmenl of g ....~dy improved

lel~andmk~

'.

'7

of

-Glass and the Origin

Early Science

Tilt Ont runeu·1lJ. r},t ",any d'angt turdJ"W;HtaVtfl S ligll1 fartwr JI>illu. Ear,I> S JI>adQwJ fl)';

Lift, tikt " dQmt of m"lly-,olollrt~glew.

S,,,j1U ,At wAitt radiallet of Eltfll"y,.4....... Pncy BY'''''' ......lloy

G ' ASS 1Jl p"paring the

1["HF. ROLE OF.. .

philosophical and practical foundations f~r the

~ expansion of reliable knowledge from the nmc of

Francis Bacon and Calileo at the end of the sixt~nthcentury

is largely invisible. Yel we need to understand something

of what happened during earlier periods for 3\ least twO

reasons. We cannot understand the burst of scienlillc activity

from about 1600 without sedng that it is really a later WOlve

in the growth of reliilble k.nowledge in the west, which

followed earlier waves., and in particular thai which hadslaned in the thirteenth century. Funhermore, it is del"plylinked to developments in what we now classify as the 'am',

Science and art, the pursuit of truth and Maury. we~

not separate endeavours. Whal we now call the 'ani tie'

Renaissance is ;;Ilso comprehmsible only if we see: ir p;mJy as

'6

seemingly limitless supply, gav~ it an advantage al a time

when there was an increasing desire for glass artefacts of all

kinds. This in turn led 10 further innovation. The pattern

repeals itself again and again wilh Ihe push and pull of Ihose

skilled in glass-making seeking safe havens or new markers.

A civilisalion in which glass had become ubiquitous, not

merely for jewellery and mensils, bUI for mirrors, windows

and lenses, had emerged. It was based on Roman foundations

of knowledge and craft and this, combined with the rapid

de\'elopmen' of wealth in medieval Europe, meant a very

sleep rrajectory or curve of knowledge and use. BeIWeen

\100 and 1600 a civilisation which used glass only in limited

ways and in relatively small quantities had turned into one

where superb glass was widely available. Glass had turned

from a substance ~n as a substirute for preciOUS stones or

ceramics to something entirely new. It provided accurale

reflections of the observing individual, kept OUI the cold yel

allowed the individual to see out of a building and helped

humans to see the tiny and the close ar hand in new ways.

Both the speed at which this happened and the fact that il. wa~

such an cxll'2Ordinary substance, ah~ring human bemgsmost imponant sense, ~yesight, had immense consequences.

It happened al the righltime, in the right places and with suf­

ficient momentum to be the factor we are looking for. We

now need to examine a little more closely how it worked its

magic in science and an.

Gl-"SS II< TH[ ""[Sf

I It !

'.

h used an. f the species.. ave _ d, from Ihe incepnon, 0 h the<;;es are lorme

lapUn.: I method; that IS 10 say, ypoa ..aucepan i .. hot,'''''rlmenlil I ·,d i1wed that

e:<r- _~ A )'Oung c 11 W h' then add.. a pieced ,('SIet!, I hypol es,",

an he> it 10 lest out lie I I w thaI Ihing~lightly IOUI' h n the genera iI ,

r koov.-Iedge 10 strengtI' f hot SlOve maintalO thelT

o f the lOp 0 a drtcent1y removed ron;. _ . Iy all civili..ations have mOl I'

'me o...c:rlalOheat for some II . them the Greeks.ex..... rimenlS and notlea'St among rephrase Einstein. We are

r- L.. I' accuralt· to ,'"It 9-'Ould LtC mor .L absolute change..... I' are

d r.Hher Ulan an hlalking about egree. more experimental I an, r but some are . .all expenmenlil ISIS, , bo d in everyday life, II IS

Wh'! xpenmenls a un fothers. I e I' , civilisations, and 0 tenundoubtedly true that ,10 manyI ghl that knowledge of

. I 'me It was tlOUincreaSing y over tl '. All that we needed to knownature w~s already suffiCient. . d A . 10­

was known: the Buddha, Confucius, Muhammad an . rlS )So why experiment.Ill' had already provided the answers.

Indeed, many of those in power would comend that one

should nOt do so, for either it was a form of blas~hemy orsuggested doubl of Ihe accepled wisdom on whIch rulersbased their right to rule. This reminds us of the great obsta·des which have almosl always been placed in the way of acontinuous development of human understanding of t~

natural world,

As Karl Popper pointed out some time ago, the OpenSociety, that isa world of continuous investigation and 31SW5S­

mem of nature and social relations, has many ene.mi~ MOSthuman beings prefer cenainty and order abo\'e aU else. M05linnovations ;lnd change threaten such orderliness. In particu_lar, new ideas can be subversive and dangerous. Much ofhistory shows the lendencyof thought syst~s todosedown,solidify and pUt up increasing barriers 10 any discurn.na:.

Einstein characterised science as the combination of twO

things; Gree:k geometry and the experimental method, andthe laner he linked to the ·~naissance'. Yet a great deal of

research in the second half of the twentieth century showedthat the experimental method is older than the Renaissance ofthe fiftee:nth or .btteenth century. Indeed, in one sense, Ihemethod is timeless. All animals, and consequently lIomo.,

Tit!': ORIGIN OJ'.C I I': N < ,

'",pplicarion of the discoveries in medieval g__'-V...elry andoprics.

B)' Ihe time of Bacon and Galilro. there was alre~

(our-fold foundalion for science. Wilhoul which Ihe ~':n~

r~nlh century's de\'e1opmenrs CQuid nOI have occurr~.

There was a st'r of techniques, what we call the eX~rimC'ntal

method. There was a certain anirude of cUriosiry. a belief inrhe possibility of finding new fhings. a confidence ,hal rhere

were deeper laws 10 be discovered behind Ihe surface of

reality and lhal if was man's (ask to discover these. There

was a set of mathematical rools, particularly geometry andalgebra, and a large accumulaled knowledge of rhe natural

world and how il worked. finally rhere was already the

concept of the laboratory, filled with 1001s for thought, manyof them made of glass, but also others, such as the astrolabe,

for investigating and measuring nature with precision. Con­siderably influenced by alchemical experiments Ihere was an

array of retorrs, flasks, jugs, mirrors, lenses and prisms,already being used in chemiSlTy, physics and optics. The

mtergence of all of this is not inevitable. Indeed, it could.besaid to go .ilgainsl some of Ihe most powerful tendenCIeswhich we find in rel.iltion to human knowledge.

J'

,,'.1''''1..~ 0 ,.O~I"I"

A",I> 'Ill'G L A ~ ,

r I ,. Roman Cathnlicl<;md phases 0 "am, h

ill ccrt:lin branches an I " _old arc those few ca"es w ercf " ""m W lal IS uu ur

and Con IICla01" " .' '."f!Calion doe<; nm r,ccd c towar s rlgl I '.the normal len en y" and indeed becomes Incre"S·and the system remainS open

lOgly sO. h' h ompounds the political one, isA <;eCond difficult

y:bew

" ,~e Brahmin or Mandarin trap.'ght deserl as . .

whal one ml . ankind's history IS InOne of the major developments 10 m ..

, hI" f the mind - the tOcreaslOgthe improVing tCC no ogles 0 ..

wer conferred by wrinen scripts, new symbolic syslems In

:~thematiCs,new philosophical systems.. Alre~dy b! the fif~hm," notably with the Greeks, bUI also In China, IndIa

century ....., h~nd the Middle EaSI, very powerful lools of thoug t were

~vail~ble. Why then did it take so long for them to funher

det"pen our understanding of the world about us?One re.son seems to be that there is a tendency for the

literate group 10 become more and more obsessed with

the form of the intellectual tools and passing these on,

r~ther lhan their contexts and uses. The mea.ns, the tools of

thought, became ends in themselves. Hence one .sttS the

development of rote learning. endless chanting and re~ti.

tion, the obsession with passing down the heritage un­

challenged. In other words Ihere is a routinisation and

bureaucratisation of knowledge. Everything becomes codi­

fied and is de.dened in the process. The aim is to affirm thereceived wisdom, rather than to question it. The dispuGltionsand confrontational logic of Ihe Greeks combined with thesocial Structure at their rediscovery in Europe avoided the

full extremes of this consequence. But it WillS a very powerfullen~ency and one can see it well manifested in the la.te!"~rYlng up of Arabic and Chinese thought MindsIOcreasingl "d . Weft

Ytrame as memory Stores. repositories of WIlli-

GI.~SS AND TH~ Oil'GIN Or, < , , , , ,

One aspect of Ihis is what rniglll be termed tou hI

lendenC)' IOwards inquisitorial though Ai g Ythe. . t. lera .mnovatlon and excitement, whether in c.r h penod of

lilt -century Gelevt'nth.cemury Islam, lwelfth-century Ch" fette,

I I Ina Or fifteenthcemur)' la y, when conceptual schemes art' chall ­, "I. engt'd andopenness reIgns, Ilere 15 usually a reaction Th" ..-~b h . ISISmsti

tuleu y I ose who have n{'vt'f losl COntrol f·L h -o Ule I ought

systems - the Catholic Inquisition the Comm . p, UntS! arty Or

whatever c1~ system was in place before 'H ". eresll'S aTt

now rOOled QUI; challenges to the thought system art' also

~ as threats to the social and political order. The thought

poli~ art' active, but do nOI nero to be called in because ofself-('masculation by individuals under all sons of pr(Ssurn,including those of loved ones..

1be idea that, once 'o~n', syslems of thought will

increasingly httome freer, is a naive belief which we can no

longer accept. There are usually more people who have a

"·ested interest in the imelltttual (and Itthnological) SGlfUS

quo, tIwl those who have an inte~t in changing it. Suchpeople also, characteristically, comrol the means 10 know·

ledge through controlling the educational system. Whether

il is the Jesuits or the Mandarins or the Mullahs, a strict

t';flforc~t of the notion that cenain ideas must not be cml­lenged becomes widespread. It is more important [Q learn the

old truths and reimerpret them than to learn new on~.

In faa, as the system doses down il becomes almost, , .Impossible to challenge it in any way. Firstly, the new

thoughts cannot be thought. If by accidenl they are, they will

~ukkly be crushed. The central feature of the system, Ihat isI~ ,ystematic and absolute nature, compounds the diffieul­ua. It is made up of a series of rigid rules and logical links.To challenge one pan is therefore to challenge the whole _ as

)0

o ,(l~IGI:<

I II tA. ~ I>..-

., I d <;ur-. 1el11 A sense of won er,

IlinuS for expcnn . . 11 f which ar~\llllrlP"'>I11 prop of lleW things emergIng, a 0 II II i<;

rl ..... puulenwlIt , I Yet if lhi~ had been a ,P . waS 1 lere.. I for :.(lence, h more than tran:.-e,...,'n1l3 . . ld h:I\'e led to nHlC hd,)ubttul whelher Il ~'Oll d some developmentS in mat ­IJllons ,nut anllotallOns anelll:mcS and general theor~'. bolh menial and praclical.

. . eed equIpment. ,E",per,meI11 ) n E . the Arabic region

II se of lite Roman mplre.Afler lhe CO ap f h orld By the ninlh

I I working cenlre 0 I e 'II.' •

\Io'as tl( glass~osl exquisile glass of all shapes, sizes andcenlury. I Ie ed , glass

c.-.g made If an investigalor wantcolours was ~I" . I .fink to ICSI OUI chemical Iheories, there wa~ no pr~b em IIImaking it. If glass was needed 10 bend lighl III cert31ll wa~s.

or 10 break II up and examine ils constituents.. or to magntfythe hitheno unseeable. or to experiment 10 see whelhervision came through light that came into or went out of theeye, all was available. Glass provided, along wilh mathemat­ical and logical (()()Is from India and Greece, artefacts thatmade some experimenls possible.

The Arabic thinkers had available reAecting devices,mirrors and refracling tools which were primarily glassbubbles Wilh ~ liquid such as waler in them. The Romans hadused lhese water-filled glasses and both Pliny and ~neca

had r~ferred 10 Ihe use of a SOrt of lens Ihat has a narurallysphel1ul surface, being a blown bubble and hence notneeding lhe polishing which creales a n~rma) lens. TheArabs were heirs to this device. These waler-filled glass

~:besfcandr.ea~ily show magnifying effeclS, !lIe roncentra_o ra lallon from fhe sun So h

b - I . leycan be used asurmng g asS6. Funhermore if two I

fOUr cemimelres d' ,gass globes, one of saywater and the sm~~~rel~r::d ~he other of len, are filled with

goP aced close fO the eye and meII

......--o ,o RIG I NT U fA i'I DG l A 5 $

The firsl wave is Ihe work of Arabic scientists from the ninth10 twelfth cemuries, Three conslilUentS of their world can benoted, There are me new Iheoretical frameworks from Dlhercivilisations which n«d to bt absorbed by way of lesting ~nd

exploration, The recovery and absorption of Greek and fO alesser extent Roman discoveries is bUI a part of this, Theywere also absorbing ideils from the eaSI, mOSf notably, themathe'maliC1 of India and the enormous learning of Chinil.The great minken in this fertile area fed by so many streamsof thought were faced with absorbing SOffie new theoriesinto meir philosophical systems. The powerful Islamic civil­iution that came to straddle much of Eurasia was placed at aperfect painl between east and west, and crealed a dynamic

ritual or rt'ligious Irurhs. Tht' idea was nOt to search r.

muhs, but to t'laborate and fill OUf fI,- ld Or ne".~ 0 ones

A further Obstacle strengthened these en' I __- TI - d- -d g era dl5lncetlves, Ie III 1\'1 ual who experiments h r I ,-

T . as 1tt e chance ofsuccess. he fools and lechlllques for disco' .\ enng new thinare weak, the complex interplay of causation gs

too compluand concealed for Ihe naked eye Or Ihe brain alone.

So, what is needed 10 make knowledge cum,l,,- d. IveanlOusher In a new, open '9,'orld of reliable inform,,- "'n

IOn, ..... n<l.tcan make an experimemal memod not mer"ly, -... pllV~le

mailer of individual survival bUI a '?,ridespread and ~cceptrd

method for reinlerpreling Ihe received wisdom about the

world~ Then~ are probably many 'hings, only a few of whichc:ID bt ligh!ly touched on here. Some of them become obvi­ous if we look at the IWO burstS of expcrimemation whichform the background to the era of Galileo..

p

, ... II' ,rlc."('o II I I •

~ .. I) lllFc.~~SS

. . ker on optic$ was Al·kindl (c. 1-66)Tht' first malar thIn f I' h nd put '>Orne: order intO the

heoryo 19 t3'I<·ho'1c·orkedonat. d the relics of Greek ~~nce. In

. bser\'auons an dchaos ot °lbn Sahel wrote a treatise on burning-Kla~' anaboUI 98-\ f < His proof showed that he had <II

her kinds 0 mlTfOr. . I., f "-metrical reasoning. which wa§ a substanuamaster\, 0 e"V . h .

...:; tion to the later sciences of optiCS and p ySICJ 10contnuU .. _

I This is verY imponant. firstly because 11 IS COff__..,e.enera'. r' (~ndl\' ~ause it had been achieved by the app lcauon 0

gtOmetrical reasoning to a physical process., thu laying thegroundwork for the use of mathematics in optiCS. Of counc.,It rtquires a further assumption. namely tbat light tr.wds instraight lines. an assumption which they had and is indiat~by daily observation of light beams as rhcy tnve.l throughclouds or holes in • shuner. All of this set the tone for rigor­ous logical thinking on the back of experimnuation, which isreally .....h.t the gener.nion of increasing reliable:~c

~so kno"'n.s sci~ce. is all about.Possibly the greatest of the Arabic philosophers olligbt

Alhuen, born aboutl)6~.worUd in Cairo making copies of

Euclid and Ptolemy. He died in about 1(41 having puNishedSOme, 10 books. His worK. on optics was tnnslated in about'100 into Latin. On YuWn was prin~ in 1572 and domin­ated speculation until Kepler's revision in 1610. It ..,. ..trnpirica.l work, dlOlwing conclusions &om wbaa Album....observed. Forinstanee, he did a famous e'p!1 inwn« at ._

pliiCed three candles on OIW side of a ICiftJl wia:Fl. • ....in it, and observed me poirus of light which ..,. It •• _

~e wall on the otheR Iide of abe: .....eea, ..* ...lIght rays tnveUe:d in WiI •.,_ IiDes ...... _ ...pu"" ............. -U ..... ob<y .... _ ..__each other 0.. bena in ..y way. He S , ..........

..::!:!-:::

, " , ,-<' t I

..

• ~D Till!. OKIGI/< OF

:c

la~r one at a little distance from the small h'>1 r. . er,t en a (decid_eo y TUZZY) mvencd, but nevenheless quite reasonabl 'f d< b' e Image

o IStant 0 1ectS, somewhat magnified in size. can be ~n'The two globc!-s can very loosely be called len<- d -. .....~ an arequ.lte- easy to prepare ~"here mere is a tradition of I. gas~

blowing and the availability of clear glass. as was the ca~ insn.-tnI Islamic centres.

Such tantalising invened images haunted the imagination

~~rs from the oghth «ntury to the sixteenth. and ga"e

mt to remarks such as that of Roger Bacon thaI 'the most

i ... objects may appear JUSt at hand' and have led laler

(i .....on to think Wt medieval Arabic or western

'" ec' ilEJi possnscd some form of telescope. In a way

they did~ such a de:vice, because the magnified image is

cal = ..Yet the image is so distoned as to be useless in

i p' g. praanl deviu. That would have to awail the! ~

... me arty Ie'WCilteenm cmtury.

~~' E1a were vial in the period when lsl.mic~ • 'Ill .... itl peak. between the ninth and_ '~"'L'_ • - IS n.......nt if we look at those fields

... Dr *. L.. t C '5 abeir greatest contributions........._01 toMe dw minute or to test com·

7 L !

i -. 'h 0iW of dw greatest Anbic""'-'7 •- - ;. ,; • _ hh ane essential for

... IUm deeply inAuenced. '..... • rcIe of prisms and~~_ '.lIhopaoduceacolour--..--... 7 S

,... ;: 7 ••:· a ••~~::~:~c • _. _, , -:-7........ ..' : • ..ata.effeain5 'C '. ,"dwn'1 neeof•

01..IS

form was purelv visual; recognilion is Ill'" I f' '. . ~ resu l 0 l11el1)or'

and IIlleri:'nce. Shapes and colour COll1t' imo". ). , It' e~es. f3tht'

limn. as 11l the old theory, Itglll lravelling OU, r I ', 0 lIe I've la

find obl~IS. He suggesfed thallhe surface of an b' '. _, - d'n- 0 Ittt COrl_

SIStc:o 01 many Illerem points Or specks which 'l,'e"" 'odthen rearrange, He analysed an old subjecl in a new W<i and

comribuled 10 an understanding of lhe function of II:ere,HO'l,'e\"er. he did not perform a dis5eClion of lhe ey~ _

Islamic law forbade it - and hence had an erroneous piclur;,'

of ils anatomy, He may have il1\'ented the CQffl(fQ 06JC1I.fQ,

and cenainly used one.

Yet despite the enormous advances made by Arabic lheo­

reticians. it is generally admilled that they did nOI break

through into that set of interconnected practices which wecall science, Those who have looked carefully at the achieve­

ments of Arabic scholars are agreed that, for some reason or

another, they fell short of the breakthrough lhal occurred in

western Europe sometime after the thirteenth century"

The Arabic scholars clearly knew abOUl plano-convex

pieces of glass and used lhem, though they did not appar­ently use double-sided lenses, They discussed spherical and

pan.bolic mirrors, the CQmUQ ODSCUrQ, plano-convex lensesand vision. Lik.r:wise the medieval European writers clearly

. I I d sedlheminknew aboUI pnsms and p ano-convex enses an u "thrir experiments. While it is the case that Ihere is linle eVI­

dence that the lens with both sides curved was developedL.', , . that the knSDCIore 1180 It ~ms over-rts[nctlve 10 argue .

• , "1 '~aml~was unknown before thiS date, and It cenam y g:r hleading impression when we consider the accounts of, t I'

d' I sciennstS,effecti of gbss on magnification by me leva hallwhich w~r~ to have such ill profound inAuence. If, as we s ,

r I was Insee. one of me mDSl revolutionary effects a g aSS

G I,. ... S S ... 1'> I) T II [u, • I<l to '"rHEO

~:<ll b,. ~ ~ > > f II this arc 10 e

Ie seeds 0 a 'Id micrOSCopes. 11 I" worth quooog t 1C

nt'S :111 tury " Il<,k"'(l'r-, thirleenth cen . I potentials of g asS as~inlle "krsont1e I,,'tlln' by tWO tlll\ e h ve'y well t 1e

"aCCOunts h of them s owIJll1'>U'r' ing neW things. Bot r d by the awarenessJ y,~y 0 see h' kers were taota lse Id

'n which early t In ," glass which they cou\\ Jy I d' Yproperties 10of some <,xlraor lOar r I" state of the technology.

I" bec3Use a t 1.. , onfullv uti ISC ) in his PerspecuVQ,

"'" . G~osselesle(c.117~-12'i3Roberl 'lhe effects of glass

ke thing-; a very long distanc~ offsho.....s us 1101!o' .....e may rna I ."d larger near things

"f I cd very c ese. "appear as 1 p JC

IId how we may make sm311 Ihings

""",ar vtry sma , an .an'· " e want so that It mayplaced al a dislance appear any Size w " d"hlbe "ble for us (0 read lhe smaliesl letters Oil mcre I eJ" poss~ 0"'" counl sand or grains, or seeds. or any sort<IISt:lIlC~,. ' '" , Iof minUle objects ."" It is obvious from geometncareasons. given a transparent body (diaphanum) of knownsize and shape al a known diSlance from Ihe eye ... allvisible objects may be made to appear to them in any posi.lion and of any size they like; and they can make very largeobjects appear very small. and contrariwise very small andremOle obleclS as if Ihey were large and easily discernibleby sight.

Roger Bacon (111.4-94) look these ideas funher, for henow had available the work of Alhazen. He wrote that

If lhe letle" of iI book or any minute objects be viewedlhrough a ICSSler segment of iI sphere of glass or crystal..ho" plane b "I'd

lise IS 1I1 upon them. they will 3ppellr farbetler and larg" A d h c- .L"'" n I erelOre 1IllS IllStrument is useful10 old men and h h

10 t OSt't ill have weak ...yes. For r.hey may~ fhe smallcst letters sufficiently magnified, .. th~ greal.

-,

.........

" ." I ...o " ,1 It I

h tt .lOd the. \'", of the C ure

.. ~ and lhe Rolln'i \1 ~ ldcd the IMItIU·of uni\ersltll' h'o their different Wd~" pr

o\ knowledue

,wllCI I 'nO'ncw !""eronom), f< he new e:trnJ t':>'

lional infraslruct\Jre ~r ~'ere the astoni,hlO~ achlc,"cment

~ooded in. For nOt on ) I _Romans. partlcularlyk d to a I~sser extent t l~ nd td

oi Ihe Cree ~ an, JlUral hiSlory. l'ngineenng a m 1-

m Ihe lauer ca~ tn n b whal reach~d Europe was nowTlt' made a\ 31Iab'c. ut . thesis and

CI , dded loree bv the achieyements 10 sm, had.~H'n J _db' Ihe A rahic scholan. rheyeXltn)lon 3113ll\t' ) ( China andb '- . .J much of Ihe accumulated knowl«tge a •

J SOronJ be thtrnaticalIndIa h ,,·dl. in panicular in relauon to a ~ter rna

)\'Stem. and Ihen added their own expenment;l! M.d the.·{)wical observations.

Wilhin a period of about one hundrrd and fifry ynrs"eslern Europeans moved from a world .rhere cven the~mformed knew liltle about the principl~ of the nawral

"'orld, \USI ..·hat had bf:en preservrd in a few~

plus some native ingenuity, to one where they had bdo~

lhem much of the accumulated reliable knowledge: _ boldbuill up over most of Eur-asia during duff tbousiand yan..The excilement, the stimulus to questioning, 1M wondtr .....curiosi[}' are palpable in me gTCal thinkrrs of the a..:. andperhilps nowhe~ more so than in the works of Rower lbco-

This curiosity, the impetUS to Ies( and speculaIc. dIe ..._that there we~ expimding horiwns of~.n-_.'NilS known i100 there ....e.~ new- wortds w be di•••= B••

boosted by !he rapidly expanding wahb I" •••the period. The new bunt of PJl1lfu" 1 heexploitation of wind, ~DEi ...-un-" the. .tIIIi1nd cities., and the .... '. of a ' , ;

"temporarily ill \eus."....-t llie.......,.,encourapd • p' 1".. a,;;.;;",.

.. I'.' ., , .•o ,

..

o HI" I NTil..:AND

.... _ ..... b 'of:---.. t LL Ab know&ecIge into medieval

• P, ria al she great tradition of

1It-:~"BlI ~' JA';;or:rWedafterthecol~... E~••~ftI:' 1hde pieces were

7 As W ... · Ii.« ;---bad been 1051,

.. . s ., ........ A~! IIWal bURl of....... to. ~,; ........ -~- I I If • rmocu

.. - I I .........

founding

esl things may appear exceedilwly small aod he ,on [t:COn_

lrary; also lhal the most femOle Ob,'ecls may' .appear )USI OIl

hand, and on Ih~ conrrary" For We can give such figures [0

lranspilrenl boehl's, and diSpose [hem in such order wilh

~ to the eye and [he objeels, [hat Ihe rays shall be~fracted and bent IOwards any place we please; so Ih,1.[ Wt

may~ tht object near at hand or 211 a distance, under anyangle "'e please. And thus from an incredible distance we

may read the smallest lellen. and may number Ihe smallesl

panicles of dusl and sand, by reason of the greatness ofthe angle under which we may~ Ihem; and on Ihe con.tnry we may nOI be able 10 S« Ihe g~alesl bodies JUSl byus, by rea50n of the smallness of Ihe angles under .....hichIhey may appear. For distance does nOI alTeel this kind of

'ilion.~ringby accident, bUI the quamily of me angle.

Ahl'lOllKb ~ application of this theory had 10 awail Ihe

~ ollpeCtacle 1~5t$ into telescopes and micro-,Ift, idea was now eslablished thai glass could open up

-_ofknow...._.L. . d .".. .~,me mu:roscoplc an macrOSCOpiC.d' • be po-nri·1 of Ims«, partly developed by Arabic...-.h C ''I to buulised.

GLA'S

-

...Oltl(,l'1 II t

d

. g of space and liglll which he) at the hean ofIlllder,>tan Ingeometry.

'Th." ,mptovemenos we<e " ..lysed by dc"lopmenl> '"op"" 'nd spe.,;fically the ""ns,ve wo,1< on «flw'ng.bending and ,nalysing Jigl" by Adela<d, G,osse""" Bacon'nd Olhe". Fo' ,his ,h.y used glass ",ols. pan,col

a<1ymirror'>, prism>;; and lenses. Yet in order to sustain interest, tobuild up a community of interacting scholars. to have a ~nseof ,ow

oland insight intO hi,heno ,",tactabl

eptobl.

ms, meglass <DO

lsu"d in geome<tical "penmen,s wete very imp­ortant. Their role has disappeared, for once the discoverieswere made such tools seem unimponant, It may all seemeasy. perhaps inevitable, after the event, But setting out (0lest and improve Greek geometry it waS essential for thegreat medieval philosophers and mathematicians to have a!hand the new tOols nOt available to the Greeks, if only to give

them strength in the task,1n recent years there has been a growing realisation of dwsophistication and importance of medieval oprics- Thisp,nly".ms f,om th. wo,l<of A. C. C,onilii•.H.~1beway in which research intO the causes of the rainboW .......sunJigh, p",ing m,ough , sph.n,,1 gl"" 0&<0' ...full of water which refracted and then in~Y re3 s tlight, glass prisms hexagonal c-_....

Is and 10 00, it g 7 .,.

, ,,- _B yPGrosseteste carried on by Albc-rtUS MaW'.... ..,

' .•and WitelO over the thirteenth century .... '" 2 'liltearly fourteenth cen[U~ by~ oJ r. 7 7rill ..whole of this investimlUon usiJII~ .. a~ .

development of~ 01 the .... L 2. 7."underpinning'l of .. •and thep~olut and ai,,,,' rt

CL,lS5""'0.. TilE 0 RICIS OFSCI E N C £

knowledge. The symbol d .. .. an expression of th'm reh~ous buildings in the mag ·fi IS expansion liesG . • nt cent de Iothlc cathedrals. These very ca," dive opment of th~. th

1If' ra S also haga~n . e necessary counterpart which allow~ ow us onceconoslty to be turned into pwgte . . wonder andA

SSlve expenmes we have seen from abo I I' nl.ne\'er.foruonen t d'.. f ut t 1e ate twelfth centurv a'C ra Ilion 0 glas k.i' -'somed. This development tooks-7a

ng III Europe bios­nonhern Italy b I' Pace most famousl)' inEurope. The :n :; t~ so In most other parts of wf'$lernknowledge in e glass.maker, in (Urn fed by the new. geometry and optics fl . L dmcreasingly ap r d ' ounSne and was. p Ie to uses of glas I· . Iunprove the h s exp Icn y designed too uman eye and what it sawne example of how com I ..new g1asstoo\ d p ex the tnterplay between the<lev I s an abstract knowled .

e opmmt of med. I ge can be, IS seen in the. leva mathe . .seems qUite distant f gI manC5, At nrst SIght Ihisin puticular ari~o~ ass. After all Arabic mathematics,;mlV> euc and alg.b:-'-r:-

nantinfluence f ra, which had such anlQtIOn, ind' ,came-rom ala. Yet it iu' 'fi more or less glassless civil-madw:ma' bu 19o1 cant that E' , .'r; ,.,% ucs t (Euclidian) IllSteln slllgied out notit IItihc rnolulion', Perh geometry as the key tool in the,__.. man a) aps geometry' . If'

..... of gebn or . h . ,Ill nse .15 no more-... ant mellc Y .lIE'. ~--,'many of th . et without the.we It ' ' c.r,cn....us e great advancementS in• . .... _ _ oL.-. orNI'ards 'NO ld" - . .oped 1Il. ('},o., n .... _... u ..... Illconct>tv-b -- 1 iIr . --~.--, "'ascrt.'o.. ro.- -•• while: the G not greatly devel·_=M 4,..:·,,,.lhetubiect reeks had laid the!W... by~ lel.· came aliv. . d

• _. "1.1 aft-i.. __ "'K: -.d ..... agam anof ..' __na. .....,- by th ed.. .:...U &.- _~~ .,.. QOC '\Ute m ieval1lw«: ... I ~. cI:fficu a maner~ i It though~ ~

• ~ "'PrOvement in the

Panicularly import:tlll was the work of Roger Bacon.Two of Bacon's works dealt with optics: D~ mullin/,·, .r QUantspuiorum proposed a philosophy of natural causation basedon an optical model and Dt spuulis comhur~nrihUJinvestigatedways in which light was propagated and applied this to Iheanalysis of the burning-mirror. These were among his mmlsuccessful and influential works, cemringon problems in geo­metrical optics and building, as we have seen, on the melhod­ology introduced by the Arabs in their great COnlribUlion toth~ development of the sciences. All of this work dependedonoptical tools, most of them made out of glass. He looked atvarious curved surfaces and the principles of refraelion and~ from these surfaces, using concave and convexmirrors. H~ looked at clear mirror images to see how the~ is rdlected in the mirror. Mirrors, prisms and lensesallowed the new mathematics and geometry 10 de\Ielop.Then area number of reasons why me expansion of reli~able knOWledge in medieval Europe took earlier ideas on 10 afunhe.r sage. There was more knowledge available to theearly European scientists than fa me Arabic thinkers, for ontop of the rnived Gtftk knowledge there W35 me added•< I ..... of the completed Arabic synthesis. The speed ofdie' I ~

• - -- ~fiilfgrnlerinweslC~rnEurope.'it t a millennium In the Arabic world, it.. ce _ .. in Europe. So the propulsion.,., ,. - ..QIikl*,....~r.TMshockofvastI. ,at ..... 1.1 &.::iI- I·a _ • and flooding in must.......10 • ~- ••- " , at ..al-ftail,... for .f ..... [ II Ltp Mil upenmen-1 • 101. 'WeN incftaaingly~~~ -.b'± liven • tIIl:liIN t nn. i Amion ofi -. tt.. .... .anon. The' Its which

co LAS ~ A S I) T II F OIlI(;IN o ,SCI ( ~

" "

1 , .. f •", '<JII,·,I"1 II I

~ ... IJ IG L ~ S S h nl~(J1 ,,90ur1d be~ble to prmlldc ' &ronh,"l1-sed ..""c re a . .....ere more ~T,0 be U . the pnc;m<; h I~bt'g,," r !"tormal vision,. .d .... gla..s tee no V~Jlne level 0 . I apparanl5 lIT1prO

Vl:

.J he chemIcacaleu•1 d "mposslblerapidly develO~~ ~ralory without glass i" almos~b and aIn fact. (he a Id be in;1 (apan from.vt of what \/,.ou flasks cont~ineri,10 conce' . I ) without lhe retortS. • . Ife"" measuring tOO S • ~ When we look al mecheva·smsandsoon. . h estmirrors. lenses. pn . laces of scientists 10 1. e fit •d~riplions of the I,l, orklng Pd' We afC beginning to

f fill d with glass eVlces. colhev art 0 It'll 1 e I - trUments ""ere. ror. .dead these g aSS lOSapprecialt'· ho\\ ","'I espr. I En ,Iish glass includc;§ a widemstance. recovered medlcva g .~ with. . t The laboratory eqUI.......'"range of chemIcal eqUipmen . E and to aglas) did not de"elop outside w~stern urope ,cerla,n t'xtenl, th~ islamic world.

""- .....f h -d develop........ d> pAs we have ~n one ate rap. ........, W>dow ..-...--technology was the making o.f panes of _ceable in the~and coloured, which was pamcularly non _~...J..:"."~dfcet~-·e'rn half of Europe. One very P cit IInIf •working conditions. in the cold and dark rtOC OU:.. ..Europe people could now work for k- e i bo1IP ....

L_ shielded &.-more precision because llicy ....ere ....mentS- The' ligh' poured in, yet tbe coW"~-'_...-1, s.____to glass only thin slivers of bon'I or ~ ... _ ..the' window~ wae 01 •• ,light admined, dinuDn". •

hi,:Ouldabobn •• d • t •deeper level y.,.. ! - ...

whethe.r in. 1 '"

,,,"~,,., ..

I II !, .'-,.

\lId Ir,lInl' lh"uv:ht h, b< .undll1~ \ hl"n...nd ..,

c·,1I1,,'l\lf.UO: •

I 'inll" Ie Id .. t. , ••b.. l r .J1.-1IO .n .lIld .J II enll' til It, Ihe det,;u1\

I It' ...Jill'" •

,"

. II ,n'm' l,kely lklt ,he V;1.a........ mdl>lol. .. lTered ,heII nJll L •

r\'1.11Il'll~ bo:l\\(.'l'n Itum.Ill" .1Ild Ihl'lr ""odd In 9..1), v.hlch 111\

Oil" dlflidllt h) rl'l'U\ cr. II 1l1J)' hJH' ellu .ur.J~ed ,he cumem·

pl.lllt,n (1t O:\lcrnJI n,llUfC from .... 111110 lhe hou'tC, ..n oIpprm·

.HlOIl pi 11JIUft' 1~,r,I'- .Iwn ..ako:. ~n lhrou~h a 'nodoWO', Yt1

d ..Jf ~IJ........ ..1 .. Ilnl~ one p.ut of the way In which wmd0W5

~.Jmt' 1ll.Jg:1l "J~Cmcnh. It i.. r.Hher nOtIceable mat all rile

~R.IlC ..t mt'dll,\ •• l , .... lclll, ..I'i In the wcost were chu.n:htMn:

-\dt'lJrd 01 Ruh. Pecham. Grlhseteile and Bacon. Although

rhb m..) ~ dut' to the lact Ihat only ordained c1eria had

JI;(l',,<; t'llh(' lime .ind It';arning (0 make a high level comribu­

ft,'n. II ~llll remains lnleresling lh:u they hould ha"e rurnord

IIle,r allenllOIl ~ )lrongly 10 optics and rel31ed subjectS. ls II

lu,r ;a \'\lim:idtnce fhal (hey were living al a rime when the

ne\\ cJthedrab were being buill? Ii seems probable that mr

I'glll rh•.lI tlooded In through the magnifi«m wined glass

\\ ind\l\\ ~ inAuenced them.

~o wonder optics became a cellini field of medje,."2J

Kience In Ihe "'est, the counterpa" of ph) ics in later cen­

tunes. The metaphysics of liglll, il5 s)mbolic impo~

both in Greek NeD-Platonic lhoughl and in Ch.risoaft

thoughl. i.s a rich theme wilh enormousron~ If a:J

also immensely complex. Sirles of lbought .·en' inMnrcd.

bUI given a new impetuS by die expanding ."'Of'Jd of h8fw

through ~ windo""S in churches and prh~ houKS-~•

__ -, L.__u d It_

hght and knowledge. Irulli anu Maury. ---;:,._ J'"

gl:ass dial united !hem. So Ihc« a p ,. ...

do I · 01;-.· .. -impetus 10 explon' and aU" .-I'".. . a".... ,.,-This made Ihal co·r.... lJJI ,.,

. =' h dwe callihe uq:cn - ..

.....'" I I .,'""Ill,.", II IA .. 11•o , •

" ,OR' r. I ..1 II f

Of course, in this discussion it is impOn3nt not [0 fall 1n10

rhe tfap of believing thai glass always led 10 a closer approx­

imation of what nnally turned out to be correct knowledge as

we conceive of il. There were many fruilful errors on the

WJy. One of the most important roles of glass was in 'narural

magic', especially in alchemy and astrology. Alongside the

curiosity and desire 10 understand God's law5 of a man such

as Hoger Bacon, there were numerous people who desired

power through the making of wea!lh (alchemy _ the search

for gold) or foreknowledge of the fUlure (astrology and

soolh-sa)'ing). For them glass was a powerful 1001 and

felOrlS, mirrors and lenses were developed in this fermenting

no-man's land, one of whose las[ greal magi was. ewton_

For example, [he extensive use of mirrors in magic, from tht"

e.arly fourteemh 10 Ihe end of the sixleenth cemury, is widely

known from [he work of Ciordano Bruno and the Hermer·

ical Tradition, Ihe Rosicrucians, Della Porta and John Dee_

Research in this field shows thar the old opposirion between

science and magic is being rethought.

Ycr if we try the rhought experimen[ of wishing .aQ,'3y

glass in Islamic and medieval Christian civiliSiiDon, ir is IIOf

difficult to see how reliable knowledge would probably Iu,-e

come 10 a halt. Any child will rell you that an e:o:ciDng~

book is not enough, even when ir setS our ",II somof~,b4e

cOnne<':rions and theories. Only when Q,-e are equipped .. fir rubes and rnic:: Of ••Jam jar, a magni ying g ass or res • ' ' ,

·11 I . ld f .arure I kIl:.lrD lie dIVI r Ie amazmg wor 0 _. ZL .....

Obviously gla .t, on irs own. A QOI ,,,<11f:!:;.. 7 _

b f .. -_ .. new kilo'" ."unl 0 cunoslty..... . -" H P.. _ _........ ".

Asian civill...non-, ...

-SCI @., ,Q •

I' II f " , , , , 1 .' ( ,

~...--(,LI<SS

, II l Ol\lGl~ o , SCI ['ICE

have l13d lillIe influence on thought. It i Ih· b·• • • ~ t.: com lIlali"" Ifcunosll)' and fools lhal IS important. Of cou I 'f-.e. I lefl' W

man)' other (aclOT'S which ha\t' o(lt~n be"'" . d "'fl'. ' ... poilU.. rOo TI .grov.'1ng expJorallons along .he I.md roUll'.. III A' It.:<k _" f . . ." ... lhe

manuS 0 compeuuon and war. ,he gro" III f. • . L_ 0 cosmopolnan CIIIt'S. 11K" oS{' in ""'ealrh, the development of . . . ­. tht- UIlI\'t'rslllt'S

In WK! and so on. Yel gbss. it St'ems 10 us is( w d . a .un~ 'IUD nOl/

o. e\'elopmenl of the experimental method ....'Klmee. e cal]

Science consists of ve ·flabTrefutation. The u n 11l[~, repeatability and openness to

were not O-n P,o""Ph",uh

allons of many thought systemsI'"~ suc c ecks Pl' C .Buddha set up . alO or onfuclUs or the

systems which w r .coherent and dosed. Th e e mternally consistent,

within nor destroy<d b ~y ~uld not be challenged from-L__ y eVIdence' N Idvu-e:rverchttkth..; . or cou the casual

..,r parts. The I . I .be done apin.1t would be ogl~a expenmentscould nOIexperiment al it would ,-_ as :neamngfullo 'lest' Ihem withad,.d 1 ~ to test'th M L·1'2, Han<kl', M .}, e ona lsa, Chartres1ney .....ere Statements _~l4h or Shakespeare's Handt(science Wille could .0fI ,~er,depends on !he not be verified. Modern

txpenmenu 'Whid. can be fOrmulation of laws basedClnuhifuauthori f tq)Uted by othe

mind and..... . . If rom the "'Ord f TS.

of elde~ is~~ to C1tternal visual evid rOm the ear and thetnged.•'-. enee Th.. I .

authority of the doub' UIC t~ is l~ indiv" .. aut loruyprim:It"V of d I-filled and ...._ . idual eye and rhe

--~ emon'l· -..::ptloca\ . dpe:ning bea. :,uon thrOUgh sh . In iVidual. Theme obvlou, 0 O'Nlng 10 .

reaiv~ wisdom b L. •• fie mUSt tt melhmg hap-y tnc eVlde " eVe .fIol:co( one' ry pIece of

leyts. W~8 har Others

'l'e in an experiment, which is potentially reproducible, is

more important Ihan what is asserted by authority (Ihe

v.rord).Thus il could be argued ,hal glass helped change the

balance of power from the mind 10 the eye. The frequently

noted empiricism and positivism of the west, where only

seeing is believing and demonstration is essential, became

distinguishing features of the new cosmology. Every time

the technology of seeing was improved, it lent more author­

ity to the experimental method. II conhrmed the view that

God had created a mysterious, little understood world, yet

one which contained clues 10 certain general rules or princi.

pies which could be known and once established could beused to base other hndings on. There was no hxed and

known paltern in the mind, JUSt divinely inspired curiosity

for which the new tools, including glass and mathematics,

provided the dala. No longer reliant on thought experiments,

one looked al nature, from every angle, at Ihe minute and

macro levels, sideways and upside down, with mirrors,

lenses and prisms, under different conditions of he..t and

cold and in various mixes in glass ~ssels, to tonure it to see

what it was made of.The shift from the authority of texts, and of received

wisdom, to the authority of the eye ilIld the perttption ofeach observer is one of the most intriguing aspects of ,.,balhappened. It is possible to wonder ~ut the role of gJa5I ingiving authority to the experimenter or author and hisvision. Many bave talked of the final rejection of~philosophy. It il templing to argue that the producu

ofa M'W

knowledge lubttandally hued (Jll g1aP finally onuhoew it.In order for modem lcience 10 emerp the o..,.db.... of• I ...l"

Gfft:lI. actenee' ..... conctitioft. II do.- not"" h' P," •..

G~A55 ArIIll TltE ORIGlrII Of SCIENCE

10 argue lhatthis massive task could not have been achieved

'Il1thout the confidence which glass produced. The evidence

lies in the war between the ArislOtelians and what they con­sidered to be Ihe lies. deceitS and false knowledge created by

glass.It can also be studied in the great shift in self-confidence

and endorsemenl of the authority of the individual and ofvision. 'Il'hich many lerm the Renaissance. For the next great

expansion of reliable knowledge in the west did n01 occur inthe univC'nities and in philosophy or what we would callscimtt, but in the am and engineering, and in particular in

MChitecture, painting and drawing. We can look at the influ­ence of gins in rtlation to the IWO major fealures of theRenaissance. OM is the understanding and representation ofthe natural world; the other is me changing concept of Iheindividual.

Glass andthe Renaissance

TIlt t)ot is tltt tomma~Jtrofastronomy; it maw

cosmogr<Jp">; i, guiJu and rtctr"fiu all tJ.e J.~ rII'U; it

C'OtUiutU mall to tJ.e various regions of tJ.is worl4; i' uwpritlce of mrultemaliCl; iu St:lWU are nunt ctnaUr; it lllu

mtlUum/ I"t "tigllt and site of tJ.t Stars; ;, Juu JisJoMJ tMdtmttlU atld lltt;' Jistn°},uUotu;;t "as made prtJiaiDtu ofJUIUft tVitlU by mtDIU of 'ht ro/lUe of the mus; it Iuu

gtl'ltraltJ arc";tt.t:tllTt, ptrsptctiw and JiviM:pa;~. 06uultttl' ahow alllhmgs ~tallJby GoJ!

t ..... \~.ci.o..n ••

0."5$ " N [) 1 II I-

A N lJ ( II ..

use anolher Irick 10 m;lke s('n~e of mino N, rs. Ow these

ctplUal ConSlralTlIS are so powerful yet b d pe,­I ' eyon Our COntrol

llal Ihey aClually make the world illlo the sl, p '" h ''. aewllCwe

~xpecr to st:e. We arc like Wlltgenstein's famous fly Irap~

m t1~e conslraining fly-bailIe. We are systematically biased.

We Immediately stan 10 interpret the world, even before thelight enters our eye.

This set of constraints is reinforced by another when

Wt come to represent what we see 10 others. The result can

be. set!n if we look at any of the great an tradilions of Ihe

world up to about AD uso. If we survey Sourh American

(Aztec/Inca) an it is conventionalised. symbolic, 1"0\1>­

dimensional, without perspective. h is more akin 10 a

canoen Or to a form of writing man to modern weslern

rulist painting. The same is true of the orner non-Eurasian

an traditions in Australasia and sub-Saharan Africa. If we

aft. tempted to think mat this has something 10 do with

Iheir pre~i1isauonal (i.e. pre-wriung) situation, we will

~ be dis.abused by lOOking at me civilisations of Eurasia_r Tb<.... ""'" ".... • ~ aVI LSallOns of Mesopotamia and Egyp'.

., ••~UlVCNIOn of writing, have a similar flal, stereo-, . 1De an of Grctte reached wonderful levels.

~ .. "'''P''''C. but the painting shows little sign.....;...,p: :.;e to bture of modern weslern an.Ill( ,:-."" art., though having representations_.. 7 , ..-~ b'Ue perspective of the kind mat.. I.' 7 'lIpI! aftft the fou~th century.

_II ' of .. -.0_.- -- d"r h' I '1 --- --..WCSlern art tra I-n G ,au. &iIIcc they did$' .... • CII"" not collapse,

'-:' Ie .._. I ~ emp.. of the Middle, 1......... of :,. F .1 over the crucial

Ronw in about the fifth,.

, 'l1htcenlh cenlury. In ByJ.anrium. lhetur)' up to 11C el o .

cen. d _ aiisl art using conventIonal "ymbols con·'conIC an non re ,' d I I nchanged until the fall of Constanllnop e '"linue arge y u ., h "n" h

, R 'a the same was true unll t e cllY,teenrqB. n USSI, ., A abic societies soon dommated by Islam, therecentury. nr· ,

is no sign of a fundamental change in anistic rc.presentauoM.

'lie can see superb illustrations of the ~lOrld lI\ the Mu~J

art of the court of Akbar and Shah Jehan in India in meSt'vemet'n1h century. Wonderful1y detailed, the paintings. "

appear largely Rat, shadowless, without accurate perspeeove

or pictorial space. .The art of China and Japan is equally intriguing. II t$

exquisite. often very finely crafted; yet its essenct: is, when

compared to post-Renaissance west Europem art, on [he

same side as all the traditions we have looked at. II almostalways lacks perspective depth, it lacks ~alisro, and the bad·grounds are often impressionistic. It appears to be wryhighly stylised. To an outsider, it.sttmS to be pai~ring by a

code, employing images as symbols which ~.V.h~imerpret as references to something ~. ~angt01seem to be mnemonic devices, reminding the v ...·:r ~I . the world UlI ....-c.tions, but not systematically exp oong .... . ""&hIl'This tradition, born diffen-nt from~:;11:.:.", . $

in the orner areas we have looUd at, lS • doe • 7 t" "OO''''ons unril aI~ •With only minor m meaD

Century and later. . .... de" •••Thus we SC'C' mal the WIlY,Pi. ; .... :,_

about 1110 visually repa M:'._~...... . .. .anagrarMfor dw- 'i' I, II: 7._wrirwa ...... , , .,....trann.- 01_ 4

D

world of namre) and the signifier (the artistic representa_tions) is often "ery great. The moon, a twig, a leaf stand foran immensity of meanings in a Chinese or Japanese painting,as they do in a poem. The paintings are like visual poems,composed according to anciently established rules, rurningthe artist inwards on himself and away from the outsideworld. They are concerned with symbolic analogies, with acosmology where inner and outer essence and form areclosely connected.

It is probable that much of this was deliberate, that, aswith alphabetic: writing, artists had discovered that the moreconventionalised the symbol, and the better educated their;tudience, the more powerfully they could stir their feelings.Yet as well as this, there seem to have been other pressures,and we can see this clearly if we reconsider what our basicproblem is.

If we examine the history of representations in earlycivilisations we find th;tt the story is not as simple as sug­gest~ iihove. Firstly, there is evidence that Graeco-Romanan had developed quite good perspective in various repre­sentations., and then this was lost for a thousand years. Sec­~ly, there is the evidence of quite realist representationsIn !lOme of the early paintings in the Ajama caves of thefifth century in lndi;t. Thirdly, there is the ease of China.:or ~p\e, th~ f~mous eleventh century set of drawings,including boats gotn" up the rive,' h· h ho r0:> ,w Ie s wsagrasposome of the ruin of .....rs.......tive Th· h ." r- r-- . IS tee mque waslargely dl!ioCOnnnued over the nexi fe h d d. w un re years.Founhly, there IS the case of Giollo in 1,. . ear Y ourteenth-cemury Italy. HIS ideas were little develo........ ~

~.. Or nearly ;thundred years, to be rediscovered and e1ahora, d .e In the fif­teenth century.

, " ,• " 0

5. GtWtI '" oM n_ silk.~ We .-II I.... and lip c:oJoa.'- .........Del..il of .. h;ancb<:ro .~ of Ilk .........n- , 7 ,_

Pekin&' nu-(........ ....' " I ••• ' • ,.c:.._,--..... II 0'" :Nortknn -.. ...,...-rJ..-IY-" •... by""". , PI ...•• ,fo.c~nc:Jll II . .,;I .......~-_...

ANO THE "ENArSSANCEG LAS S

•

, " .., , 0

. ." of the world and henced obVIOUS VISion '

comlllon sense an f representing it. The fact Ihat

\d necessary way 0 Ll bo I

Ihe on y an d b ble to break out of the Ily u eT "nha eena

nO C;VI \sallO d h to a considerable extent, the moslr 1~0 an tat, \

belore I'd "" ivilisations of the world - Is am,hislicated an arllsnc c .. . . f th

lOp d"d so from within, IS mdlcative 0 eCh·na Japan-never I

, '\ f h tradition. Whal force could then be slrongstrengt lOt e Id k

h to shaner the glass? Or at least, what cou rna eenouflg f b making it aware of the invisible constraintsthe y ree Y ·fi . Ion its vision, for which it could then create some ant eta

compensation?Obviously, the first thing to do is to show that the revolu·

lionaty change towards accurate perception and represe:nta

•

tion of the natural world did, indeed, once happen. andwhete and when it happened. The case is well known and is

one of the most famous episodes in history. If one lookedacross western European an in the eleventh and twd~~turies, il was essentially sim~ar t~ all th.ose oth~r. trad

l::

we have described. It was ICOlUe, rnatnly religious,_-...I .. by. code.

sllong symbolism, fiat, steteO'lr-u pamnng. or Oil I("

Although the content was differenl from Islanucart the aim to remind rvonple of other things, to .p~U~._If.~

, , r---. . rather m..--of linked symbols, to explore tnner emoUOM ..

material world was similar. It was as far away 6'oaI..." _, . ai ......_·ism, from a photographic reptesentaoon ~~.::~J

d" . N were mere my ..... .......

any other an tn. luon. or 7 n - ..something different thai wu abo-

ttto:-. .; ...

two hundted Ot so yan bet~-I 1)00 , 7. P7 ~_._1" ·.f .._lCpc .,0,-

occurted a revUlUbOft : pc', 7'••"

we ascribe dw .....••.....-sr- .wotld off GO., I 7 '0' III

n-ucal .U!!

If we consider these examples, we are led to reRect mOre

deeply on the nature of human sight. We know th.lt, Wilh

their binocular vision, humans see the world in perspective.

We know mal things appear to get smaller as they are further

away, vanish towards a horiwn and so on. A child intuitively

knows all these things and nomo sapiMs would nOt have Sur­

viv~ for long if they had been forgonen. We are also able to

paint or draw Ihe world in quite reasonable perspective if left

to our own devices, as children sometimes do, and Ihe young

shephe:rd boy Ciono famously did.

So we must turn the question on its head. Perspective and

realist portrayals art' natural and normal, but usually the cui·

rural convmtions of a society teach anists and others that lhe

representiltions their audience want are not of this kind.

ArtiSl$ are, as it were, systematically taught to diston the

~rld they set: and would normally ponray. in order 10 make

1t fit a s~lic system which conveys deeper meaning thanthe prosaiC world of sight. What is Ihe point of an if it

~ely duplicates what the eye SttS? Putting the problemthiS way leads us 10 """'"',I h

...._~M ate on w at culrural pressures havebeen erected 10 scnn most d· . r r

\. . -.. an tra !tlons uom striving 'd'

tea IStlC pe.tspttti fill~be led ~ ask" v~ tepresentations. We would then

hat tt was that 50 forcefull dislod ed theseptt'Mutft 50 that fOt a bri f . . y g(weslern Eu f e pcnod In one civilisation

tope tom the fifteenth .ccntur-y) a tealistic r f to the nmele:enlh

IOtm 0 an cam dturns ramet isolated cues of t e. to ominate. Whatsentations such ill those f .L~ specnve and tealisl tepte­

o UIC urly Ch·eleventh ccnlurv Ot Cion . m«e anisl of the

.J o Into avasttr.l.nsforms the whole of h ". movement which then

uman VISIOn <in<! "What seems cenain is thai il would ~e<iIIlY?

,·oh h . ". requite a co ·d10 pus one clvlllsalion away from h nSI erable

w at 'ppears 10 be a16

GLASS AND TIIF. RF.NAISSANCF

JI

f perspective, and chil·While it is true that we are aware °h Id quitt: realisoc-I Present t e wordren without eSSOns can re ..L _L t It is difficult. h . more to It Ulan u.a .ally in perspeCtIve, t ere IS ability intO a

I d d fairly elementaryto turn such know e ge an th illusion of. hat will give others econvincing representallOn 1 eed f requird consciouslyreal space and form. To prot ar h.1 ., ." difficult, it is. r' Butv.' leimaking the impliCit more eXp lett. .L~ ethod (or them·work out UK' mnot impossible fora person 10. G. h.ve shown. Yet 10I

. ldng IOUOselves as our exemp ars IOC u I which wiU al~, h' t intO a movement adckdtransform this ac leve.me~ e did requires samethe world, as the Renalssanc •features. be 'deaived' inlO tNd·One is an audience thai wants t~ aI---" 10 be••

frwo dimeflSlon ....,.-- t.·.-IIing that what is in act of· .L__I diiferdl ... 1& III. ne u"" r-- , nnW"dimensional. Here IS a realist~ ...known that Plaia fdt that ~1iOM~i:JIIu·..,......deceit and tnC* (... Jsi .)hannedasa ' ""__ tIM~ I ?So.L~ repOns. rvo .,.•if for ou....r . .... or ,...Uay~~ of art ..II nOl to IfIUpU·r-· _,,:'~9 _

... llD TilEGI.AS S

. h.noes in nerspeetive and con·. essence 10 c t> r~ . eeldescribed its qUInt . delineation of nature, but re,ectf

ce and prec\se . . . So«ptSO spa . II ·ng as its main IOsptranon

.I f lasslca earOl dbthe rev;va 0 ~ h description of whal happene utI

sWlthanol er b· I nthey eave u .' f h Renaissance are 0 VIOUS Y a111 onglOs 0 1 e be001 why. e bl m and there are likely toimmensely complex pro .e '0 task here is just 10 look ath 'nsof causation. ur . thenumerou.S c al which has often been ignored, that ISone posSible ~ause, .d' both the jolt and technical supportrole of glass In prov1 109for a realignment of vision.

RENAISSANCECLASS AI'lD TilE

1;!,'ith special emphasis on pictorial space and nrrs........tiv .1'"- r-- e, ISthe subject of libraries of books. Many believed that Gioltoeffected the first transformation, the ability 10 move fromwhat Gombrich calls 'picture writing' to painting wilh somedepth, for he had 'rediscovered the art of creating the illusionof depth on a Rat surface'. Although revolutionary, Ihis wasan intermediary stage between the earlier Graeco·Roman anand a new realism which suddenly emerges in the periodfrom roughly 1400 to I ~oo. This revolution brings in therules of perspective, and with them a host of new technicalmethods. if we look at the art and architecture producedafter about 1400 simultaneously in south and north-westernEurope, from Alberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio and laterLeonardo in the south, and from Van Eyck and Rogier vander Weyden to Pieter Brueghel in the north, it is an enor·moos shock.. It is as if the world has suddenly been uncOV­ered, a layer suipped away. There is clarity, interest in detail,a mirTor.1ikr: accuracy of man within his world. The quan­tity of reliable information purveyed by a picture is increasedenormously. Pictures no longer serve principally to remindor aignify, they opm magic casm\l.':Ots upon new worlds. It islike looking through a strong lens at the world. The world iso&m richer and brightn in the pichue than it is in reality. It.. as u it .. seen through. magnifying glus.

So why and how did mil revolutionarv change occur in~ OM . T .'1! CVLMat:or - from Italy lO the Netherlands _ where~ laW and I"Pnrele'lued • h .___. • I '-r nun I p ySlcal surrounding.ao;uu.."y Of the tirM. time? u --~. . . . .........., we arc. in for another sur-=~"':11~ that we ~1l. a plaulible explanation for_._...... Ii..~ . etu.nps 1II human history. Many com.- ••onnal~a"andculru f L_ •

, lIIIb r_ re rom 1111: I:uer nme·~ry OftW..'- have documented tke rc.volurion•

1 It ~I< 1'1 I)., ,, .AND TilEGLI<SS

have an ~ffecl, II. began If)f lass lechnologlcs ncnces of ~lng thebut to sUI7m"St emOlions, Thus they actively discourag'~ ,n.-. atvclopmenlo hg" Ihe ..... idening cxped. n••ly in bentr

00-o:u 'IV

• , ble I , II an mte:7',. ,much ~alism, which merely repeated without any added IS concelva Id more realistlca Y h pectacle5 In olderI wor I eS throug <; 1.._value whal could anyway be seen. A Van Eyck Or a leonardo natura h window ram , gh 10 changt tlK'ffors, Ihroug h b,\ance juSt enOU ho

would have beUl scorned as a vulgar imitator.tnl, pet! t ~ "roup Wmay have lip . I bourgeois patron C'" .vh,1

lo pans of Islamic tradition, r~alistic anistic repr~nta. age, I ,he l;I:orld, Thai cructa "' found it meanin~....h I 1ft

'('9.'0 h warlno- I."

tions of living things above I e leve 0 owers and trees are 'bo'oght

and exhibited ( e n~ made them f«1 more 1M:banned as blasphemous imitations of the crealOr's distinctive' Th' expenence ed ~ thtm' ana anraclive" ed"o"d ,1,_ painters who captur or I .. ,

work. Humans should not create graven Images, or any d I ,...... theeaK anDcameras, an Iley Th uare canvas onlmages at all, for thereby they took 10 themselves the power the woddon a glass pialI', ,~~ window, opening upon anof God. Again, Van Eyck or Leonardo would hav~ be~n an !aler on (he \\.all \\'as a ~O\ taking the viewer outabhorrence, Even mirrors can be an abominarion, for they maginary world, a magic casement he antecedau to theUdltt' duplicates of living things, So in considering t~ Into any type of imagined space, It was tdevelopment of the extraordinary movemen! in the. west, we ~elt:\'isi'on scre~n, h development of thr lCCb-always need to bear in mind the wider cultural setting. That The thud factor is related to t ,e . hnology as ochns.. to say we have to consider the audience and the gen~ra1 nology of enchantment, or iIIUSIOms~:~Onr COfIC£i....

I ". k\as~ to UIIS. , L-

view on the role and limits 0 amsnc \\'or . nime it. There are severa r---,- how easy is • _.1.. . trans and

. That IS to say. .The second factor is how u,e prospecnve pa. replicabilit). of reahst art. G' to be 301:1&"'0 d u.

mil:,""", IS themselves sa" the world in their normallif~, It IS someon~ who is not a geniUS li~ ,IOU~ arc • . ....OM: thiaC to see an aauaI three-dimensional external ,,'o~ld othe'r people's eyes intO beh~ .I'mU ;..- "• '_~··Itu..u".· •..·..-10 ' .J' a two-dimensional, arufi~ . _I old on a rwv-uo " 7 rr-- 7 __ "y, iIIIUUIIU n:<IO

mr«-dimenslomu 'II r I'd7

" 7 .,.

of that world . wh'ch tricks the . th need for an reF ....

- i ••0. In a way I. Another aspect IS e _1.._ ediIF ._' ,... , f 1& d' blid' tufficjendy 10 feel one IS make it possible to uplore u.dDOr• ill. '..__

7 ....01 ",.kisCOil8tandysuessedbyarthisto- and 10 lay down the ruleuom. , s" r....... • .... lDbe_aam lO rnd realist (or any lost. There is a Iongwayl~.l~, .....~ ...~ n. 51"c. aha has to ~t 10 be Chinese: dawing 01' la _ 5 ,

..... ., ; So ... ' '- -=b an 10 uprud, twO Eya. or l..,eonanIo.~~~..;;;;S 7 e ..... - -.... ·........wy. 'The artist Let us lol*.... ,...., ... ." * Es dans .a ... they can plicarion Ita AI ri....... 0 "'''---.ut.e_DDbe-apin t: ........., j.&"'.... S ', ...... "., • foe ful;'Y,. , ~.. 2' _WI..- . IIO~warktu":hefins""... :1.._ ~ ,;-.., -. I... .. __ • .c oooo:_~_.:::!:%::...:~__~ ..:::

CLASS AND Till( , , " 'I II [

. . d'fficult 10 set' how the Renaissance could havethis, It IS very I

occurred. . IdThe fourth area lies in the tools that an artist cou usc.

The development of oil paints associated with Van Eyck

allowed depth and richness of texture and colour, bu~ we

would suggest that equally essential, though less nouced,

was rhe developmenl of tools of glass. These glass toolswere important in twO major ways. The first was to provide

a shock corrective or extension to the eye. The main tool,here was the mirror. As many have pointed out, we tend 10

become 100 familiar with rhe world around us. The mirror,

by reversing it, throws it into a new light and, in a curious

way, makes ir more intense. We, and particularly artists, see

the world differently with a mirror.Filarete, a fifteenth-century contemporary, wrOle of me

discovery of the laws of perspective by Brunelleschi: 'If you

should desire to represent something in anomer, eaSll~r way.

rake a mirror and hold it up in front of the thing you wan~ 10

do. Look into it and you will see the outlines o( the thing, nh< ,.,;JI app<M

more easily, and whatever is closer or fu r • deforeshonened to you. Truly. I think this is the way Pippo~_ __.J thi ~;ve., which .... 1IOf..x:-r Brunellesco discovereu s pe,..,...- modxr ofused in other times..' That the minor was the 5 'Renaissance perspective ~ a theme. taken ';7 '""..Edgenon in his TAe R.ruusslDf«~ .• _ J

dw yariouI "".hCO;,,,.aj"t!. He carefully [faces . hy.; • e '

"pti..... geometry and '*'. II -. _ .. ..., .....~'" . del Dti 0 .. rN' -

momenl in dw PiaU . -- u " 01 ...... 01 "......... ........ ... • fewBrunelletehj , e1 ' , .. '

tdlrftJlll ... .... . • ....specuvC'. .J-oI _ fr E' GIoDD •5C'ver.1 hu_ ~--.

mted. NO! ever)'one was a Giollo Or a Van Eyck ~ ',, 1 wases~nlial Ihat people understood, in detail, how to look at

nature. how 10 translate what they saw on 10 paper or canvas,

and how 10 d~eive the eye of the beholder into seeing the

same Ihing. The rules they had to learn, as we see from the

manuals.. were largely mathematical, concerned with the

pro~niesof light and the nature of the eye. An artist had to

taU a course in basic geometry and optics. And where had

these rules come from? The writers of manuals openly

acknowledged that they had come from Greek sources,

through Arabic scholars, and been made useful by medieval

scientists like Pecham, Grosseteste. Bacon and Wite[o. To

what degree these later authors realised that glass in ,he form

of lenses and mirrors had been an essential fOol for these

philosophers is not dear. Yet there can be no doubt that atde . h

15 POtnt t ere could nOI have been a set of rules for them 10

follow without the philosophies developed with Ihe aid ofglass.

A funher aspect of the technology of enchantment was

the: elabontion of tools to make the explor.uion of realitymore complete This is . I IA1beni and' pamcu ar y obvious in the work of

Leonanio, whe:~ the same foundation of earlier-,. "'" optiaI knowt'" .&ems to make pain' ge IS .u~ to work out Strata-AJlhouch Gtouo t1np and bUildings in a new way.lIrUsts had IIChievedand I50mc Ro~n, IndiiUI and Chinese

. 11 i!;Jn1 deal ....ith fi L"Idmary relllisrn and en t Sa.u S. the extraor-• KCuI'ilC)' of the '"" .

AnCc: &mIlS required further sc ....eatnt of the RenalS-properties of light U1d~.Thil~ thOUght .boUt thepomnry and knowledge of how he demanded advancedin turn d~ed on the ftouri.h

t. C'YC', might work. This

. of Ingo.glIlaence geom"ry and Dplics in medieval E ass-enhanced

uropC'. Without6, .... .l...!.-

CLASS ASD TilE A 1'1 0 T It E

the aid of mirrors'. Yet Brunelleschi's extraordinary break_through is the culminating moment. Without what Edgertoncalculates to be a twelve-inch-square Rat mirror, the moslimponant single change in Ihe representation of nature byartistic means in Ihe last thousand years could nOI, Edgertonargues, have occurred.

Leonardo called the mirror the 'masler of painters'. He"''fOte mat 'Painters oftentimes despair of their power toimitate nature, on perceiving how their piclUres are lackingin the power of relief and vividness which objects possesswhen sem in a mirror ".' It is no accident that a mirror is Ihecmttal device in twO of the grealest of paintings - VanEyck's 'Marriage of Arnolfini', and Velazquez's 'LasMeninas'.1t -was a tool thai could be used to dislort and hencemake the world a subject of speculalion_ It was also a tool forimproving the artist's work, as Leonardo recommended.'When you wish to see whether your whole picture accordswith what you have portrayed from nature take a mirror andrd\ea the actual object in it. Compare what is reRected with)'OUT pDnting and carefully consider whether both likenessesof. the subject correspond, particularly in regard to theminor.' He ftaho h'• r;U6 on t 15 as follows: 'You should takethe nunor U """"r rlUJltT .L_· ft ' ,_ ...r . ~~- • u",t IS a at mirror because on ItS~- """'" ' ,• T'\..._.' In many ways bear a resemblance 10 a painl-mg.. "1M IS to lay you see a . h'wrf L _. '. piCture w "h is painted on a flatKC!; '_Ing thing.; u if . I' f'Urfaee don," _ . .In. re Ie : the mirror on a Aalme s.amc. 1he aim" t •\ooh 'like 'Omethi f 0 paint so that the piclure

F· ng rom nature ISecn . 1 "inally, it Ir.Ive the a":~, h' d In a arge mIrror.C'"" ..._ a I Ir eyewere, IlO lhat he could A.a h' • an eye on a stalk as il...... lmself. With .welt autobiographical po' . OUt a mIrror, IheD • rteallS, culll\llliti ·.L."""tlDrandt, could r'\O( have L_ _ . ng In Ule series byua:n palllled.

6.

o LAS S • " 0 T " ,• " 0

TilE

h th,y draw lines arOUndThey should understand thai, w en 'm 1..,-th th,y have drawn WI (0 • ..,a surface, and fill e pan' '", of. . h esenration on this one su acetheir sole obltel IS I e repr . h gh th", f facec lusl as t oumany different lorms 0 sur.., and lite. h th I were 50 tratl~nlsurface whlc ey co our 'gh th _,gh il from. .d n.2sSoed n I rv-glass, lhal the V1SU;U pyraffil 1"- , ,. of the centric

d . h a certain flOSlnona cenain distance an WII , It nnindablWlrd at appl"OPrJa r--­ray and of the Iighl, est the~ of:ll pa&nudnearby in space , .. Consequently . " ',nltI'5t'COon 011 ~ gal a pa.mCtJ asurface appear 10 be 00 n . ' wi1I be the ino:e'w"bof:Ithe pyramid. Therefore, a pa1n~ng with.ll n-d C oe

'd laO'h~d,s~, .......of a visual PYT3fnl:a D" d by '" .f r hrs. rtp,ue.iItt:and cenain position 0 .g

and eoloun on:ll given surface.

,,.-r.l 'Arc windows with glass andG 1· b's Tilt I'Y In(lOW In ,Carla ott Ie

. ce seem deeply linked.the Renalssan

. f glass had another effect. TheTh window·ltke panes 0, . "pective in the fifleenth ~ntury.. development 10 pe

malor Id'" vast and unprecedented step, wash' h we are to was.. . .w IC , of lh, painting as If \I were aIe began 10 conceIve

when peafP, ,hat cut across sight. leonardo famouslypane 0 g ass f ' ....hdescribed the transparent cross-section in the con~ 0 SI!y,t, _.I" In a shorter version he wrote: Perspee-that b.secteo VISIon. . beh' d

tive is nothing else than seeing a place or oblec~ h' ~ ha

pane of glass, quite transparent, on the surface 0 w I~nt~objects thai lie behind the glass are to be drawn. These 'dtraced in pyramids to the point in the eye, and these.pyraml sare intersected by the glass plane.' This is such an Importam

, I h' longer account asidea Ihat it may be worth quoung a so ISfollows:

It may M that mirrors increase the intensily of humansighl in other ways as well. Seeing is a dynamic process, Ifwe sta~ directly at an object for a long time,.we cease to seeit. Only if we change our angle of vision, sweeping the eyeacross the objec~ do we continue 10 see it. Mirrors help us tosee dearly for, whether held in the hand or altered by themovement of the person who gazes into them, they increasethe amount of movement which is projected on 10 the eye.Furthermore, they are often inside dark rooms, reAecling thebrightness of the outside world. The eye that has compen­sated for the dark surroundings sees the world all the moreintmsely in the mirror, just as a television set is much mored.1'ective in a darkened room,

A second way in which glass is important is as a 1001 inframing and fixing reality. This is the area where panes ofglass ratMT than mirrors are important. A painting is awindow opening on to another reality, and the window here isnot just a metaphor. The magic casement through which onelooks into thfft-dimensional space was an increasinglynayday experi~ of Europeans from the fourteenthe-vvry ... fPOd window gb,ss spread. In a civilisation whereoiW or muIbeny papa was used, as in China or Japan,.- idea of t.itring inside and looking through a small,Ii' ,.,; eII.,enurt which focused a scene would hardly1:le de '. d Either the wall wu taUn away completelY, aswWaaJ.ji.OI"wiDdow KIftn, And one was, in effect, outside,CII' 0Dt..' •N widl whitene. betwftn one and the outside.Y.bridaerLaropana, hoo',"beame like camera lenses or....* _..one... in muted liWtt and looked OUt on the rich­.. of co&o.ar. OT, • iA Dutch interion, one looked inlO• • tiIIell wiIb U&ht duouch the window-.. Whichever ....ay- in6_ ee woR.td, and they ~ beautifully explored in..

, ddiniDon of • p, • ,This was not lUI! • .,',,-

Obtain a piece of glass as large as a half sheet of royal folio=u:d fastc~;hi~ securely in front of your eyes ... Next

of a ~rse W1~ your eye at a distance of two-thirds

heod ·th dlan .arm s length) from the glass and fix your'W1 a eVlce 50 that .

d you cannOt move II at all. ThenOle Or cover One ey. d .th th

6nel ,an W\ c brush or a piecc of

be: y~~ chalk mark on thc glass what vnu se-eJOi IL I ncn trace . J -

_ ""';ft, '" 'r' I It on to pa~r from the glass ...~. I It P eases ,-,'I cti you, ta&.lng good use of aerial

.. >e.

T " E

to look through the artificial medium of glass in order 10 see

the world as it is, as Alice found when she went through Ihe

looking glass. If this is correct, then glass becomes as impor­

lant in clearing our vision and showing us our world as it

really is, in relation to seeing and representing, as it was in

the other sciences where Ihe mirror, prism, lens and later the

telescope and microscope clarified vision.

In all these cases the human eye, weak and entangled wilh

the inlerpret3tion of the brain, cannot see clearly. It cannOl

see the constituenls of light, or how it bends; il cannot see

objecls below a certain size or beyond a cenain distance,

Ihough they are Ihere in from of rhe eyes. At the deepesl

level, the eye sees the world Ihrough a glass darkly, thai is an

eye is a glass with its own distorting lens and interpretative

frame. h is as if aU humans had some kind of systematic dis­

tortion such as myopia, but one which made ir impossible co

see, and particularly 10 represent, the natural world with

precision and clarity. Humans normally saw natuu sym­

bolically, as a set of signs, not for whar ir 'really' was,

undisturbed by rhe mind. Whar glass ironically did was co

take away or compensate for the dark glass of human sight

and the distonions of the mind, and hence to Jet in more

light.

However gifted the artist, if he looked and painted. he

ended up seeing and painting in symbols, like .lmo~iI aU those

before Ciono. But if onc was forced to foUow narure. by

paiming, copying, photographing 50 10 speak, exactly ....hat

was thcrc on a panc of glass, or painting an exisling~in~

donc by a mirror, in other words copying rather dun~..

iog. miraculously it would be more aceur.re rban a f*ntirWof narure irself. Once il WiU don~,~ could work our "Y

thai should be 10. OM could ",,,bAWl the arr:i6c:Ul "*- ..

, , ,A N C "

II E Ii A

.._~--

T Il F., N 0

So....-of&t-inthc . d• '" I out ....... . Win ow was essemial for bothL : ! bani to problettl .

i .•_.. he "'--...L S In perspective and for« ; ....~dornll

C A,.' _ ---..1___ YexcellcnI perspttlive

• ' ..... _' If _:..;:~ ~ the developmcms.' §

- ..~ bad bet-n• i Iii. covered in strong

10_.....,.' ...• d· wbiIe "'uU, , [ ........ .., d'· • 10 work .. the "'-orld in per-

-abe ,. -::........r. Rather. ow.mat ...e lee just by

..,., &oak only aa U. I e ~ canno.look directly-- ......Ironically,

was also a practical technique U'. sing a p'ln f

could now work QUI rhe exact h ,e 0 glass Onemat erna(lcs and

COrrect persp«rive as Albe . L angles forSec • ro, eonardo and olh

oodly. if help was needed to put thO . ers did.o

1$ new techo .practice, one could acrually paint 0 k h lque Intoth rs etc on Ihe I

en transfer the marks on to p'per late . h g ass andSo T, Wit exact me

su(,edmenrts

th" metimes Alberti's famous invention, the 've~~

rna e o reads) was db'thi ,use , UI II was explicitly Slated thaI

s was really a SOrt of Window without glass. Leonardoommended th 1 ree-

l' aetua use of a pane of glass in a number ofways. For example,

, , ,• , D

, f' this and it is easy to see the force of manysmgle reason lor , .of the explanalions put forward 10 account for a reorlenta­. f om the glOUp and IOwards the individual. One of

lion away rthe most important of these is religion. At a very general

level, it has been suggested Ihal it was the single soul posited

by the Judaeo-Christian religiOUS tradition that slressed indi­

vidualism. Others have suggested thai Ihe concepls of sin

and individual responsibility are Ihe key to Ihe growing

individualism.The link could work in various ways. These include thai

exercise of choice and free will emphasised by a religionborn OUt of oppression and founded on Chrisl's individual­

istic teaching _ for example, 10 follow him and renounce

one's family. The link between choice and individualism

is obvious. The individualistic westerner is a sovereignchooser, deciding what to do, what to have. what to be andwhat to believe. Another link could be through the practicedeveloped by Ihe Catholic Church to deal with sin. namelyIhal form of introspection known as the confessional. whichmade the individual examine him- or herself and becomeself-refteclive aboul individual personality. Yel although thissums 10 be a necessary condition, the variations in rime andspace do nOI fil Ihe whole of Christendom; for e.umpl~.

Eastern Qnhodox Christianity was far less individuaJistic.So scholars have pointed 10 orner faclors.

Some have suggested that the reeoveey of classical *­was the catalyst. Others have argued that the growth of •market economy and pankularly of molW)"~

scpanlled 0\.11 Ihe individual from the wide.' group. Me My.

individualism and the morality of the marlr.cc ee:onc:-y. iI illargued, ilre all doaely relaled. Yer even addinB 10 .....

faclors such a. Ihe growth of repnblk-n .....u. .J ...••

au-~T It IlA N I)G LAS S

would deceive other human eyes into hwas rep ese d t inking th

T me on a two-d" at whatth d' lmenslonal surf:

ree- Imensional mirror or phOiog h f ace Was aIfth'. rap 0 nature

IS connection between sophisticated I .and the new realist an is co"e " g ass technology

Ct,UlsnOIS '.that in the fifteenth century It I Urpnsmg to findnew " Th \T ' a y was at the forefron! of the

VISion. e venetian gl. . dth ss In ustry was a gI fe world; the wealth of the small co . ory 0

loved" ' mpeung COUrts wasIUcke5t 10 COnsPiCUOUS consumption. All One had to add was

and chanc~, for example BruneJleschi's accidental dis­

=ro£ the VlJ1Ue ~£ the mirror, originally developed for_ . purpose, to gtve a picture of what a new building in

SUII ought look like. The similar wealth and highly devel-oped gJ.u Utd .Netherlands UStnes of no~ern Germany, France and the

gave the new VlSlon its OIher home.

T It F., , 0

b'-lost cultures have mirrors of some SOrt and one

dou IS. I' .

k ow more abOUI how mirrors are used, Ihe relative,"'anIS to nclarity of metal and glass mirrors and so on.

On the queslion of use, it is clearly important 10 discover

the way in which mirrors were regarded. In the west they

were largely looked intO 10 see the person. This was both a

cause and consequence of growing individualism. In China

and Japan and perhaps olher civilisalions mirrors were used

for differem purposes. It is worth examining one example in

some detail to see the differences Ihat mirrors and culture

could make.

A number of analySIS, both foreign and Japanese, agree

Ihal in Japan mirrors were Iradilionally used in a very differ­

ent way from that in the west. They looked Ihrough the

mirrOr image and through Ihe 'observing self'. The mirror

was nOI an instrument of vanity and self-assessment, but of

contemplation, as can be seen in Shinto shrines wne:rr Ute

mirror is the central objeci. The individual does not pe into

the mirror 10 see a rounded porlrail of the ph}'5ical and social

perSOn in frOnt of the mirror, bUI to gaze through the phys­

ical into Ihe innermost, myslical self. The Japanese haW'

tried to explain how people in the wcsllook in mirrors out of

a compound of narciss.is.m and individualism, while wJapanese look through the mirror. If Ute Japanese wan. ro

see Ihe reflections of their personalities., Ihey do so mf"OU8h

Ihe mirror of society, Ihe reRection of me effects of their

actions and words on others.

Both the malenal and the~ were thus diKe. I " Minon

were sacred objects in Japan. "T'hey were .,. ill ...,.

They also, it would appear. -rc Upr for special 11K, iD,...licular groomiJll~(, bw weft not hun& Od 01

ordinary iooma. The rnveUet TIe • I - .. I ...

•T H ,, N 0

the middle class in haly and 'h N. e ether! d

natiOn of one of the g an s, the full e I

h' rea test lransfi· ll:p a·ISlory still eludes us Th" . ormatlons in hu

- 1$ IS partly be rnane.~.'planarions seems to reach d d cause none of Ihe5f

Own eeplpsychological realm where th h Y enough inlO the

r e c anges OCr _.J

6tra laclOr, one feels was d d urrcu. Some', nee e - sam h"

would nOl wholly aCCOUnt fa th h '. ('I Ing whichr e c ange In Itself b

ntt~ry catalyst. . Ut tI.'3s a

This faclor. some historians have argu<d hopmem of fine las' . ' was [ e devel_time and' th g s mirrors, which proliferated 3t the very

could ha In e v.ery area where the change lOok place and

all . ve prOVIded the final faclor that was needed b

ba.OWlng people 1.0 see rnemselves in a new way. Some wh~~ traced the nse f b' .

Rm . 0 aUIO lographlcal wriling during thealS5ance have SUD'a-[ d th h-'-

was linked . ~~ .. e at I IS discovery of the self'10 rmnors. Likew' .. '_..1

sanoe • lse It IS pomt~ OUt that Renais.arum such as Du I

!he uSC: f . rer exp ored the inner man througho nunors dUring th' '.fon:efuu elr pamtlng. This is an argumem

0011.. y. ~t by Lewis Mumford and he cites theunurung po . f

.... anistic:. rtralts 0 Rembrandt as the high point inIJlbospection.

Tho ...... of d>< ,,"usal r k - -gh............. "'* exact I~ IS n tj good mirrors de-

ialIi:# ,. b pace With the development of a new"ft.._ tl the thi h._~. t). rteem and sixteenth centuries."~"~ ,···..-;the·i.. ., iD," ep&cenues of Renaissance

..N • '''C and otheTS'uk • -.0 ol .....- iiln forms were Italy and

• " --. woo: rno.t .... . ,...... ~. The -.-....-.ceo areas of mirror-

':Je_* :I .. peydoologkal link is pl.us,-bl,­.. ._i..... tbaa '7"'4" ODd sMa .........~ detached Utem from

a,: w. _ .. _ pt. ' F :I lhemsdves more

- • v... with all -'ppc :. 1IPfiOIil in • number of

.. .... -_.,••_'Ofta. there are

Il.£S""SJl"'l'IC£",so TII£G ... '" 5 5

ed the whole perception of ,w,hat, h,umanalso gradually aher . I has an 'elective affinity: md,v,dual.beings are, Onece~taln ~ rs grow together. Yet one cannot

I · I ua],ty mlrtO cfi .ism and ug I q . II. k of a necessary and SUII Clem

I d direct causa In ed mseeasimpean .L. n wouldnothaveeffecr e

I ' rors onmelrow , .d Ikind.G aSSffilr .' h' h call Renaissance indivI ua-r. manon w Ie we abl'huge lrans or b of the necessary en 109

I m.y have een oneism, Yet t ley b. of the individual from

ses without which the a stractlon ..dcau, Id not have taken the course It d, ,the group wou

. h· h glass and an increaseSo we have three major ways III W IC, , h founeenth toin reliable knowledge and represemanon In

O! e through

. h ve been linked. ne wassixteenth cenlunes may a on the per.the influence of medieval optics and geometryd 'ters. A

h r architects an pamspective art of fifteenr cenru y I n.cuJarlyh 'R ce of gass pa Isecond was through t e In uen .L '-.Lnology of

d f glass, on me 1l;U'mirrors, windows an panes a th h the effect ofenchantment and illusion, Thirdly; rofu~. di\"dual.

d resentaoons 0 e mmirrors on concepts an rep . ht of these links. to assess the welg

We conclude by trymg . ible to have .. ~...f t'ons Is It possby asking a number 0 ques I. ...1 glass (mirron,

, d . without 0p0"""' "w"'Lsenable perspective rawmg . civilisation! I""L ~. widesp~ad m a _L:tIlenses windows) uelng ..rcs great a&lU 10

• , . ible though It reqw ofans"'er is yes, It IS poss, .". p<np«OnI....,.ibl fj uch a reilllsnc. '1.:.0 '.gel far. Is it pass· e or s dominate • ciYl C

h ldlocometo .m.-_represeming t e war ~ All dUll can lw aaid .. .,without much optical 81~~~ _ can lei' • ..., if: •

f .uch case .... . .I •know 0 no . oE ......... _ I.I .. me ~l.... ,,' •unlike y, .... F 7 •• FG

mirron., 1enMS,"- I

•later eigfH~mh cenrury: 'Mirrors do nor decorate the", II

. a s,although they are In general use ar the toilet.' Thunberg also

noted that among the things not found in people's apart_

ments were 'looking-glasses'. There Were no glass mirrors.,

he said, for all were made of steel. It appears that One reaSOn

for this was that the superb workmanship in steel of the

Japane~ allowed them to make steel mirrors of high quality,

In fact, the use of steel or bronze may have limited their size

and possibly their effects on the viewer. The fact thaI they

tended to be convex may also be important in limiting the

amOUnt that could be seen in them _ they were basically for

hair arranging, eyebrow plucking and teeth blackening indom~tic use.

The Japanese metal mi.rror refleers back only aboUi 20

per cent of the light that hits it and is slightly coloured. It

could thus be: argued that because the eye is so sophisticatedand appreciatts visual perftetion, the difference between avery good, silver backed, glass mirrOr of the kind being

made in Europe from the thineenm Or fourteenth century,

and a quire good rner.a] mirror is nor JUSt on(' of degree, but

of kind. A subtle change in the aneract permits a differentpeiception of life.

1'berecore "e could lay that whal we call a 'mirror' inmo.t eulaan:. encouraged imagination and stimulatedthoupc, but lICIt • deep lIMing al ....har was ponrayed. The• 'Q~~~ wh.J.r appeared 10 be real evenII. s' -, .. 1ft (act abnose maginlly reversing lhings,

i -IS",~ 'Pace On a flat Surface and=~~ the eye to .. (0fell'OUncI and background.

•,~'::::;"::dinary and h ".not t~ fanciful.... .,10(lheKla-flUn-orlnonlyone

OWl QI)( only allftled its an, ...-hich can be ..l..~. b-.....".., UI

"

GLAS5 AND TII£

CI.ASS • N D T It ~

e

• N 0 T II E

" f course a giant accident. High-qualityAll of thIS was,0, .. II

II t flat glass lenses - these were ongma y nOImirrors, eXce en, " "h' d

• _ J h a civilisation away from ItS mentedesigneo to pus f

I '0 encourage individualism, the dethronement 0cosmo ogy,God, Ihe disassociation of sensibility, a new and more ac~u.

rale knowledge of the ;real' world. They were 10Ys of vanity

or comfort, just like fine porcelain. So if Europeans had ma~

tered Ihe secret of porcelain, or been able to cover theIr

windows with paper from the mulberry, probably none of

this would have happened. There would almost certainly

have been no Leonardo, no Renaissance reversal of vision,

and no classical scientific revolution_ The unintended conse­

quences of that Strange, light-bending transparent sub­slance, glass, gave people new eyes to see and what they saw

changed Ihe whole world.It changed our world nOI only in itself, but also because it

was a link in Ihe chain leading up 10 the classical scientificrevolution of me seventeenth cC'nrury. If the 6St'n« of thescientific revolution was precision of detail, accuracy ofrec:ording, understanding of the narure and relationsbetween things, and curiosity driving people on 10 d«perprobing through 'experiments' to see how man and naru~

were intertwined Ihen all these constituents are pranu III• , I ' i.<onudo dothe Renaissance. The most ObVlOUS examp e 15

Vinci him~lf. If one asks whether such, a~::~7,:make the observation of naturC' more reliahk, .

.L__ a ....incial' or .a. ..,scarcely do bener u..... compare ,..-. _ 'I ••Leonardo 10 a Mughal mlnlaNft or a Japer ,

the fifteenth c:enwry. " _ ....Leonardo', depklior. 11ft! ....'a • ..

lead to realistic, perspectival an> The .TI . anSWer IS probabJ

not. lere is no necessity. The ls/amic cas I h Yd'd e, a laugh the

I nOI have all of these instruments pro "d Y•. • ,VI es One reaSOn

why nOI. If there IS mstHuted fear of icons in I d' ,. , c u 109 mirrorImages, or even a different role for art then 'u'h d I

' .. a eveop-ment may never OCCur. Traditional forms of Indian, Chinese

an~ Japanese att have continued to flourish after the impor_

r:"tJon of w~stern glass technologies and Western persp«_

tJval art. ThIs le~ds to the conclusion that many other things

as well as glass mfluence an artistic tradition. Glass is not asufficimt cause.

. Yet it might well be argued thai it is a necessary one. It is

difficult to imagine that the art of the Renaissance could have

ruched the ~alism that we find in Van Eyck, Leonardo,

Durer or Rrmhrandt in a civilisation without glass. Firstly,

~e geometry and knowledge of optics Utat laid the founda­boos for their work, as is so evident from their own writings,

would have been missing. This geometry and optics

was ~em on medieval Euro~an glass-influenced

:::~~:~~;m:~=1Ients and philosophy. Secondly, Ihe refinements of• kn~ltdge from Van Eyelt and Brunelleschi

wz.... frequendy 'd-.i. tequ1re experiments with glass, with- nbi.. ....., el and fta.cyde 01 . I panes of glass. That is to say the usual

Ullpto,td ~liable: kn I d '• f " (.11'- b.clr. ow e ge, mnovation of bener- ,OIl Wi~I~' ~R artefacts into furtherMw been if EUlope b.d ~t. been halted, as it would... 0( ow.. Ind J In the largely glassless siru­.. it .. 4i81cuk IO':-~ the l!ll;rmic WOrld after 14 00,

cal the~ could havthat v.. revolution which we- of .... cW not e OCCurred. So the develop_"I" eauae the R.enai.

0lII1t, IOn.dling Yen. d·lt -.nee directly. Yel-I I erent _ould hav

e emerged.

"'~---------"

-GLASS AND TilE

Glass and Later Science

Naillre and NallUt's Lows loy hid in Niglll.

GodsaiJ, Let Newton Be! am:lAll was Light.

....Iu>ndr. Pl:Jp<-, ·E.piu.ph.ln~ fOr Si.laac

NewofW> in Wnuninotn~'

~ ~\YE H A VESE E N that the foundations for the\\ classic scientific revolution had already bun\J established by the later sixteenth ~tUry. With

the help of glass instruments, the experimental method,pre(:ision, pursuit of knowledge as a valued activity,

abstraction and framing, the emphasis on sight and man.yOther central characteristics was already pre5ftll. 1'1Iischapter will concentrate fairly narrowly on the periodwhen glass instrumcnts of a more powerful and espticidy!\C;cmific nature _ micT05COpe5, relC5C<JPC$t bUOhWuta.

=pthermometcrs vacuum chambe.rs and so on - wen, . o/doloraclured. We can obtain a preliminary ghmpwincreasingly glass-filled sciendfic world if .. Iool • ...work or the man .,00 laid dmm the chu1et ...experimental ,cience, Francis Sa Wi

Bacon irn.llJined • JUDd 01 h' • =::;;a' 'p''''they needr foco .. *v i- _N.w A,.-';.. • rlLl .... ) ......."

of the underlying laws of nature· they are all 'exp ., enments'as much as Ne.wton or Boyle's experiments. Each of hi~

successful drawings advances anatomy 0' physi,... 0 .. . ...a. r OptiCS.ReClprocally. the urge to try to represent nature as it is, not as

it ap~ars deceptively to us, forces Leonardo on into all

branches of knowledge. He needs to understand anatomy,

botany. geognphy, hydraulics. mechanics and so on in order

to paint pro~rly. If science is the extension of reliableknowledge, then the developments in painting and archite(:­

tu~ in the fiftet:nth century were in many ways as great a

step forward as was the mo~ famous scientific revolution ofthe sev~teenth century. Without those developments, it isimpossible to envisage the work of Galileo, Hooke, Boyle orNewton. The essential foundation had been laid, but only in~em Europe. In other parts of the world the conjuringWIth glass and mirrors and later with lenses to deceive thehuman eye into~ng things more clearly did nOt occur.

, N 0

, N 0SCIEr-ICf.

microscope and telescope in the e IH I' d aT y seventee h

e OUt me the necessary gla . n, centurySS Instruments th .

needed to generate reliable kid 31 would benow e ge Sp, kithe keeper of 'Solomon's Ho ' h . a ng thrOUgh

. use e WfOie as fallcernmg the analysis of light (and' h d . ows COn_

IOres a Owmg N •work on optics): 1 ewtOn 5

We have also pelSpe' h. cove ouses, where we ma~ dstrallons.of alllighlS and radiations; and of all coloue~:OUt of thinp u I red d rs,unt nco ou an transparent, we can representMIll0 ~u all S(:veral colours: nor in rainbows, as it is in gems

I~n~m~ but of themselves single. We represent also all~~ uphcatlons of light, which we carry 10 great distance'oUlQ mili so sh::l.......~ to d' II' , •d. coloura' - r, ~ Iscern sma points and hnes: also.~. nons of light: all dleJusions and deceits of the-&"1, ttl 6gu~m . dItRtions f agrutu es, motions., colours: all demon-unknown 0 shadows. W~ find also divers m~ans yel

diVffSbod:'you. of ~roducing of light originally from

We m.Ue uti6cial .light. We nunbows. halos. and circles aboullions, and rep~t a.lso all manner of reflections, refrac­

muillphc:atlon of visual beams of objects.

Aar. ......Ie._"" ~ he ~IpeC:tacl~ and microscopes w~re con­

---. "1M ined that

:- ... 1110·' .ol~ ,.... .. ,.'_ . ng objects afar ofT; as in me

.....±' • afu 08'::-~.repr~nlt~ings near as farWe ...... _ ..... for the ' ,malting feIgned dislances... • .... We ideo _ ~Pl, rar above .pectacles and.......hodie.~a"eJ~means,coseesmall.. ceIocac. or ..........- ditdnctly; as the .ha....s-.' ide tloorms,' ,.~.... - c.lQOt~ t.. FIlIra&, IIrId flaws in

-.I blood, nor:~ ..Men; ob.ell'Varions in~ -,

I' tS towards the work of Harvey on the circula-

The aSI polO . ., r h bl......d and work on the causes of dIsease. II IS no

1l0nO Ie vv. that among the statues of great explorers and inven­

surpnselors described in the New Atlantis is that of 'the InvenlOr of

glass'. Nor is it surprising that many of the experiments

which Bacon described elsewhere in his works started with a

phrase such as 'take a glass'.

What Bacon fully realised was the degree to which glass

had become the essential tool to aid thinking and under­

standing and for investigating the laws of nature. This con­

nection, so often taken for gt"anted and hence half-forgotten,

immediately becomes obvious if we think of the effects of

microscopes and telescopes on changing human perceptions

of what lies beneath their normal sight ability, or ~yond

th~ir usual range, the microcosm and the macrocosm. The

pr~viously invisible, the teeming micro-organisms which

det~rmin~ human life, became visible. Meanwhile the far

distant and liny obj~cts of the heavens w~rt' 5UddmJybrought closer. This transformation of the spatial dimm­

sions of th~ world is now 50 familiar to us all mOlt we rake irfor grant~d. Only in privileged moments, such as when we

show~d a group of villag~rs in a mountain village: in N~Ihe tiny living obi~ets in their drinking warer through a pairof lenses, does one recaprur~ the sense of aw~ and surprisewhich many mUSl hav~ felt with th~ discovery of the micro­scope and telescope.

Furthermore it r~minds us thai me effecrs of powufuJglass tools aCl at many other levels as wftJ. SicN iiihumankind', strongnl sente and by providing -- ...with which to He an invisible world of tiny c.c 0' " or.contemplale distant alan inviaibW 10 dw PaMd.,......_only made pouible panicular -eientilic:" • . •......

G L 4 S S , , 0

• , D~CIF.NC~

a. growing confidence in a world of deediscovered. II was clear that - hi' per truths to be

Wit t liS key 0secret treasures of knowledge b I ne could unlock

f tho ' e ow and above ho mgs, destabilise conventional v· TI t e surface-

Ilews. Ie ob "

no onger necessarily true H-dd . "IOUS was. I en conneCtlO d b

forces could be analysed. ns an uried

Alii this, of which a new conception of space was p _supp emented by hi' art, ISOt er g ass II1Struments in pacf I tbretorts, test be ,ICU ar e. tu s, vacuum chambers and other isolatinglDStruments. Glass, we kn h -

I. ow, as two uOlque ptopenies. Not

mere y can It be mad .em a transparent form so that the experi-menter can watch wh . h . . .of 1

at IS apperung, but II IS also, in the cast'moste em~tsand h . Iical chan. c emlca compounds, resistant to chern-

ge: It has the great d fthe. a vantageo remaining neutral 10

ttpetim~titself Its' dclem, seal . , Vlnues 0 not end here. It is easy to

tbft\1 ' transform Into the desi.red shape for the experi­... strong alough to mah th-dw: In apparatus and to withstandpressure of the atmncnh h -within it. 1" --r- ere w en a vacuum IS crealed

t lS reslS~nt to heal d "_h has a _L' . an can IX: used as an insulator..........,LI\abOn of reaw d

• lial.~ as Lewi Mres we 0 not find in any ower2 bewitbout'..1._ .. s umford asud. would the sci-

lUC dlllllling Ib L ."... die Ihennometu 5.... me test-rube. the barom-o' It ... d .' the lenses and the slide of rhe.. ,or-' tnc li&ht the X.. E"'IIIiPThe~ -ray tube. the audion,......... ' .e of'dw of lenses and prisms in tesring., 9 lk ) key-"'rimen·· - h - - h)II nay "1'IiecI --r' ... tn p YSta 1I1 t e

"WiUEL II' th OUI by G 1"1 K__ b .. "idaie no ClOi:cc:idenc.e a I eo, epler and.. ' 2 .. ' I acted.. Ot..~ dull the list of Ihose

,. f •• ..,.~ I .Cd t' dwkhlhe·C:leQIi&re:o.ow.ly whh me grear

_ 1 ....10....... udor!..... ia die aa. '* abow: theWOrld. 11 b --.raJ 0 dE rn~1 predse

r .'0(_._,-_..rude more..

I n anything else western craftsmen were doing. Is itexaCI 1 laany coincidence that so many great scientists (Spinoza,

Descartes, Hooke, Huygens, NeWlOn, van Leeuwenhoek)

were also glass.grinders? Even if not grinding glass them­

selves, they were well aware, from using precise glass instru·

ments, what a huge difference liny variations in surface could

make, jusr as mechanical clocks were making the same

message obvious in relation to time. Precision, accuracy,

exactness, focusing down on the particular problem, all are

deeply affected by mirrors,lenses, prisms, spectacles,

Lenses are only pall of the optical repenoire opened up

by improved glass. Mirrors were also crucial. nor only for

rheir practical imponance in surveying and navigation but

also for their use in other instruments, such as telescopes, andas aids in optical experiments. The development of prisms, ro

experiment with light. had immense consequences for

Kepler, Descanes, Newton and others. Without these glassrools there could have been little deepening of knowledge of

rhe properties and nature of light. And such knowledge,

built back into improved lenses, led to new microscopes"

telescopes and finally to wat grear insrrumenr of Imowledgeor extending of the eyes, the camera. Glass was manifestlyone of rhe very most important materials in the developmen'of science and technology and has re.mainM so evelsince.

TIle actual details of who discovered whar, panicularly in

relation to such instruments as telescopes and microscopes,are nor important and are, in any case, a continuing JOl,I~ofdispule. All that we need (0 Slate here is thai by dw firsIquarter of rhe seventeenth century. both the mic.. - ope andthe telescope had been inwnled. Wbare'ver rhc pa-­chronology, 11 i' dear thai • fruitful inCft1l('tioll betw......".rioul cenlre, of experimenl and recbnoloty lie ...,.

'J

C L ... S S , N D- ......--

the Nel.herlands, England and elsewhere ge ednerat rapid

advances in glass technology, and the new kno led h.. w ~tatImproved Instruments enabled then fed back into funh

ertechnical advance.

The way in which developments occurred as a resuh of a

network of interacting knowledge and craft centres acrossthe whole of Europe is well illustrated by the history of that

kt:y invention, the microscope. This account also shows thecumulative inpU[ of many minds into an artefact and the par.

allel development of glass and reliable knowledge. The slOry

stans in the Low Countries in the early years of the seven­

teenth century with the invention of the microscope. Initial

development was slow, but within a century some of the finedetail of the living world had been uncovered, and enough

interal SftIeraced to ensure an ongoing process of discoveryaDd. ~tion. Rrd blood cells were seen travelling1broup eapi1la.ri6, first in Bologna in the mid seventeenth-:::'..y, and equipment for seeing blood Aow in the rails of• r lilt "" me pan of the aceeuory kit of microscopes...... t dnedyean..

.. -"'...... it Hoob wrote in Miuo.ro"IIio the earli-••• 'boat r ,... ~ the 1Dia'oscope, 'If you tau a very~.. ot V-.ale r;t- (a (ragmenl of a braun wine~ ..... J ..1...-.., all ha'+ • _ • -- out UHO verv sm Irs or_. ..,.. "J

• ..; .. C of tbne thftads in a Aame,'r L .. .:::: -as round Globul, or drop,

• l' ....-'!- 01 ... II ... ' Hooke wuL • , ! I _ or .. Ant hAP-pown micro.

• • D.,. -T &61, would .... Anthony van"'-'--------_._----

GLA55 AND LATER• , 0

A T r. II.

'"

utuwenhoek, a DUlch draper and microscopist, to obtain

the first glimpse of bacteria, thus setting in train Ihe long

line of research thaI led, in the nineteemh century, to an

understanding and partial conquering of infectious diseases.

The proctss of improvement of the microscope was

driven almost entirely by curiosity, for there was no eco­

nomic use for it until 1840. Early microscopes produced

quite indistinct images, with coloured fringes around the

objects and funintss at the edge of the picture. It took a

period of two hundred and fony years to improve the micro-.

scope to a level of refinement at which it would reveal details

of bacteria and of the mechanism of dividing cells and

reproduction. Crucial COntributions came from all aroundEurope_ Great improvements in the glass for the lenses were

mack by Pierre Guinand, a Swiss working with Joseph

Fra.unhofer at ~ediktbeuern,and by Ono Schou in lhe

c.rt Zeiss Company at Jena. To COrrect the coloured imagesproduced by simple lenses, which limil milgnification and

darity, ",,0 differentJy shaped lenses made of fwO differenl

types of glass were needed. Newton tried to eliminate colourfringes by combining lenses of different shapes bUI made of

the ume rype of glass and did not succeed concluding lhatthe Qsk was impossible. Before 1670 only'tradilional glasshad~ available - but then a seoond <ypc lead glass was-\op<d by luli.n '.the Engl' glaSS-WOlken 'WOrking in London for

ish entrepreneur Ceorge RavenscroflHe SUcceeded in produ' .L. .

\wi ho Clng Ulil new type of glass butno t ught of its use in ttlC$CO so. '

RaVCftSCrofl had d I' ~ r microscopes.eve oped It fOr u~ lr\ 'lIfine glassc .

and bowls. II was lCYemy years her. J h S, JUgs, __ L d'· Ore a n Dolland in....... lOQfI Ute It In telescopes. Dolland '<lIa theFrench Huguenol refugee who Cillt\e to E: sgl~_-' SOn of a

n ..... after the

"

. 168\ ",USI one hundredd· f Nantes 10, . h d

vocation of the E ICI ~. Red Antwerp and establls ere after Flemish opnclanUs " d Provinces which subse·years . the mteh' optical industry 10 . I form of the telescope., I ed the pracuca h"

ently deve op of the new ac romallcqu . I development h d

TIle theorellca f lhe microscope, ah improvement 0 M h

\"ns central to t e . Professor of al.... , f Klingensuerna,imponant inputs rom L d Euler a Swiss math-

. U sala and from eonar , demancs OIl pp, b Joseph Lister, a Lon on

. . king at St Peters urg. D "demanclan wor d b the Scottish scientist aVIwine merchant, encourage Y he theory of the

d further improvements to IBrewster, rna e

microscopt. k.i . the ZeissErnst Abbe, a German physicist war ng 10 th

h I maker further renned ecompany with Schon, t e g ass·, dard. f manufacture to a stanoplicaltheory and the pracnces 0 d"Id a new understan logat which the microscope cou open up

of the world. th F-nch" I '0 Pasleur e ....The microscope was crUCl3 ,

" . . h· k on the germ rheorychemisl and microblologlSl, m IS wor. I,r . the" "d' believed th,iI.t ue, lJ\of disease At the lime It was WI e y

. Id d SO on could sponta-form of flies, maggots, mou san.. th had 10

fy" aner a VIew atneously generale from putre 109 m , . d" ....f infecuous lSoCbe solidly disproven before the causes a

could be properly investigaled. . broth" f riments uSing aPasteur undertook a senes 0 expe gl fWb. r rle sW3n-necked assof yeaSI extract and sugar In U _ L:JJ anyOIp~

h r al mmure5 ro ...After boiling the bror lor sever f tM nec:koa. .. . . h seilled off the fop 0ISms that might eXist In II, e . ..ehu e b

i·lised aJr to encfl'SOme flasks, allowed heal-sten . OUOII ..00& ill ,.d . borne microbes withcr' .and filtere out au L"_' __L_ct-ys".' 'J

f b ""1eP orrwo ... uu- , ...other flasks. A ler eln had been Ief1: 0 ,1 Illy , • s 0/1warm oven, Ruks thar .,

· "'..~~ onl)' 10 sterile air remained free from mould andlP"t'T1 ae..... ""putrefaction. All other flasks developed a variety of life

(orms on lhe surface of the broth. It is difficult to conceive of

an\' material other than clear glass which could have been

us~d for Ihese simple but conclusive experiments. This was

an essential stage in the understanding and combating of

infectious disease, since infection would be a far more

intraclable problem if microbes could appear spontaneously

OUI of dead malter.

Later. Ihe microscope would be the foundation of an

even greater breakthrough. OUf understanding of generics

springs from the discovery of DNA and the double helix.

which in lurn rests on the discovery of the chromosome and

Ihe processes of cell division. This relied on the sleady

improvemenl in the resolving power (the ability to see fine

detail) of the microscope.

The story as related above is misleading in irs simplicity.

Many more individuals were involved, each situated in a

complex nerwork essenlial to their contribution. Nevenhe-­

less the tale is typical of any of the stories of product devel­

opmenl, that is the inleraction between ideas and things over

long periods of time, which collectively make up our modern

world.

Allhough it is nOI tOO difficuh (0 see a grneraJ link bel.ccn

scientific 1001s of glass and increased ~Iiahkknowledp,­

subder connections a~ so much more~ that ..,

often escape us. In motl major K::imtificdi·."arin ......

long chain of causalion .,hich,lf brat n., OM,..· I, C •

be compknd Often we find dull ... in -- ....

CLASS Ato'D LATER SCIENCE

whether as container or lens, is one vital link. Thus while it is

not the proximate cause, it is an essential one.

We have looked carefully at the twenty 'great scientific

experimenls' selected and described by Rom Harre, the

Oxford historian of science, as 'twenty experiments that

changed our view of the world'. They stretch from Aristo­

tle's work on the embryology of the chick through to work in

the twentieth cenrury on quantum mechanics, imprinting,

genetics and perception. It is clear that glass instruments were

essential for twelve out of twenty of the experiments. Most of

the other eight required knowledge from earlier experiments

which had used glass. (See Appendix 2 for details.)

In order to see the complex way in which glass can be an

essential link in an apparently unconnected but important

development, let us look at just one intriguing example, the

relationship between glass and the history of the steam

engine. At first sighr the connection is not obvious. Steam

engines do nm seem to have any glass in their manufacture,

so why would it have been impossible to build a steam engine

without widespread use of scienlific glass?

~ere ~ be no doubt of the importance of the steamenpne.lt IS the symbolic and actual tool of the change froman a_arian to an inc! . I Id Th" d'="" ustna wor. IS deVIce transformethe speed of travel the s....cd r ' f

. . .: r- 0 weaving, the effectiveness 0INmng, the dl$lribution of Im' I II c un Willer and many other

InS'. t a o....ed civilisations to r\" ' • .J r move rom a situation ofImltcu energy rom plams and a' Ihave acct$S to the ........ .J _ m.ma s, to one in which they

,,__we acpoSlts of '11'carbon energy. h was made' ml Ions of years of

Into an effectiv' . .nonh-western Europe as the r- I f e InVention 10

~~uto acha' flhat ran directly through g.lass. In 0 causation

1n fact, the steam engine was onlyone of lh

e conveners

SCi .., " -, , D

ki d to release absorbed sunlighl and

hich has enabled man ~ . to internal combustionW later gtVlng way cl baccelerate matter, cl All these devices worke y

. rhines an so on. . AenglOeS, gas IU h' I work from expand109 gas. n

. flmec amca hderivmg use u . f gases the gas laws, t e

. d' of the properties 0 ,understan 109 h I me of a gas and its pressure and

. hi between t e vo urel,lI1ons P dvanced greatly during the sevemeenthtemperature, was a . ' h h

Th ',c was achieved in part by expertments WIt t ecentury. " d d hnewly invented air pump in Germany, Englan an [e

N therlands following the invention of [he barometer, ande , I I .

the demonstration of the existence of [he vacuum in [a y 10

the 1640s.Glass was not required in the manufacture of steam

engines of the 'atmospheric' type, the first generation of

engine, in which the weight or pressure of the atmosphere

was used to press down a large diameter piston into thepartial vacuum created under the piston by the condensation

of steam. However, the designers of [he first engines needed

a good understanding of Ihe narure of the atmosphere, inother words that the air had 'weight' and could exert pres­

sure, that il was possible to make a closed vessel with much

less air in it than existed in an open vessel, that steam could becondensed [Q achieve such a situation and that the resultant

pressure difference could be used to exert considerable force.This set of understandings, perceived only dimly if at aU in1600, had been deeply investigated and even quantified inEurope by 1700 through a series of carefully executed expel'­ImenlS, in several of which glass was crucial.

In the 16409 Berti in Rome, and a little later Tonicelli iaFlorence, performed experimenrs which 80.....' •

the existence of space empty of maner- wbu we ,et~

a vacuum. Each performed me expenn-m with .

..

GL.lSS •• D L.lTER

..

ad available and explicitly designingfrolll whal was a'~ Y ould be tOld about Robert

, A similar stOry clIeW tlnngs. mp chamber could have been

h glass vacuum pu I -Boyle, w o~ r kshops in the world because on Y10

d I tnalewwor drna e on ~ a sufficiently large round glass object be ma e.,hom '"" h . which if you move back along the

This shows t e way tn, find that you cannot have barometers

chain of causation, you ._ nd their chambers and gas laws without dear

or air pumps a Iglass, as Robert Boyle k.new so well. If yo~ use meta,

pollery or porcelain containers or tubes you SImply cannOt

see whal is going on. Thus glass was an essential link in the

chain which lay behind the major power sources of the

industrial revolution, for it provided more accurate know­

ledge of the laws of nature.ThaI glass was the essential ingredient for most of the:

significant [ools of scientific investigation in the seventeenth

cenlury is obvious. Consider for example Knowles Middle­

lon's comment that 'The invention of six valuable scientific

instruments within a few decades of the seventeenth century

undoubledly had an immense effect in aa::eleraring the

development of science. These instrumentS we~ the tele­

scope, the microscope, the air pump, the pendulum clock, thethermometer and the barometer. They all made experimentSand measurements possible which had been unimagi~e

before ... ' All but the pendulum clock. depended on theavailability of high-quality deu glass.

Three fin.1 example. of the iDdirea e«ec:a 01 ........given.Oneconcc:rnathe~ ,.- ..overlooked pi, I oll'llilod A l*,. _I I' ........

cal tubt initially filled with a fluid. Ber,-' beIStu wasmdlead, around Ihirty feet tall and supponed h' a e of

Onl e sIde of h-house. On the top was cemented a flask m d f I ", a eo gasswh'hcontalne<!: water. Torricelli, using mercury sed I'Ylo ~.I.._ ,u a muchner,~ made entirely of glass and sealed al [he top end

The tubt would have bun around Ihree feel I I -th ,. ong. n eachcase e flUId m Ihe tube was allowed to flow OUI hb I' aIle

ottom, eavmg a vacuum at the tOp Th f' e nature 0 theva~um and th~ r~ason for a constant and fairly reprodUcible

height of ~malnlng fluid stimulated a huge amoum of sub­sequenl ~rimental work.

Torricelli's experim -d - -how

' . em prOVl es an Interesllng case ofInnovauon OCCU I h .c

could '. 1$. n t e cwsence of glass, Torricellinot, reahsncally, have said, 'I need a material which I

an '" through - thI__c' (c___ ,.m e form of a tube of indeterminale""'foUl lur 10 amve at the 1number of I COrrttt ength already required a

ap oratory experime: ) 'I d -is dosed al d nlS. nee somelhmg thaIone en and stro h

keavy column f ngenoug to suppOrt itself and ao mercury'

1£ we eonsider th -_ I e next Stag.'" -.ly in cht 16 f ' we can assume the existence9IOdI . 401 0 a com..... 1 -, • clear ..I~__ r~·ent g ass mdustrv used 10- ..... ODd mUi bl -,

bW WM'eor w.-.:.__ \ ng own bottles Or decora--...&..--' - - ..~ arge bubbles of I"'---m of shea ..1___ So g ass as a stage in the~ to d ~. TorriceU'~ ~ 0In ant of hit 1bp I could pay a glass-,L tube. This~ be... . .bubbles of glass inlo a<Qe~ • Innovab

Tl.. _ lin or the time. on, but One well within

'~""''''''nfW tubc:, 1OInetime. ~faeture, dw; clc.inwith .. glass bubbl b With ••imple hMol••'" &of one end of

e lown at tl -... se.1 .performed cithe b Ie melted end ' SOmetimesOr ... u.iltl.nt Th

ry the lltilllfd gl ..L ,COuld hive been

- us.. the r -· er Or by"p ocess is • m' orricelli

IlIture or91 selecting

GLASS AND LATEII , " D

the beginning of the third millennium we live in a IdWOr of

artificially crtattd light. The burning of waxes and oils hadstood humanity in good stead for some thousands of ye .ars In

~rder to ~xtend daylight. With the advent of electricity earlym the nmeteenth century the possibility arose of large

nu~ts of small, economical, practical light-producingdevices. The problem, which was confronted by a number ofexperimenters, most notably Thomas Edison, was how toproduce asmall loop or wire of material which would conducteltttricity and glow white hot, thus emitting light. It is quiteeasy to do this with a thin wire of platinum, for instance. It isquite another matter to produce a device which will go onworki~g for wetks or months. Placing the filament in a glassCORtatntt and evaeuati . all II f ..ng practlc ya 0 the air with newlydeveloped rugh-v_'I . acuum pumps solved the problem. Evenru·ill y l[ was found tha thfull. t e vacuum could be replaced with care-

y purified inen v::o...... Th I,__. ed c~~· e c ear glass container has.......In an essentialment lam nd .1._ neceuary compontnt of both the fila-

pa u~moremodt .a 1 .A second rn lIuorescent amp 10 thIS day.. rumple cornn f 0 h f . .....l:bou, which .1._ _.I' r m teart 0 navlganon,

U>I: IT_tng tmp· h.dationo£ modem global '":s W lch provided the foun-ee.fuI.\y established U~omu~scould not have been suc-In.... .I, ' ntd the earl 'gh~"'~~tndeandn.'. y e. teenth century,and L. __ ~ Vtpnon'li

.~ty p'06tabk~ ere eXlremely hazardouslatitude net. UM: of ift.ac:c\l ' .

a longitude. Numerous rilc1es 10 measuringeS~sive Reets dC5tr~ throu~ expeditions "'ere 1051 and

hips fOUnd them I' &I' &rOM efTo rse Vft ID the rniddl fI 0 reckoning.

any knowled of ' e of the Pactalong the A~ . whlCh 'Way topr~ fie without

anne coast of Eur ' ilnd even vo a efn.uglu with eJ;tra dange beea ope Or to An.e. y g 5it 'Will aI ' ,r use, once OUt of . nCii 'liere

mos. Imp05llble to fttimilte iICCu 'lght of landrale'ly 'Ith '

efe Olle

"

. I 'rude the problem waS slightly easier. ftwas In relation to au , .

. be possible to do moderately precise measure-had for long en ,.

r.L gleof the midday sun uSing such devIces as thementSO Ulean .backslaff and other instruments. In the early eighteenth

century Ihe accuracy of these measuremenlS was increased

significandy by the use of the seXtant, a device which cannotbe made without glass. The sextant uses both half-silvered

and clear glass, The silvered glass is used to reflect an image of

lhesun and by adjusting the image you bring it down on to the

horizon which you see through the clear sighting telescope.This instrument, if used carefully, can enable you to deter­mine your latitude to within ten or rwenty miles.

More difficuh was the establishing of longitude. It w~the development of the precision clock or chronometer, suf­ficiently robust to withstand the salt spray in the air, the JaJgevariations of temperature and humidity, and the constantmovement encountered on a long sea voyage, where siormsand gales were frequent, which provided the first really prac­tical method of establishing longirude. Glass is not used inthe mechanism of the chronometer but is an es~rial com-,ponent without which it would have been impossible to maUa usable, prolected device to carry on ships. The glass on the(ront meant that the workings were sealed off, yet visible.

A number of highly significant navigational aids wbidIbecame increasingly important during the eipl«'rndacemury were also dependent on glass. TeleSCCf n .... 1M......ulan were widely used to see ahead, Lip'...... rs, t +lights and boat lanterns co show pan ud ,t 4 -­essential for navigation in mf6....k .... ooa' ,. ".Inside the ship, lanlU'U piC! dby... ..c •••night feDible ...... _ uF cI ' • • '.-

been uri.,iehd

GLASS Al-D LATEIl

~--A ~ D L ATE II SCIENCE

The third example li~s in the field of .representatio~of

. I' g'5 P,ol"ected over space and time. Th~ ~arhest

\15Ua Imaexptriments with projecting images through th~ use of the

,amua obJ'Ufa are very old and did not require glass. Th~ sim­

I~tof th~deviceswas merely a small hol~ in the shurterof

~window,projecting an (invened) image of the outsid~world

into a darkened room. The early ~xperimemsOUt of which

phorography developed in th~ firSl half of the nineteenth

cenrury required glass at several stages, in the lens of the

camera, the photographic plate and the dark-room. Without

glass there would have been no photography and everything

that Rows from it up to our photograph-soaked world. Fur­

thermore, obviously, without pholOgraphy th~re would ha\~

~n no development of moving films from th~ last dee:ad~ of

the nineteenth cenrury. Although television uses a di«~renr

technology from film, it still depends on cam~rasand scleens

which have glass as an essential component and it.sem'!s pretty

unlikely that it would ever have d~velopedwithout 1M inspir­

ation of moving films in the preceding years. Gas or steam

turbin~ to this day gen~rat~ the pow~r ~Iectriciry. -..hich

makes television possible, and neither of those wouJd baw

existed without the developm~nt of the steam e,.jiw aad

undemanding of gas haws. So our world wouJd haw been

Without phOtography, moving pictures and rekv1sion bur '-

the presence of ghlss. Th~ influence on such dUap_• ..­

eration of d~i~, th~ rapid cransmission M iob ' .....

long distances, the preservation of inkH '.' -,-

is obvious once you conIider .... a • I W .1' 7'"

infDrmation technoIOliftWOUW....... 2 aputerswhich,alfint .. --.. : I ....

Putting it simply,. __ 01_ ,. S. g

h"ve exisred .ne...... 7SI _

the East.InGlass

][ Row CAN ONE TEST the lhesis that glass was a

necessary, if nOi sufficient, cause of the explosion

in reliable knowledge in western Eurasia! Since~

cannot perform the experiment of rerunning the hiswry of

western Europe with glass subtracted, the onJy medJod Jdi

to us is rhe comparative one. What happmed in ocher~

sations, and in particular how do the twO haJves of ­

compare? This is nOl of cou~ condusivt'.1c can be...•" HW

a negative tesr. One can plausibly argue that if oaeCOU .

a case (for example India China or Jap-') when' _, 111.' . .. ..

growth in reliable knowledge we haw N - ..:.......

E.uro~ occurred in a civiliutioa'" c""-~...~~

then it would disprove the h)p [t ' ..

• '=sellary condition for the ; •• E-

other hand, if India, a ' -sion of rclw.&.it mighl 1tiI1 ..

A mall that looks on glalsl,

Oil it may stay his 'y';

0, if hi pltaluh, th'ough it pasSI,

Alia thtlltht htav 'II upit.

~ Htrbr:n, '1lw: [lw....

_.-

prolo7.oolObry, bacteriology, molecular biology. A'i1romlnlY,

Iht' mon' general biological sciences, physic.., mineralogy,

engineering, palaeonlOlogy, sedimenlOlogy, vulcanology

and geology would also have been very different. They arc

all disciplines which rest firmly on the availabililY of clear

glass and the skills to manipulate it. They are good example-;

of chains of causation in which glass is a crucial link.

So we can conclude by noting how much of our world

would not now exist without this remarkable material.

WithoUl clear glass we would nOI have had gas laws, no

steam engine, no internal combuslion engine. Withoul clear

glass we would nOt have had Ihe visualisation of bacteria, no

understanding of infectious diseases and the medical revolu·

tion since Pasteur and Koch. Wi,hout ,he chemislTY which

dependw crucially on glass instrumems we would have had

no recognition of nitrogen and so no artificial nitrogenous

feTlilisers and hence much of the agricultural advance of the

ninaeenth century onwards would have been losl. Wi,hout

clen glass there could have been no telescopes. ASlTonomy

would be limi~ to visual observation. There would have

been no knowledge of the mOOT\5 of Jupiter, no obvious way

to prove that Copernicus and Galileo were righl. Wilhout

glD5 ....e would have had no understanding of cell division

(or of cells) and thus no microbiology and no delailed

understanding of ~eneticl, certainly no discovery of DNA.

~50,~f course, ....lthOUt spectacles, a majority of the popula­

uon (Ill the west at least) over the age of fifty would have

very great difficulties in reading this or any Other book.

t.l~8' '1'0 'I It I- I A \ 1 ,.r,A", , 1 H , ~ A \ ,

CIa"lS can never be mher th"n '~ne of " nurnbt:r "f ncl.I:'....ry

QUses, and never sufficient in ir<;c:lf. II untt:I·~illht:rt:r\ d., 11'11

primarily lack !lClcnCt: becaust: dlt:y lack ~l,,'i". The H'Jmilll\

made wonderful glass bUl never devdopcd Whill we w"uld

now lerm '.cieocc'. Neverthdess, il i.. "Ifill ust:fu] 1-, CU:ille"

conlrol uudy by looking at OIher ca'ICs. We shill! m'JVc ca'il.

ward5 rrOlTi the Mediterrane"n, bricfly '1urveyinR Ihe hi,t.,.

rielof IlliimK:,lndian, Chinese and Jilpilnt.'SC gl:......

In tOme ways, onto( the mosl instructive hi~trlriesof glil\'i i..

tNt of ill fall: in l~amK: civilisalM>n5. After Ihe cfJllilp5f: of

the Roman Empire, tllt «nue: or glass-making shifted b..ck

10 the UMttn Mtditerranean, the .. rea wl\cre glass had first

been ditcovered and dcveloped_ Syria, Egypt, Iran "nd Ir.tq.For a while the C_••• • Em' h' h ' roNJOWnlan pire w Ie ruled Wide are.' 0

"estern Ali.. from 'D 6 Lid' , ,21.<4 to '1 nC' IhlS rt:gKJn. me glasshere "'" u.wly "'k 'inctuckd b&o.n r-. green or l~nsparent. Ttchmqucs

• A "" CMtlOB and prClSmu ...heel CUlling wilh-, ; .ood ....... d<co, . ~ ,_ ~ '1. atlOn. M.ny of the objecu were'•• , .- ood _.Ikd ,_, d' ,0( b..s . '""'''IS Istancc:s; lor uilmple, rwo

., • .. Japanne tornbl of the si.th and...........cMN L~"", #,. 0( the Ipread of Islamicdie .... , sr.. 4; 5 t...ian Empire but

7 ""<'AIhMI.t.o.oorl.dIWoOlher· Hmce. linee IslamSyro.-P t, tin', i ....... r:_are:' ....o( "au, rn.king, theheir 10 _r "1),..11:>, .- ""' . '1'fIlMy <II _ mo. lI6v c:'v\ Killion wasrukiftK. Vet. Cor about • h..and~ "dw+... of glass.t9~....kin& ckcllned; it bewan tQ :::::."- Ihe lnv_ions

-"U)7~"hh

1, 1 'ndlll"n~ p<orllcuhlTly In ib~dOtd.By the ninth111"(C ~11 C' c,

. {h~lm("lIvdy 1..I;.mlc "Iylc h..d ht:t:n ~tabll\~d,(,.'·nlUry iI . GI

I 1 ' l'm'JU" f',r It .. clttlUI\llC cr.. ft\man\hlp. a..'1>-W lIC I W.... iI ,

k 'v,'y wlde..prc..d .. nd v.. nt:d from u'ieful vn!iC:l~m" In~ w....I" CIt'lW.. IIC lultlHy w"re.

Th.,'>C: wllllln ,he 1..lamic arca creau:d wonderful decor·

"Ietl ~b .., h.. rdly ..urpa"'oCd ht:f'Jrc -,r after. Lustre-palntlng,

~blful enw..vln~, em"ncllin~, gilding in all of these theI'>laml~ ~Ia\,·m ..k.ef\ excelled. Very large quantiti~ of

1...llle.., 1)1'110'1 .., IU~'" ~amlng pi~ small di!iCS for esublish·m~ Ille WCIWlI .,( C/'JIn", lamps (panicularly for mosqu~)and

111...... IC ~Ia .... were produced. This glass W<ilS traded illI (Aer

i-~uril"" .. nd became as impnrtilnl in the: va51 New Worid

empire f,f I\bm ""I 11 hOld been in the Roman Empire. It hasl)Cen f'.und In plill«:s a. far ilpart iIS Scandinilviil, RUflia, EasiAfnc" "nd even Chin... II was in Syria during the thlJt«rnh

.. nd f',urlcenlh cc:nturi~ thar the most glorious g1au w:asp",duced. In Aleppo and Ihen DamiiSCU.!i g1afl WaJ crated

'm a Wide sale. Including brilliant examples d«orated wilb"",mals, birds, flowers and afilbesque folia~. Among tht:.,bjec" there were sprinklers, globes, footed bowls, beiiUnand long·necked bolll~ Mosque lamps (re.lIy Iilntuns) (or

uw: in school, and mosques were particuliirJy beaufi(uJ andimponoml, the: neilf~' equivalent in their symbolism andwidespread Ulle to Ihe growth o( stilined gJ~ in WCMern

European churches. They illustrated the words o( aM KDnn,'Allah i, the Light of the Heilvens and the e"nh. 11Ie liUneM

of His light is as a niche. in which i, iI Iilmp. The Wnp in a

glass, the gJllIS5 as it were iI shining J1ilr.'

Unronunaldy we know lillie moul aM ~ or gbtIlCwfunclional purpo.5Cs. Yel we do know lhal there WM a wideproduclion ror lCiemific inslrumenls, for aIftnbtcs (diIdIJinc)..,

G LAS S IN THF, E A S T

-, , T II f.

and cupping glasses for bleeding. Official weights and mea_

sures were also made of glass. It seems likely !hal il was also

used in a limited way to make mirrors, plano-convex lenses

for magnification and for Olher purposes. The fact that

Arabic thinkers at this precise time revolutionised mathe_

marics, geometry, optics and chemistry is surely not acoincidence.

Another major category was glass 10 hold perfumes and

cosmetics, namely small flasks and other containers for oinr­

ments and unguents. This is interesting and is far less devel­

oped in western glass-making since Roman times. A thirdgroup namely tableware, is the largest, consisling of bonles,

bowls and dishes. One rning we would like to know about is

the development of drinking glasses. Is it true that the ban in

Islam on the consumption of wine had an effect? The ques­

tion is prompted by the importance of wine-glass manufac­

ture in Italy on the development of fine glass.

Finally, it appears that there was only a very limited

development of window glass, which was hardly used in the

traditional houses of the Middle East where il was important

that air circulated in the hot season. Books on Muslim archi­

tecture occasionally mention the use of small stained glass

segments in religious and secular buildings, but there is little

evidence beyond this. This absence of the developmenl of

flat glass is important; much of what is most eXlraordinary,

particularly in northern Europe, arises out of an intersection

of climate, Christianity and glass in the development ofstained glass in churches, and plain glass windows fromRoman times onwards.

'0'

·d . II'pse of the glilss industric~ within "'lam i~ dThe rapl co ' .T I s'rnple explanation thai Mongol lIlvilder"mystery. IC I •

ff . I ·pod 0'" glass clearly had a good deal 10 do withe eCllveywI ..... ' , .. TI fi w,ve of destruction occurred 10 the twelfth andIt. Ie rSt

I · I oo,,"ries and encompassed the northern half oft urteent] .. ...Islam and parts of Russia. Mongol invasions had destroyed

the flourishing glass industry in Kievan Russia in the early

twelfd] century. The flourishing Persian industry was nearly

all destroyed by Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth

century.The second wave of destruction occurred in the four­

teemh cemury. The destruction of glasshouses and the

deportation of the glass-makers from Damascus by Timur in

1400 more or less put an end to the golden period of Islamic

glass-making, but the decline in quality and quaOlity had, in

fact, started about fifty years before Timur's destruction

which suggests other forces were also at work. Little glass of

any quality was produced in Syria or the neighbouring

regions after 1400. The glass industry had simply died out

and it was Venice that began to fulfil the need for luxury

glass. Whether the end of glass-making in the fifteenth

cenlury was Ihe result of competition from the west, lhe

spread of plague in Ihe cities, the deportation of workers orsonlething else is still unclear. All we know is that high.

quality glass ceased to be made anywhere in the Islamicworld for.some centuries afrer 1400.

This is a rather extraordinary story. In Ihe periodbetween about 700 and 1400 the leading glass region in Iheworld was within Islamic civilisation. It was also the leadingarea for medicine, chemistry, mathematics and optics(physics). Then, JUSt at the poinl when European glass wasIransforming science and vision, glass more or less disap·

'0)

CLA!S I'" Tltl H A ~ t, , 1 II ~

"'"ared from Islam. Surely these are nm just coincidences br- , Utsome kind of elective affiniry, al Ihe leasl, is involved. BUtwhal may have made Ihe European development from aboul1100 onwards so much more powerful in Ihe end, is Ihal theIhinking lools of glass - particularly lenses and prisms, spe<:.lades and mirrors - were emphasised in a way Ihal, atpr~nt al least, does not ~m to be the case in Islamicglass·malcing. Double-sided lenses and spectacles, flat planesof glass (as used in Renaissance painting) and very finemirrors (as produced in Venice) were never developed in themedieval glass traditions of Islam. Is this Ihe crucial differ­ence?

The story after 1400 is quite briefly told. A lillIe glass wasproduced in Turkey under the Ouomans, but glass tech­niques had to be reintroduced from Venice in lhe later eigh.teenth century. There is evidence of a lillie glass made inTurkey in the sixteenth century and in Iran in the seven­teenth century, but it was of low qualiry. There are otherinstances of minor glass manufacture, but in general there isalmost no iluthenticated glass manufactured in the MiddleEast betwttn the end of the fourteenth century and the nine·teenth century.

11 is tempting to speculiite what would have happened iftht: Mongols had not smashed first the glass.making of thenorth and then thai of the south. If, aftef 1400, Venice hadv~ with a vigorous Islamic glass industry making finenurron andlenscs, OUr world might now be rather different.

1M fate of gbss in India is equally interesting. Here was avast and h" _..sop IStlCat~ continent which eu:elled in many

'0'

ov"the age') in ir')n and p',tlcry, 10

h · I pr<,lCesses 'Ie<: nlea ..' lX><!work and ba"ketw'Jrk. It wa"

. ."ing and spmnlng, In 90' d~ea . .1 d. t 10 Ihe ilrea where gla.. '\. wa'> first de....·eJrlpeSiruilteu a lacen h d

. d h 'rddle East generally) and a c'm"'tant(Pers,a an tel' I .' bl

I. 'th Ihat area. If there is somethmg lOe" lIa e

trade re allons 90'\

f this t~hnology we might well ha.eabout the progress 0 , •

• .1 lass manufacture to have blo'iS'1med 10 India.expeetc:u g ..'What then can we learn about liS hlstory~

In the several lhousand years before the binh of Christthere appears to have been a widespread knowledge of glass,bur its use was mainly for decoration. Early Indian craftsmenmade glass ~ads and bangles, ear ornaments, seals and discs.The knowledge and technology were there, and Plin>· statedthat no glass could be compared 10 ,he Indian, though it isworlh nOling that he gives as a reason that it was made frombroken crystal. There seems 10 have been a surge in themaking and use of glass in Ihe period from aboulthe birth ofChriSI to the fif,h century and some have claimed that glassbecame widely used. Foreign glass objects, including wine­glasses, were al!iO being imported and it is clear that the tech·nique of blowing glass was known in India. At this point illooked as if India was moving in the same direction as 1Mlands to the west.

Yet the industry then faded away. From the golden periodof ~e Guptas, from about AD 410, the glass industry in Indiadecltned to a point where it hardly existed a thousand yearslaler. Only a few bangles and glazed bowls from this periodhave been recovered. In the Bahmani Period (I'U,-IJII)there was a small revival. Layered glil55 bangles and bradsand bowls dating from then were found throughout 1MDeccan: Yet when we compare this to what had by ncnv- h;ap­pened In Europe, we notice the conspicuous~ of

'01

G L .. S S IN 11tH E .. S T

a, , , , , F. .. S T

\\';ndow$.. mirrors. lenses, spectacles and Ihe widespread useof glass for drinking ve~ls.

In Ihe Mughal period. Persian craftsmen were broughl tocoun and glass was manufaclUrt'd. Clear glass was unCOm_mon; usually il was of a deep copper blue and ornamentedwith flowers and orner decorations. Hukkah bowls ('hubblebubble') were decorated with glass and some bowls and spit_toons of glass were made. By a curious twist, while glass~n to be used for mirrors, it was used on me Ixld: of ametal mirror as decoration (usually gr~n or light brown inimitation of jade). Glass was thus used for fine luxury itemsfor the nobility. Most of what remains from this period dalesfrom the later sevemeenth century.

The divergent development of India when compared 10

western Europe could be seen as the impacl of the Por­tuguese and British traders beg:1O to be felt. Spectacles ofglass from the first quaner of the sixteemh century have beenfound, and there is a greal deal of evidence of the impon ofspeelacles by the East India Company from the early seven­I~th cemury. The correspondence of this company indi­cates thai looking glasses, spectacles and other glass objeclSwere in demand. Dutch bottles for rose walC'r, gin, ink and soon were also now widespread. Imporled glass seems to havebeen quite widdy used, bUI it is difficult to know how muchnative production thC're was even in this period. CC'nainly bythe latC'r eig)lI~th century, therC' are interesting descrip­tions of natin glass kilns. In the ninelecnth cenrury there1VIS quite: a largC' indigenous glass industry, though it seemsthai the main productS were bangles and vessels and littleevidence is to be found of the making of mirrors., windowpanes, spectacles, lenses., etc.

1ne quality of Indian glass was a problem during this

. ' . This had various conSC'-f Jl of lmpuflUe5.pt"riod: il was la~k of transparency led 10 the demand forqueTICes. The I d p",icularly from the laler $Cven­

. ~ 'gn g ass. ansupenor orel r E r h lead glass. so thallhe locallOdus­teerllh century ,or ng 's

, was almosl crushC"d. I d f.~ I . h' While Indians had a full know e ge 0The puzz e IS I Is..

lithe techniques of glass-making. they hardly develo~ a~:ndusITY, even Mfore foreign competilion co~ld ha,,'e killC'd 11

off. Hislorians have suggested several conmbutory factors.One concerns the materials for glass. SomC' suggesl thai therewas a shonage of nat ron. natural alkali. in India ..~his maybe important. but if OIher faclors had b«n proplllous onesuspectS Ihat. gh'en the Widespread cortage industry of thenineteenth century. this obslacle could have been Overcome.

Two Olher interrelated causes for the slow developmem ofglass have been suggested. One was the low position of glass­makers. As with all those who turn nature into culrure(black-smilhs. tailors and leather-workers), glass-makerswere relegaled 10 the bottom of the caste system. Thus glass­making would nOI anract educaled Or weahhy people. Thiswas also linked to social snobbery and religious ~tricrions.1t

appears that glass was not a high-starus object which thC' richand sophisticated coveled. Religious texIS suggest that glass:was regarded with some contC'mpt. Certainly it does~m tobe the case thiU its main use was to It)' to imitate so~thingelse - jade and precious slones. china and polUlain. It doesIIOt 5«rn 10 have been valued for itself. This is a circularprocess. As glass is mOre highly valued. money is spent on itand on.deve.loping finer glass... which in it! rum becorMS morealtracllve. This was the pattern in the west. If it i~ ~rded asa set.0nd-rate allernalive 10 other things, impure g1ass,.,HI doand liS uses a . dre rCStnc:le . It attraCtS less and Ins.

''''

G L ~ S S IN TilE ~ASr

•T U E E A ~ r

If we lake 3 wider view, various things stand fOUI rom

this srory. Firstly, the non-development was nOI th· I. ,.reSUlar

cuher Jack of knowledge or lack of craft skills BOIh .. Were In

as great abundance in this area as around the Medi,••'-' raneanwhere glass developed so rapidly. Secondly, India is a prime

example of a civilisation which over a thousand years

almost forgot about glass. Having been quite Widespread byAD 400, at least for small decorative items, a thousand years

later it had almost disappeared. Thirdly, il is not difficult to

see functional reasons for this, quite apart from the mater­

ials side. If we examine each of its major uses, we can see

why India did not need glass. Firstly, it had an ancient and

very widespread ponery tradition. Cheap pOts and drinking

vessels dealt with the slOrage and drinking needs bener than

the costly glass vessels. Secondly, its climate did not make

glass windows a high priority, so flat glass would not

develop. Thirdly, it had plenty of good brass and other

metals for mirror-making. It may therefore nOt be necessary

to invoke Hindu or Islamic attitudes to glass in the explan­

ation of why India remained, essentially, a civilisationwhich did not develop glass.

Yet the consequences were incalculable. Among these are

the possible effects on Indian science. It is well known that

India was very advanced in its mathematics, giving the west

the concept and sign of the zero, for example. Yet afler the

period up to about AD sao the mathematics became more andmore abstract and pure. Nor was there much development,as far as we know, of geometry or optics. The practicalexperiments and testing of mathematics which glass allows

through the use of mirrors and lenses were not possible inIndia. Secondly, there arc the effects on Indian arl. As wehave suggested, glass is one of the crucial features which

'0'

. A d ,he revolution 10 western art, with perspective,10 uence f I

I d .,l,'~m The facl that Indian an, rom tledept} an r... ~ .medieval period through the famous Persian an. of theMughals, remained two_dimensional and symbolic. was

erhaps also influenced by the absence of glass. Thirdly, the

~oncepfs of the person and individual were deeply affected,

panicularly by the absence of glass mirrors, as we shall see.

for most of history China was technologically the most so­

phisticated of civilisations and so we may wonder what the

Chinese made of the extraordinary substance we call glass.

From the initial perspective of the west, the career of glass in

China over the last three thousand years is puzzling. A civil­

isation that produced some of the most creative craftsmen in

history, excelling in pottery, metal-working, prim-making

and weaving, contributed almost nothing in the field of the

developmem of glass.

By about the sixth century BC glass was probably manu­

factured quite widely. The art of glass-casting was mastered

in the Han period (206 BC - AD 210) when ritual objects and

jewellery were made. The next major turning point was meintroduction of glass-blowing techniques, about half a mil­

lennium after they had been developed in the Middle EaSI. AIfirst blown-glass objects were imported. BUI from th~ fifthCentury, native glass-blowing was being undertaken.

During the next thousand years Ihere was a mixture o(some native manufacture and a good deal of importation o(first Roman and later Islamic and European glass. The piecel;made and imported were mainly small ritual objeclS and We-ftoys and Other devices, including screens of glass behind

'09

GLASS , , T II Ii EAST E A S T

...

which objects moved. It seems Ihat SOme nati,- 1e g ass-makill

coluinued. Yel. on the whole, in the Ihousand)' , g.. . ears ,liIer themlroductlon of glass-blowing Ihere seems to 1

lave ~nhoudly any real developmem of Ihe glass indUstry andnothing much has been recovered except small I'

. . re Iquaryboules for religIOUS purpost's and some imilation' r

. 0 prt'_claus SlOnes. The an was very localised and sporadic, wilhno long-tt'rm evolution.

One way of explaining this is 10 look at the functions of

gfass and Ihe attitude towards il. BaSically il was seen ve

largely as an inferior subslitule for precious and scarce su~slances, nOl as a wonderful malerial in its own right. Irs prin­

cipal arrraction was as a way 10 imitale cheaply more

precious substances such as mineral turquoise. The status of

glass and of glass-makers was similar 10 that in India.

Allhough we are forced lO use Ihe word 'glass' for compara­

tive purposes, the substance did not carry the whole load of

meanings which we attribute to il. 11 was just a rather inferior

material, less imeresling Ihan day, bamboo, paper and many

others.

The second polential use of glass is for conlainers and

vtssels of various kinds. Here one mighl ask whal glass

could do that nne porcelain could not. Writing of Ihe laler

seventeenth century, the great Jesuit historian, Du Halde,

made a comp;trison of porcelain and glass and thereby gave

an imporum insight into one of Ihe main reasonS for the

absence of glass in China.

Thqt are almost as curious in China, with resp«1 10

Classes and Crystals thillt come from Europe, as the Euro­peillns /Iff' with regard to China-wilre; and yellhis has neverinduc'd the Chinese 10 cross Ihe SeilS in quest of it, because

I fi d Iheir own Ware more u,scful; {or it will bear hotI,eyn "T'hL

' .nd you may hold a Dish of bOIling U WI! out,quor, .

b' you lf when you take it after their way, whIchurnlflg .

you could not do even ;ith a ~ilver Dish ~f the s;lmeThickness and Figure; besIdes Chll1a-w:;lre has liS LUSlre aswell as Glass. and if it is I~s uansparenl il is likewise less

brittle.

He Ihen goes on to show thai porcelain, like glass, can be cut

with a diamond 10 make panerns. Thus Du Halde staled the

obvious faci Ihat one is not likely to nU<! glass for hot drinks

when one has chinaware. The role of ordinary pottery is also

important. China is, along with Japan, one of the great

potting nalions and pottery has many advanlages. Potlery is

much cheaper and holds hot liquids very well. A lea-drink­

ing nation is unlikely to develop Ihe same kind of wonderful

wine-glasses as the heirs to Roman glass.

Moving to windows, il is obvious Ihat with good oiled

paper and a warmer dimale, certainly in the soulh. me pres­

sure 10 make glass windows was largely absent in China.

This is pari of a much wider set of differences which af!'

beginning to become obvious. For example, soumern

Chinese archileclure largely consists of buildings made of

woodwork and lanice - much more lik.e lighl lenlS thanbUildings. Hence il would have been more difficuh 10 place

glass windows in these frail, non4weighl-bearing walls. 1nc~ses of the Chinese peasantry were not suilable for gtassWindows. even i{ Ihey could have afforded mem, and were Iiiby emply gaps or paper or shell windows. Funhermore,grand religious or secular buildings, buih OUI of stone 10 lUI{or cemuries, hardly existed in China. The rquivalenl of diecalhedrals or noble houses of the W6t were absent.

."

"LASS r N TIlE EAST , , T It E E " oS T

China was largely a coumrv with a \'e' d"I h

' . r) ru Imemag ass tec nology until al least me 16,- TI, h ry

"''', us w al mighl betermed the uses of glass as [0015 of li"ing _ drinki

ston.ge, decoration of the body. decon.tion ad" ng._ n Impro\"~_

mem of me house - v,'ere '·en.· differem Or no "'. - J • n·e)aS[~m.

\1;'hat IS crueal to our argument is [he way in which the~nCt" of [he development of glass technology in these

spheres so influenced the development of tools of thoughtmade v,tith glass.

The Chinese had a passion for mirrors. but it was largely

for highly polished bronze mirrors. which were often

~rded as haVing magical qualities. Such bronze mirrors

could be made into plane, convex and concave shapes and

some experiments were made using them as 'burning

gJassn', Some ha"e suggested that bi-<onvex lenses of glass

may also have been made early. but these died Out by m~

~'elfth cenruf)', if mey had e"er existed. There have also

hem inconclusi"e arguments concerning whether specl3c1es

were developed using glass.

In China, glass technologies., [he making of coloured and

plain glass, glass·blowing, me use of lead and barium, wefe

all known before AD Sao, Yet there was little interest in glass

from then on until the brief burst of enthusiasm under the

lmpelUS of the JesuilS between about 1670 and 1760, which

again faded away for a century or so. Thus over much of the

period bttw~ about 800 and 1610, the precise rime of [he

NIh of gbss technology first in Islam and then in wes[ern

Europt. glass technology hardly developed in China.

It .. dear'" dw. Japanese knew how 10 manufaCtUre glass

Id make holh coloured and colourless\'C'r?' ~arly. and hco~lair. [he leading expert of [he history of\·anC'Ut'S· Dorot

dy

ribes how gla~ be'ads and discs were

J an6t glass esc , .od ('P d "bly made in Japan in [he YayOl pen c.

found. an pasSI' d d dy) The technology expande an use. mas

}oo BC 10 AD }oo - ), c_ d, incrNsed during [he Kofun period (c. }0e>--7

IO'

loruea , J "sglsAf the introduction of Buddhism [0 apan 10 n· as

re1~~:arieswere made. Later, relics were placed in small glass

jars, New tecnniques for bead-making were developed and

possibly for making transparent green gla~s urns.In tne Nara period (71C>-94) glass-makmg advanced even

further. Many temples had their own glass construction

bureaus. Large stores of beads and chests of broken frag­

menlS have been found; [here are also '6sh-form tallies', and

many kinds of cast and coiled beads. Glass-blowing became

common and an indication of the quantity of glass is shown

by a monument 10 the emperor Shomu (d. 716), which con­tained thousands of glass beads, glass pieces, insets., sashaccessories and rods for scrolls. In me Heian ~ri.od

(794-1181) glass.making declined, yet there were sliD some

exquisite and complex examples of beads and inlaid glass.

It seems clear mat in the early period glass had a spiritual

significance for the Japanese, but [he range of uses was small.

The glass recorded here was for beads, decorations and reli.

gious artefacts; there is no mention of windows, drinkingvessels or looking glasses (mirrors). Already there is a diver­gence from the west, for all these other uses of glass boW beendeVeloped by the Romans or their succnsors in the Wet bythe twelfth ttnrury. We can begin to see a decline in the useof gins OCCUrring in Japan, from about the ninth or tmthcenlury onwards.

While glus bea.ds were still desired, local glZu makinc

"1

Cl".s.s IS , " , £ .. .s T

a, , T H t:

had decreasro grt'ady by tht' Kamakura period ( 8. Ii ~-Illl).

Tht'rt' ",·t'rt' stili somt' works. bUI glass vt'S~ls Wt'rt' bpro ably

impons from China. The decline accelerated thro h h. . ug t e

Muromachl penod (13JJ-I~68) 10 a point whe', Ig ass_making was almost extinCI. Even the use of glass beads

almosl vanished under the influence of Zen Buddhism,

which frowned on image worship. The situation was such

that by the middle of the sixreenlh century the use of glass,

excepl in the making of a few beads, was apparendy

unknown. Glass '9o'a$ nOI being made in Ihe Azuchi-Momoya_

rna period (1~68-1600). Indeed, the an had bttn so com­

pletely forgonen thai the first blown-glass objects brought by

wt'Stem traders and Jesuil missionaries in the later sixt~nth

cmlllry were thought to be made of a new and exotic sub­

stance which the weslerners must have dug up OuI of the

ground. This is indeed an extraordinary story, though not

dissimilar to that of her giam neighbour China, Belween

aboul the lemh and sixleenth cenruries, the great period of

glass expansion in Europe, glass-making practically disap­

peared in japan.

The: Portuguese and the Dutch brought soda lime and

lead glass to japan. Objects made with such glass were of

utilitarian value and had none of the earlier religious aura

att~ched to them, Curiosity, however, led 10 people attempt­

ing to imitate them. By the early nineteenth century fine glass

objectS were being made. Various feudal lords, in particular

Satsuma, were experimenling with glass manufacture. Thedisruption c.aused by the arrival of American and olher

foreign powers who menaced japan from the middle of Ihe

unrury led to the virtuill dis.appeara.n~ of glass manufac­

wre, but private glass shops continued to exist in Tokyo.One thing which was evidenl to visilors 10 Japan in the

".

was that Ihe superb lechnical craftsman·~'entet'nthceowry when applied [0 glass. produced won­ship of the Japanese. h' '.n of J.pan Engelbert. Tht grtat Iston 'derful ob1ec

t

h, \' ed'n J.pan for some years in Ihe later SCV·

Kaempfer. ~' 0 IV I fde<! the expansion of glass manu 3C·

enleenth century, recor h dd ,Ilat the J.panese were blowing glass by I al ale,

lUre, an , b h 'd fSpeaking of Tokyo, he wrOte that On 01 S1 es 0

the meets are multitudes of well furnish'd shops of ~er.chantS and Iradesmen, drapers, silk-merchants, druggists,

Idol-Sellers, booksellers, glass-blowers. apothecaries and

olhers: Towards the end of the eighleenth century, Thun­

berg also noted their ability. 'They are likewise acquainted

with Ihe an of making Glass and can manufacrure it for any

purpose, both coloured and uncoloured.' In the middle of

the nineteenth cenrury, during Elgin's mission, there was the

same double theme in the accounts, The Japanese could

make wonderful glass, but used it only in a restricled way.Despite all their ability, the Japanese: used the substance

almOSt entirely for ornamental purposes, harking back in a

way to the ,eighrh-eenwl')' peak of japanese g1ass-mmng.The chroOlc1er of Lord Elgin's mission made the pointemphalically:

It is singular that while the Japanese have brought the man­ufa~nJre of glass 10 such perfection in certain forms _ as,fOr lnSla~Ce, the most exquisitely_shaped bottles, 50 lighland fragile that th~ seem as rhough .Lbubbl f u""y were mereriled ~ 0 rv~ry shade of colour, and beautifully mam-

"'lIh drVlc~ - plare-glass i5 unkno1bcir IOOking_gla . wn~g them.~ h'ghl sses are CIn:ular pieus of mel, polished

I Yas 10 iIl\ft,<e:r all 1Musually clabo I purposes of a ZIlinof: -.d

ntf! yorn~lrd on thr~ ,

"'------

GlJ,SS IN TIlF. F.J,$T

Thus twO of the major uses of glass in the west . d• Win OWs

and mirrors, were nOf developed, even by the 18,;os.

After the Meiji restoration (1868), there was a Rood of

new technologies and uses. The multiple uses of gl 'ass lOr9.rindows, lamps and many other purposes were well known.

Foreign e~ns were brought in and industrial glass produc_

tion soon develo~.The result is that Japan is today one of

1M world's largest producers of glass, probably ranking

~nd after the United States, producing. among other

things, a vast amount of plate glass of very high quality.

The punle is this. The Japanese had all the knowledge to

make high-quality glass from at least the eighth century and

probably before. They did make wonderful glass objects, OUt

of coloured and plain glass, but almost entirely for religious

or decorative purposes. After about the twelfth century

glass-making died OUt. After the Portuguese reintroduced

glass objects they were used for a narrow range of decorative

purposes. The Japanese even use the western derived

'girasu' for glass.. We have to explain a set of absences.

As we saw in the earlier discussion of mirrors and the

conceptS of the individual, Japanese mirrors were tradition­

ally made of brass or steel. They were not made of glass.

Mirrors were widespread and very important sacred

symbols., but glass mirrors were nOt developed, probably

because they were not needed. Thus a whole dimension ofperception, the mirror worlds so important in art and

~,wasmore or less absent in japan. In many contexts,

lOCh as in ShintO shri~ the mirror was used not [0 s« thephyskaJ body. It was a sacred object through which onecould look into the soul. The development of good flat glassfa< " dOdminors I not OCCUr before the laler nineleenth century.

Ont of the things that particularly struck Europeans

GLASS IN TIIF, tA5T

about J:ap:an was the absence of glass windows. Tn the later

eightcCl1lh century Thunberg noted th'lt 'window.glass.....hich i:. fbt, they could not fabricate formerly. This an Iheyhave Ialely learned from the Europeans .. .' Thus there 'areno glass windows here'. He also noticed the absence of mica

and mother of pearl. Instead. there were wood and paper

S(:reens.There are ~veral possible reasons for this absence.

Firstly. the japanese climate. on the whole. makes glass

windows undesirable. For the very hOI and humid half of the

year they would have made the tiny house interiors very

oppressive. Nowadays, it is only air.conditioning that makes

many offices bearable. Secondly, the geology makes glasswindows very dangerous, unless made of toughened glass.

There are almost daily earth tremors :and frequent quakes in

many parts of Japan, which would have shattered early glasswindows. Then there are the building malerials; the flimsy

wood and bamboo structures are not suited for glass

windows, unlike the brickwork of Europe. There is Ihe ques­lion of alternatives. Movable screens made of Ihe superior

(mulberry) paper of japan which lets through light but not

wind is an excellent alternative to glass. Another faClor wasprobably cost. Glass is expensive; only a wuhhy middle­class family could afford it. Until recently the majority of thepopulation in japan could not have afforded glass windows..

In Ihe japanese numbering syslem, ~'hich classifiesobiects imo various categories., one class consists of liquidsdrunk with a container, as waler, wine. tea. etc. The cbssllie:rending is irQ; 'for glasses or cups of any liquid'. In (3Ct. what

is very striking is the absence of drinking glasses in Ja~.Much of the imponam developmem of European glass (10Venice and elsewhere) was in the making of drinking glassotS,

"7

~ " S T-

GLASS If" TIlF. EAST

a cOlllinu;llion of its use in Roman limes. Yet in J d .. . . apan, TlrIk_mg wllh glass seems, until the middle of th... .

'- mnetct'llthcentury, to be more or less lorally absent Why' A . 1. . gam t lereare several obvious reasons.

One concerns the nature of the drink. The Venetian glass

was developed for the highest-status and ubiquitous colddrink - wine. In northern countries, where beer was the main

drink, it was nOI drunk from glass, but pewter and pOtlery.Wine and glass seem to go IOgether. One drinks with the

eyes., as well as with the lips, and the glass enhances the

effect. Cenainly, if one is drinking very large quantities ofhot drinks, hOl tea, hot water, hOI sake, [hen glass is a badcontainer. It will crack and the simation is made worse by the

fact that thick glass (as was early glass) cracks more easilythan thin.

A second, and obviously related fact, is the development

of ceramics. With such fine ceramics and wonderful pottery,

who needs glass for drinking vessels? Indeed, glass is hardly

needed for any mher utensils; boules could be replaced with

pots, bowls made with clay. So, apart from the copying of

precious stones and a little very fine cut Satsuma ware, glass

was not developed for drinking or mher utensils. As to the

question of the development of glass as an aid to sight, that

is lenses, prisms, spectacles and so on, there was no notice·

able progress in this direction until the eighteenth century.

The material which we call glass with all irs functional

associations faded away in Japan, just as it had done in Indiaand China. It was of lillIe use, except for beads, toys andpretty things: aesthetics and ritual yes, practical functions no.Earlier we argued mat the unintended consequences of rhepresence or absence of glass on science, art and personalityin the W6t were probably immense. It does not seem roo far·

,,'

1 1 gue that rhe well-known facr thai at the fWO endsfl,tc IC( IO:H '

. E .. ,'~ ''''ry differem cosmologies and ideologies devel-ut llra~" v~

.d ,Iy 'DAecred the fact that at one end of rhe continentope. par ~

a glass civilisation emerged. and at Ihe other a potrery and

papt'r one.

The slOry of what did nor happen ourside western Europe

has an imeresting theoretical implication. For most of

history there has been little reason 10 develop clear glass.

Consequently, there is little point in trying to build careful

arguments as 10 why the making of uncoloured glass did not

develop. There was no reason why it should develop. It is

only when we look backwards al history from our laner-day

perspective and see the enormous. but originally subtle. dif­ference that glass has made to the weStern world that we

wonder at its non-existence in other civilisations. History

wril!en in a rear-view mirror has its dangers. For. until the

very recent advances in reliable knowledge had been made

fOTluilOusly as one accidental aspect of the presence of glass.there is nOt the sliglllest reason why we should be surprised

that glass did not develop much in India. China or Japan.

The major use for glass until the last few hundred yearsh:ld been for cOllwiners. The Chinese and Japanese hadexcdlent conrainers made of clay. So they had no reason

whatsoever to pursue glass. Not only were the consumingpublic COntenl with the wealth ot' porcelain and pouery con.tainers, but the producing workers. lhe vast empire of work.shops and potters, were hardly likely to argue that theirskillsbe made less central in order 10 introduce a lechnology whichre<juires a 101 more fuel (because of the COSt of keeping glass

"9

CLASS IS ~H'' [ ... 5 T

mohen for long periods) and produces a less rob. • USt andarguably less beaullful object. Glass.making is ad",","I ('renttechnique and there is no grt'3r reason ",h" ano,h. . er group

should Stan to do 11. \Vhal glass there was in mOSt ci\'ilisa_tions was mainly used for coloured beads. Clear glass. whichwould later btcome the essential kind (or use as a 1001 fO seethe wOrld in a different way. ,,"'ilS for a vet}' long period oflittle ob\;ou$ use. So it is. in some senses. a non-question as10 ,,'hy the eaSt Asians did nOI have glass.

Yet if onC' says that there were perfectly good COntainersin the Far EaSt, this still implies that containers in ""esternEurniJI we~ such thai iI nev.' subsance could be denlopedalongside it. In the rurhless competition for iI. niche. therewas something about western pouery which meam that itwas possibl~ to develop glass-making. The answer might liein the: relati~ qualiry of the: ceramics. it might bf' relare<! tothe: u~ to which conu.iners wer~ put (for example. hOI andcold drinks). it might be in the organisation and status of rheworurs in portery. For example. if the poners had a fairlylow statuS ;md we~ thm faced with oulSide glass-workersfrom the Middle East woo had <II high status and wer~ wellpaid, some of them might be pushed aside or change t.heiroccupation. On the: oth~r hand, the high status of Jap:lne~and Chinese cenmics workers is well known.

To maR the: story man! complex, we have to remembf'rthai the factOn suggested abov~ an! interconnected. It waspardy the excellence of their produeu which gave the pottersoi me easI their high statm. 1hat excellence in turn wasLtrFY •• •..{mw. To a considerable extent Chinese pottery... 1"0_11. to ill predominant position becau~ of the: fortu·iIous PCCKnce of twO differenl materials in China. Therewere larp depirs of kaolin and penunse ~ar to each other.

-

The kaolin provides the body of the object, the peluntse actsas 3 flux ~...hich v.'ill cause overglaze colours 10 vitrify. It washence possible 10 make an excellent hard, dense. beautiful,tr3nslucent ceramic. Pollers ",rere using the clays thai were3round them and found that they produced a wonderful sub­stance ....·hich we call 'china'. The original discovery ofporcelain itsdf was probably the result of the accidentalpresence of 'narural' porcelain in China. The resultingceramics were so desirable that Europeans spent immensefonunes on buying chinaware. The makers of such a finesubstance had a high starus.

Meanwhile in western Europe these substances were notavailable. either in the same high quality or quantiry. Insteadthere were other days out of which a less sophisticatedpottery tradition emerged. So it was a maner of luck as 10v.·here certain clays were to be found. Thus th~ difT~rentln­jeclOries go back vcory coarly, at lcoaSI to the Roman period.Rome, and through her medieval Europe, Opted for potteryand glass, China and Japan for ceramics i1nd paper. Once thedivergence had begun it was self-m.nforcing. It became man!and more difficult to chang~ track. So if one asks why theChinese did not develop clear glass, one should equally askwhy the Romans did not make porcelain. It is only after thee\'em rhill absences., paths that were not taUn.~m so odd­It is rhus not surprising, but its effectS on dill'e:rmt civilw­tions hilvco been. in the end, immense.

'"

•T >I E

CLA~1l (I~ C1VII.I\Allfi/>\

The Clashof Civilisations

W"O JetS wit}, l/{ual qt, as God of 01/,

A "tro ptrislr, or a sparrowful/,

Atoms or SYlttnu illto fUm. "url'J

AtUJ IIOw Q hubhlt /'14'.1(, 'mJ 'lOW II worlJ.

Alooundn f't>pt. 'An E...ay ..... tob,,'

JGT US LOOK <II whal happened when Ihe glass./illedworld of weslern Europe impinged on Asia from I~

Sixt~nlh century onwards. We can pUI the case of

India on one side. At firsl, ,he need for sophislicaled glass, forC'Xample mirrors and spectacles, was supplied by ,he hoveringEuropean colonial powers. Lalcr, any potenlial for 3 large,independem glass-making induslry was undermined as India

became incorporated into the British Empire. We shallihere­

fore look 31 the two CilSotS where largely independent civiliS<l­lions in the Casl had taken a differenl path to western Europeand then suddenly found themselves visited by missionariesand Iraders who broughl in new glass goods and the scientificand artistic systems which, we have argued, glass helped 10

generale. By comparing the Chinese and Japanese cases wean tee furthe.rcornplexilies in relation lathe development andim~ of ....hal ....e Imd 10 assume is a superior technology.

on

rt by looking OIl the relatively '\:imple mailer oflei us Sla

I. od,ction of western glass tcchnol{}b'Y inw China

IIC Illlr .from 3boUl AD r(,oo. Although rhere <Ire signs (Jf earlierweSlern influence, the dramatic ch.. nge is usually altribuled10 the emperor K'ang-hsi (1661-1711). He had probably <;ecnexamples of weslern glass broughl 10 his c()un and in the,r;80s or a lillie later established a specialised glOiss workshopin the palace workshops, superintended OIl first by Jesuil mis4sion3rics. The techniques used were largely of European

ongm.Quite soon the Chinese were making very beautiful and

serviceable objecls. As the eighleenth-cenlury Jesuil wrilerDu Halde put il: 'Ihey imitate, well enough, any Pattern thatis brought ,hem, Iho' Ihey never saw il before. Thus atPresent they make W<ltches, Clocks, Glass ... and severalolher things which they had no Notion of formerly, or madebOl very imperfectly.' Recent research suggesls thai all glassin Ihis period was made in Ihe same area and principally con.sisled of jars, bowls and cups. TIle emperor's son movedglass production 10 Ihe province of Shantung, probablybecau~ of Ihe availability there of sand, polash, coal andquartz. When the missionary Alexander Williamson visitedIhal area in 1870 he found that glass was 'regarded as an oldeslablished crafl in the region, with a number of furnaces in

a~d ar~nd the main settlemem, supplying dealers in Pekingwilh wmdow glass, bonl",s of various sizes, moulded cups oftvery descriplion, lanterns, beads and ornaments, as ....ell asrods of plain and coloured glass sold in bulk, presumably (orlampworkers and decorative addirions'.

The move of Ihe glass faclory a....ay from Peking, and rhefat:t thaI probably only one Iimil«l ana of China rude sfellplains the OlCCOUnt of the decline of glass-maki IIP.-"';

")

O~ C!"'~15.TIO~ ,T H "

~, C,VIII~~rlnN"<;1.""" " .

GiII:ln, who accompanied Macarln...y's EmbOlssy at the end of

lhe ('igl1lee-nth ct'lllury. He observed that much of th.. V'l .~ '"' ass In

China h3d been imported from the west. This was because.

according (O him. glass manufacture had ceased in China bythe later eighteenth century. 'There was formerly a glassmanufactory eslablished :ll Pekin [sic) under lhe direction of

somt' of lhe missionaries. but il is now neglected and no glass

is made in China.' Vel glass was used.

The umon artist$., il is lrue, rollecl all lhe broken frag_ments of EurofH'an glass wy <:an find, which they poundand meh again in their furnaces; \Io,hen melted they blow itimo large globes or balloons which they afterwards CUI

into piecn of various shapes and magnitude as they wanlit. The ch~f use they make of it;s for small looking glassesand a f",' Ioys. This ;s the only kind of glass they nowmake in China, and as they blow it extremely thin.,.

He ends with the comment that 'they do not seem 10 under­Stand me manufacture of glass from the crude materials, norto know exactly what they are. The glass beads, and bunonsof ViiriOUS sha~ and colours, are imported to them fromEurope and chiefty from Venice.' Certainly it seems thatglass-making had declined again, though there are someinconsistencies in the accounts which reflect the difficultiesforeigne.rs had in understanding this vast empire.

Another indication of me decline in the eighteenthcmlllry is me history of paintings on glass. These paintingsbecame an imponam and villuable export industry ineighteetlth-century China, being exe<:uted with great skilland i1nistry on the back of the glass. Again it was probablythe Jesuits who introduced the technique and the glass uponwhich the paimings were made was imported from the west.

'"

Wh:u is particularly fascinating and relevant [0 lhe qUC'tl l,n

of the different development "f reliable knowledge.'ll the

d r Eurasia is the impact of European ~Iass mSlru­twoen 50menls of measurement and sight. In 1738 Du Halde pub.

lished a number of Jesuit a<:<:ountS from originallcl1crs andbooks of lhe seventeenth cenlUry. The <:uriosiry of theEmperor K'ang~hsi led lhe missionaries 10 show off theirwares. "nley firsl gave him an Insight into Optics. by pre­senling him with a prelty large Semi~Cylinderof a very lightkind of Wood; in the middle of whose A.xis was plae«l 3

Convex~Glass. which being turned towards any Obl&texhibited the Image within the tube in ilS natural Figure:

This was but one of their displays of what had b«n dis.­<:overed in the west. Father Grimaldi

g;J\'e another Instance of the Wond..rs of Optics in theJ~uits Garden al Peking. which greatly astonished all theGranden of the Empire. He made upon each of 1M fourWalls. a Human Figure of the sam~ Length as the Wall.which was fifty Feet; As he had Strictly obsen..ed the Rules..there was nothing see-n on [he From, but Moumains..Forests, Chaises, and other things of this ~ature; bul froma eenain Poim )"ou perceh'ed the Figure of a Man. hand­somely shaped. and \Io'ell propo"ioned.

The rol~ of glass, and particularly mirrors. was especiallyimportant. 'It would be too tedious 10 mention all me Figurelhat Were drawn confusedly, and yet apfKared distinctly &oma certain Point, or were reduced to order by hdp of Conic,Cylindric, and Pyramidical Mirrors; together wjfh t:he manyWonders in Optics, tha[ P. Grimaldi nhibiued [0 the finest

"I

lilli ,L4~U OF CIYI~ISAlIO"'S

-TUE C~ASII

G~nius's in Chin:a. and which equally ~xcited Iheir Surprise:and Admiration.'

Olher instfumenlS of glass were also displayed.

In ClloptriCS Ih~y presented the Emperor wilh all SOrtS ofTtl~ i100 GlilSSeS, for milking Ob~rviltions of Ihehea\'Cns i1nd on lhe Eanh, for t"'king great and smilll Dis­lances, for diminishing. magnifying, muhiplying, anduniting Objecls. Among the ml, they presented him fi~t

'Wilh iI T~ madt like i1n octilgonal Prism, which ~ing

plactd pmlld with the Horizon exhibitro eighl differentScenes, and in so lively iI Manner Ihal Ihey might hi" mis·(aun for the Obi~ts them~lvesi (his, joined 10 the Varietyof Pilinting, tnltnained the Emperor for a long time.Thty nexI pre~nted another Tube, wherein was aPolygon-Glass, which by ils different Faces collecled~vtral ParIs of different Objects to form an Image; so th:a!instead of Landships, Woods, Flocks, and a hundred otherthings represented in the Picture, Ihere appeared a hum:anFace, an intire Man, or some other Figure in a very diSlinctand exact manner.

Nor was it JUSt inStruments of vision which were displayed.'They Iiktwise presenled the Emperor with Thermometers,to shew the several Degrees of Heal and Cold. To whichwas iMIde<! a very niu Hygrometer 10 discover the severalD~ of MOisture and Dryness ... • The conclusion of allthis was very gratifying for the missionaries for the Chinest'were checked in their sense of superiority. 'All these differentInventions of Human Wi" till then unknown to Ihe Chinest',abating SOf'l\nthat of !heir natural Pride ... '

,,6

. fi ult to rove, though ilt a very generalWhat is more dlf c. . Ph w.y in which tillS contra"llfl

. so OhVIOUS, IS t e flevel It S('ems "fi' menls made wilh glass a •

-I bT of $Clenl! c tnStruthe aval a Illy h ds of Eurasia. bOlh in whal we

ed knowledge all e IWO enfK' d . Du Halde gives us some clues. Thecall science an mart. .

• __ ...I e of the glass instrumenlS to show how theirJesulIS usa> som . hknowledge was grealer. They did Ihis ~Ot onl~ Ifl t e wa~s

d-bed hove bUI also al some length Ifl provlflg thai then

",n' h-w., ,uperior Du Halde implies that mat ematlCSastronomy .was far I~s developed Ihan in the wesl, perhaps someho~'related 10 Ihe Chinese's backwardness in optics. 'As for thenGeometry, il is superficial enough; for Ihey are very littleversed. either in the Theory, which demonstrates (he Truthof Proposilions called Theorems, or in the Praclice, whichteaches tbe method of applying them to Use by Ihe Soludonof Problems.' The 'other PariS of Mathematics, exceplingAstronomy, were entirely unknown to the Chinese; nor is itabove a Century since they began to perceive Iheir Ignoranceupon the Missionaries' first Arrival in China'. He also impliesthat Ihe mathematics embedded in the visual ans was related10 glass - Ihe sense of perspective. All this is fascinating. ifoverdrawn.

Immense as Ihe implications are of whal he wrole,~aspectS of glass are only pan of the picture. Du Halde Iurdly:a.lludes to many other imponant de\·elopmems. The irnplica­lion ~f microscopes is overlooked. The effects of glass onchemIstry are nOt mefllioned. Nor is he able 10 add,-t'5$ the~u~lio.n of what h~d happened to reliable .lr.no"J~~ in

hma In the precedmg cenruries. There is the curious (~thai while the Chinese made considerable a<h'anCt:S in opticsv.e?, early on. repuledly reaching by the thinttnUl unrurv aslfml:ar level of I" . -J

sop llsucanon and knowledge as lhe Cree:U,

"7

Tlil; ClA5ft OF CI\'ll.ISATIOI<S

_.IIlE CLASIl

Of CIVILISATIONS

th? halted lhe,re. They ~id nOI lI.len make rhe breakthrough",hlch was achlt',·ed first In Islamic optics and was rhen buill

on in weslern Europe. So recem aUlhorities conclude thaIanciem Chin~ optics was based on empirical observationsand shon on theoretical abstraction or quanril,ltive descrip~

tion. ConsequeOily when Ihe fruits of the Arabic andwestern optics, based on experimems wilh glass, were imro­duct"d 10 China from the seventeenth century Ihe foundation

of traditional Chinese optics was ahere<!.

The impact of western glass technologies is given anolhertwiSt if we look at the one funher case of Japan. It showsthrtt things. Firstly, il confirms the absence of scienlific glass

in China up 10 the arrival of the Jesuits. Japan was largelyde~denl on China fOr its technology and usually quick to

~mulat~ il. If mere had b«n glass instruments on a wide

scale in China, they would have b«n imponed. Yet glass was

brought in by westerners, in panicular the Porruguese

and the Dutch. This is funher evidence as to the non­

development in China.

A~ inference is the way in which it takes more

man artefactS 10 change a knowledge culture. In China the

impact of the Jesuits with their marvels was almost nil; the

clocks and glass tools were mainly kept as curious museum

pieces and had hardly any impact for several hundred years.Yet the Japanese for cemuries had b«n keen to impon new

ideas and technologies from their giant neighbour and thismay help to explain why they were so fascinated by westernglass instruments and very rapidly absorbed them therebyall.ering their knowledge of the world,

,,'

F' 11 Timon Screech has recently minutely examinedma y. " 'fi' 5trll

f J P,n ,pecifically in rclation fO §clenn c In -

IhecaseO a, , "hof g

lass His well_documented case gIves us 1 ements' " h" h

"y '0 see some of the deeper ways In w IC aopporluOi I dgradual and hence largely invisible process of know e ~e

1'·on which had occurred over hundreds of years 111accumu aI,

Ihe wesl. made a difference. The encounter was sharp and

relatively short and some of its salient characteristics th~re­

fore stand out. The encounter of visual systems also reminds

us thai the non.developmenl of glass has nothing to do with

technical ability. As soon as mey saw a use for it, as had

earlier happened with guns, the Japan~ made excellent

glass.The technical abililY was such that when necessary the

Japanese could apply glass 10 any purpose. For inslance, the

making of scientific instruments, when r~uired. was no

problem. In the 17')05 Thunberg observed that 'In like

manner they understand the an of glass-grinding and 10

form Telescopes with it, for which pu~ they purchase

mirror-glass of the Dutch.' As for microscopes, Scre«h

describes how lhese very soon became a symbol of western

scholarship (Rgnggkll.). They were imported from the seven·

teemh century onwards and were known as mil:oro.rll.Jwpy­U/1//I. One account by a Japanese who looked through onecaptures the sense of amazement.

We brought several Ihings imo focus and inspecled themunder it. The clarity of the minutiae WI' quite eXlntOrdin.ary: Salt crystals could be seen to ~ve I hexagonal shape,w~llle buck wheal Aour (even the mOSI finely sifled son)..-astmngular. A candle wick looked Illtr a loofah and mouJdwas 'haped like mushl'Q()ms; Wlter WI' like hemp laws

"9

THE CLASH OF CIVILISATIONSTHECLASII

with pallerning on them, ice had a warp-and_woof d ., . . . eSlgn;sake was Ilke bOllmg wafer. all seethmg in bubbles ...

As in the west, an invisible world beneath the surface of

reality suddenly emerged, framed and focused by the micro_scope. The early microscopes were often displayed at road_

side fairs, and manuals for their use were published III

Japanese.Glass was increasingly used in chemistry for retorts,

dishes, flasks and tubes. II was also used 10 Store specimens.

We are wid that Ihe technical-looking vessels were called

forsakt. (flasks), whereas goblet shapes were koppu (cups).

The Japanese, unlike many others, quickly moved on fromIhe wonder and fascination of glass to its utility. As an

eighteenth-century Japanese writer observed, 'Initially, thematerial was enjoyed just for its sparkle and shine, but of late

it has been recognized that glass ought not to be limited 10

use in playthings. Jars and boules have been made, and

things stored inside them. When so kept, a material's originalcharacteristics (},on.w) are preserved indefinitely; medical

substances or fragrances can be passed on like this over long

periods: Another use for glass was for spectacles, whichwere increasingly worn, though they clashed with Japaneseetiquette since they led 10 rather direct and rude staring atothers.

II would clearly be foolish 10 argue that all preeisescientific or anistic knowledge is dependent on glass. Themagnificent increases in reliable information in early Chinaup to the founeemh cemury have been well documented byJoseph Needham and others. The magnetic compass, thequadram, [he astrolabe, even the mechanical clock, do notneed glass. But it seems equally true that without this

. substance many avenues are blocked. ThemystertOUS . f the J,panese and the lukewarm

I . StlC reaCtlon 0 .

e11l1us

f" I Chinese illustrate well how much its use IS

0l'leO t1e 'If Wh'. d by non_obvious cultural and socia actors. adetermIne . h. . doubt is that those who took part 111 l e greatIS n01 In . h-d

f ",·,on of civilisations between the slxteent an

con ron . bnineteenth centuries and who wrote about these tOPIC~ ore

testimony to the fact that the increasingly glass-domll1a~edworld of the west had encountered civilisations whIch

had effectively given up the use of this material. The

astonishment of the Chinese mandarins as they assembled

round the Jesuit scientific instruments and perspective

drawings is an epitome of how far the twO ends of Eurasia

had drifted apart.

The process of drifting apart of the twO ends of Eurasia and

their subsequent forceful meeting can also be seen in me

hiSTOry of art in China and Japan. An account of TiltMmin.g of Eastern. and western. Art by Michael Sullivan

reveals some of Ihe differences between post-Renaissancewestern. art and east Asian an. That the revolutionary

change In perspective and realism Occurred only in the areawhere glass artefacts were common and nOt in China andJapan is, we argue, more than JUS[ a coincidence

Sullivan quotes v· I .anous ear y accounts by western visi-tors. An Arab merchant who visited China in the ninthCentury reported that 'the Chinese may be counted amongt~ose of God's creatures to whom He hath ranted inhIghest degree, skill of hand in draWing an! in the' rh~manufacture'. Marco Polo in tho .c· h .... 0

uuneenl tenruey ~so

,J'

THE CLASH or CIVILISATIONS T U £CLASH OF CIY'LI~ATIO~S

nOled a c:lSIle ..diose hall was decorated 'wilh admirablpainted ponrail§ of all Ihe kings who ruled Over thi:pro\'ince in former times'. FiflY years later Ibn Battuta Wrotethat the 'pe-ople of China of all mankind have the greatestsk.ill and lasle in the arts. This is a fact generally admitted: ithas been remarked in books by many authors and has beenmuch dwelt upon. As regards painting, indeed, no nalion,whelher of Christians or others, can come up to Ihe Chinese,and their lalent for art is something extraordinary: Sullivannotes.. however, thai Battula was nOI describing the paintin~of the literati, but the works of professional painters al Ihefromier stations who were employed 10 make likenesses ofvisilors to the country.

In earlier times, Ihis skill included knowledge of some ofthe key techniques used in Renaissance art. Early Buddhistart in central Asia had included ways of modelling in twotones and Ihe use of shading to suggest relief. This had beenimitated to a certain extent in both China and Japan. But themethods were always looked on as a foreign lechnique and asBuddhism's power faded, so did Ihe elements of chiaroscuroand perspective which had exiSled on Ihe edges of east Asianan. A particularly dramatic example of this fading away ofskills which were nOt so far distanl from Ihe developments inRenaissance Europe is a famous example in early Iwelfth*century China.

Foreshortening, shading and the receding ground lineappear in a very realiSlic handscroll called 'Going up river alCh'ing-ming festival time', painted by Chang Tse-tuanbelween AD 1100 and 1130. There is three-dimensional space,bul the painting repr~nts Ihe way in which a moving eyewould see the scene, rather than using the fixed single-pointper'f>l"Ctive which developed in the wesl. Yel even this move

".

•

--

10. PUtU _ rocky~..h. . d h d"d )·urs afler the 'Going upnH:~M' twO p,ctures, pamle some un

ho f less realism ;,and moreme river .. : piclUre on pa~ \1, S 91;11 lisOcimaginalion and symbolic reprnoerllalion. f~ing bier Sl)'

. 'G. h·· made al Ihe SUM, thew ",'U arcconvennons. oms up t e nvcr was, .. _L_ WS boUt fo~'....l andfrom memory. The earller pamung 5IW '''l!I'~~

~kground in equal ckuil. these IWO C()r'Ial1ll71lt on the .._r-.1_" ad~'";md leave lhe background very huy, a ..'1 rc nl h3

C . .. r I ·00 Th ,",, inring eould 0 y whmese palnllng 0 ale. PC" 5- • e r- _ I'IWO coWd have~n~ by someoM wilh good disQnl maon;:!t-

. • ) ..bo "-' ter"b«n painlM by someone MUt .ron-Slgtll (ID~similar painling, from clOM up.

'lJ

TIIM" A,." Of' "'Yr, '''Ar'ON"•

filii r.~A~" n.rf)w:lrd~ 1>t'r',pc~'livc W;I~ abandoned. Ukcwi~.· ,I,

.... , Crt: ar~example.. "f oil painriugs, such as lile ck'(:ur,ninn of theTall1amu~hi Shrine in rhe t.'i~htll celllury. HUI rllis was alsoabandoned. llealiSllI and mirrur·like rcprescnl~lIiollS wereconsidered vulgar alld nu' SUil:lb!c for:1 schol:u.pailllcr. TheChin('st artisl, Gong Xian (rfil') )19). quutt.-d by Clunas asfollows.. explained Ihe c!iSlinClion:

In <lindt-III times Ihere were piclUres (IU) bUI 110 paintings(.4ua). Piclurn c1epicl Objcxls, pori ray pc.'Ople, or tr."1Scri~evenls, As for painlings, lhe S:lllle isn'l necessarily Irue fflrIhem ... [fo do a pailllingl, one usn a good brush andantique ink, and eXt'ClJles il on a piece of old paper. As forthe tJ,inSS (in a paimingJ. thcy arc cloudy hilts and rnislYgroves., prKipi,ous boulders and cold wau:rfalls. plankbridges and ruslic house5. There may bt- figures lin lh~pa;ntingJ or no figures. To insiSI on a spt.'<:ific subject or Ihe~prC$Cnlation of some event is vl'ry low class.

Thus lh(' aim of painting was nOI a realis,ic represenl:ltion ofthe nalural world. but (0 convey something: of lhe d~pt'r.spiritual r$S<'nce. The idea was nOI to imilale nalUre but 10uS(' an a a way 10 communicate through s),mbols 10 thehean and feelings of the viewer.

Bolh Chinese and weSlerners were Ihus surprised whenlhe famous missionary Mauro Ricci brought RenaiSS3ncean''Orb 10 China at the sian of Ihe seventeenth centur)'.

ullivan quOtt'S Ricci to the effcct thai 'Chinese uS(' picturesext~sively. ev('n in the cnftS., but in the production of theseand especially in the making of statuary and cast images (heyhave not at all acquired the skill of Europeans. They knownothing of the an of painting in oil or of the use of perspec­th.~ in mnr piClulU, ....ith the result thai their productions

...

.rre lacking any vilality.' Hi~ View,>, self-v;;lllnt;n\4 IhoughI .•,. 'lrt: furdn:r reported by Gu Qiyuan, Wr1IlIlg III alleya,~" ..,

book publi~hed in 1f,I)I, af'er RICCI ~ duth. and quoted byClun.rs. lie described a painting brought by R,cci. 'TIn,Lord of I-leaven \., painled as a .,mall b<,y, hdd by a womanc.rllt.oO "1-le:lVenly Mother", He i., painted on a copper ~nd,with five c(,lours ,pread on lOp. The face is as if lhing. theI .1 arms :md hands ~cem to prOlrude from Ihe panel. the)ouy. '

. nd <onv·' parts of the facc are no differem fromcunc.rvC a ...llln~1: of a living per5(,n 10 look at.' When asked how thepainting could acl,ieve lhi... Ricci replied.

Chine~t' painting only painls lhe lighl (.rOlllg), ~t d~ nmpain! lhe shadow (yi,,). Tht15 10 look aI, people s.facn are(ompleldy fbI. w;lh no conca,'e or con\'elt ph)·sKJogrIOffiY·My ((.unlry's painting combines lhe Xi" and yang Indra"ling... so Ihal f:,c~ have higher and lower ~lU, and;lIms art' round ... The portrait ~inlers of my ('l)U1Uryunderstand this principle, and by using il are abI~ to~rethai Ihe paimed effigy is no difftrent from me I.vtng

1"""".

As Chiang Shao-shu, quoted by Sullivan,. commalI~ a.. .' of 'a ,.~ beumgcemu!)' later on the same pamung. It 's of

a child ;n her arms. The eyebrows and (he eyes. the fol~s'f they ,.'ere reflected Ul ath~ garmenls, are as clear as I. . ~

mirror, and they seem 10 mO\'~ fr«ly. h is of a rna,JCSC1Ch· . lers cannot match.elegance which (he . m~ pam by Ricci 110

Yet the Chinese lueral1 were not: pe-rsux'ed t..._rnd· . nd s«ITI 10 ha\~ ,V'to~-change their and~1 tra IhOns a of

I tit' explain 1M stn5e JUl-the whole episode. On y IS can _ to dw: +IOC'pri~ when the jesuiu displa)'ed their an HaJek:dsome sevenI)' years laler, as described by Du

'J!

1 II •. ('AS"

1 11 fi(".'.A~II 'IF CIVII.I~ATII)r<~

N,.r lI'a~ Per~pt.'Clive fllrglllll.'n: I~ Bru"Ii<) "ave 1I'~ E....,. ... ~mfll.'r.

or Ihr~ DrauglllS performed ellOlctly accurding to rul("'i'lIld he hUIl~ up to View three CopIes of Ih~m' I'

~ In, IeJesuits· Garden at Peking. The mandarins. II'ho ftockcrltuthIS City from ..11 P3ns of Ihe Empire. came 10 se..: IIK'm OUtor Curiosity, and were all t."qualty \urpriz'd al Ihe Sight;lhey could flOt conceive IlOw it was possible on II plainCloth 10 represrnt '-bits. Galleries, lJ,micos, /toads. andAvenues ~aching as far as the Eye could see. and atllhis loO

naturally as at tIle firsl View 10 dttcive lhe SPCClator.

The difference between arliSlic traditions was clearly

immense and well rccognised by the Chinese expens. For

uample, in the early eiglllccmh cenlUry Sullivan quOlcs Ihe

landscape painler Wu Li on some of rhe differences between

Chinese and western an. 'Our painting does nOI seek phys­

icallikeness (Asing-uu). and does not depend on fixed pat­

lerns; we call it "divine" and "unlrammelled". TIleirs

concentrales entirely on the problems of dark and liglll,

front and back, and the fixed pallerns of physical likeness. '

Once again, though, Ihe effects of anOlher wave of

western artiStic missionising were negligible. The techniques

of realism, perspective and shading moved down 10 thc

lower levels of the craftsmen painters, but wcre of Hnle

inlere5t to the literati. From the laler seventeenth century

until the middle of Ihe nineteenth century they ignored the

western tradilion. The court artist Tsou-I~kuei, quoted by

Sullivan, summariSfilthe fatal flaw in W{"itern art:

The Wt'$ICrners are skilled in geornelry, and cooscquemlythert is noc the slighttst misuke in their way of renderinglight and shade [ycu.g-yinj and distance (near and far). Intheir painlin~ all Ih(' figures, buildings. and 1ree5 caSI

,"

._ d ,heir brush and col'Jur~ are enmely dIfferent,ha",'W,"" an, ,~" of Chint"ie nainll:rs. Their Vle\ll~ (<;ttnery),rum t l ...~ ,.-

I , f,om broad (in the for<"<'mund) I<J narrow (,nst ..·,c I ou - ..thc background) and are defilled (m;lIhematically meas-­ur,-d). When Ihey paint houses on a wall people arelempu:d 10 walk into them. Sludents of painling ma.y welltake O\'er ont' or tWO points from them to make ,heIr ownpainlinb'S more allraCtive to the eye. Bu, ,hese paintenhave no brush-manner whatsoever; although they possess)kill, Ihey arc simply artisans IChiallGI and cannot conse­quently be clas~ified as paimers.

A~ Sullivan comments, 'to the Chinese genrleman-painter

who aimed at a triple synthesis of painting. poetry and cal­

ligraphy, what had the laborious realism of oil painting to do

with fine an?'This preservation of an ancient Iradition, which in many

ways was similar 10 the early medieval art of the west, gives

us some indication of the force that was nttded in Ihe west in

Ihe period between Ciolfo and Leonardo in order to change

Ihe whole artistic tradition. It dOt'$ not s«m implausible to

argue that without those glass-based developments which

were central 10 western optics there would likewise have

been no revolution in the west.

Japanese an is jusl as ancient a tradition as that of China.stretching back for more than fifteen centuries.. like Chinest'

an, dassicaljapanese art was not dedicated to realism, bUI

ralher 10 conveying deeper truths through symbolism. Manyof ilS Cenlral features Were well described by Henry Bowie.Artists did nOI aim at 'photographic accuracy or distracting

')7

TtIE CLASt< OF CI\'ILISArloNS

.. ~.... .,.. ."

/1. T_ ~i~...s Of D~""'''I'''<lI'TMade from a similar VlIIma"~ . h . ,..

Ir point, I m t....o reprmmanons of the Inc

and R'IOUnla.i1l5 show quitt differenllrcaunentS of the disum vie ..... TheChinev anisl, working in the Chinese tradition producn aquile

incr • 'lsunct, stylised, Ind b1uned background, such <IIi would be'viMlali~' by many Chincv vlewen..

'J'

~~---

Tut CLAStl or CIVILISATIONS

delair. iind they painted what they feh ralher than what theysaw. While the artist was often encouraged to study minutedelails, including insects, Rowers. birds, fish and so on, theseobjects were then incorporated lhrough a sel of slandardisedtechniques which were not meant to reproduce an actual

natural scene.There were numerous rules. Low mountains in a land­

scape suggested great dislance, thus Mount Fuji should notbe painted tOO high or it would lose in dignity by appearingtOO near. There were eight different ways in which rocks,ledges and similar features should be represenled. Garments,their folds ,lOci lines could be paimed in eighteen differentways. It is clear that the artist was very constrained by a codeof how things should be represented. The natural world pro­vided some clues, but to a large extem the art consisted inapplying various theories and codes.

A further constraint on the paimiog5 was [he fact that themedium was water-based. A soft brush was used 00 veryabsorbent paper, so that painting5 had to be executed veryfast, and in fact were scarcely distinguishable from writing orcalligraphy. No easels were used and the artist would sit onlhe Roor with the paper or siUr. spread before him on softmaterial. The technique in w hands of a master is dtseribedin a quoration from Bowie as follows.. 'In landscape work thegeneral rule is to paint what is nearest first and what is far­thest last. Kubota's method was to do alllhis rapidly and, ifpossible, with one dip of the well-watered brush into thesumi, so lhat as the sum" becomes gradually diluted andexhausled lhe proper effect of foreground, middle disranceand remOte perspective is obtained,' This was entirely differ­ent from the oil paintings of the ""est, where rnistaUs couldbe corrected <iIInd details added.

'19

'HE ClASH or CI'-llISA'IOSS

As ..·~11 as ha\.-ing to~ don~ rapidly and ..;thoUt hesitil.cion. the painting ..-as also don~ from m~mory. nOt fromrulity. Otto Rasmussen. ..-ho Ih'ed for many years in Chinill,

desc:rihed 00'" Chinese landscape painters did nat pilint fromlife_ 1"h~r simply "''31lde~ about or sat in meditation anddten 'IIOeflr back to !heir srudios v,'ithout a sketch or any son of

rough dn..-ing to paint their pictures.' This perhaps helps togi\""t'~ of~ ronte.n for a story told by Gombrich in An

r:m4 /llv ....: 'James Cheng. "'iK> taught pilinring to a groupof CbiIV"$C" tr'aiMd in differenr coO\-entions. once told me of

~ sl:tttbing apedition~ made "''ith his srud~tS to ill famous

Wut}' spot,~ of~s old city gates. The task baffiedmem. In the end. one of the srudents asUd to be gi\'en atIt2st a pictwe posteatd of the building so that they v,'ouldhn~ SOlDO Iling fO copy_'

Into Ibis m;:ieu uadition came the ~·estem \"isiton

..ub dteir gcomcuical petspn"ti\~ and ~iIIljstic ilft.. tbrirebiatosr IIro dfea:s :md mmrion to accur.ue dea.il and pro-­

ponioa. The reaaion of the Jilp:anese .-as, howe\'tt, 001

"",,,,'" ... "'" of Ih< Chines<- WhiI< th<y rerognU<d Ih<buf!< gulf b<A-"", tbri.- Irigb an and th< nstan Rm>is-

,. u.1jliowl, tbry ..-e-e I1JOrt' mncud to the western

WI t - 5 tbm 1ftft: the ChiIV"$C" and "ue Sluxrssful in•~ma.cmC\(''''''lS..

s n.,.. prorides a nurnhtt of aamples of su" f ..-caJ

PO' i ".-e I • ni'"," by]~ MtisIs. In the latt eight-I. ornnuy Ink... W25 &scinated by western realism and

C-ftII. + a j •• o&K'WII 10 help in aeating pet sp«O\Y

.. . P. Rr .Ioa: m. 1f one follotvs only tbe Chinl'Slt'• ' ..... I. iaoelw'nW""ODr'SpMiUleWlDOl:it5 lit

Wr F.' 1"bat ... GIlly OllIe~ OUL 1'hr W2f to &piaM F., ao::w I y,' be dec:bnd, 's by ti* aus of Dueda

pillinting.' During me eightttnth century perspective pic­tures became quitt' widespread in Jap.n. The,e ilIe notilit:elCamples in some of the v,rorks of ""0 of the m~ widelyknov,'n Japanese anists, Utamoro and Holuaai.

We could end me story here. for a numbcT of reasons h2vebeen gi"'m (0 explain a diff~rent uaj«iory ilI.I the A'O ends ofEurasi•. The aim of real painting in Chin.il. md jil)Wl~ to

create a surface 'Vo'hich conveyed symbolic and deeper mean­

ings, ramer th.n achieve a photograph-like mirror of theoutward forms of nature. The materiaJs used, ab!JorlK-n1paper laid iiar Mld luge ink-filled brushes. encouraged. swift:.nct ilO'VoIDg execution. based on memory md rules. Theseconventionil.l rules as to haw effea:s ....tte to be x:bieved 1Io""ft'e

kno....'11 to artist iI.Dd \'i""~r a1iU md diCL;Ued wtw mild bein the picture and how it should be portr.I)-ed. AD this givesus. it would~ a sufficient explaJurion.. One tceS the:rules. one see; the paintings. Similar purposes, r«bniquesand rul~ h.d, .mer all, CO\'ercd the entire world. inc:Judinsv,,"cstt'rn Europe, up to the fourr~uh cmauy. They xauw

perfea..ly.-ell for the.arri:slic: prochKrioas dw~ «u .i\"flll.T'bere is no need to qlggtV that the Gftds 01" dar""''' ,Iip;Un~of icons painted in that way bee3>se of my JOWtic»­Jar fearure of tbrir e')'e.

Yet in the Chinese c::ase~ rmy be .. at..... iw" , ,second factor. It b.u been invist1JIe - dane .. ' .,any need to in\-oU it. All was erph; iI: t Y. itmily be ill reinfonD15 01" N' ,. I J i .""' •• , ...

other hewn. R _=. I .. "net , ..C1n - -----""'-- '" - • ..._ ..........'ii,WIIOWiIR 7uCP'

...

Till' CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS-

T Ii ECLASII OF CIVILISATION'

philosophers ... painted lhe spirit rather than Ihe materialwould nOI altogether account for the invariably minute'almost pholOgraphic foreground detail, and the misty back~

ground of their pictures.' He nOles Ihal Chinese anisls 'pic_tUted near objects in delail and their distance as a mOre or less

complete blur'. If we try 10 explain this by alluding 10 SOme

idea of 'spiritual impressionism' il 'does n01 explain whythey were able or wamed [0 "memorise" and depict so many

of the nearest objects in such material detail. or does it

explain why their spiritualistic conceptions are confi~

almost invariably 10 background and nOI to foregroundsubjects. '

What he intriguingly suggests is lhat these same literati

were, in effect, making a virtue of necessity. Many of them

were very shorHighted and this meant that before spectacles

were invented they could nOt have painted in the way in

which Van Eyck or Leonardo did, even if they had wanted to

do so.

Before we dismiss this as a totally absurd suggestion it is

wonh considering funher. If one is myopic, or if not, if one

PUtS on myopia-simulating glasses, one can see thai the only

way in which one could paint if one is myopic is the way in

which the: Chinese did in fact paint. One has to rely almosl

entirely on one's memory and inner eye, through a formula,

through making a virtue of standardised representations

(preferably hazy) of largerobjecu. The only way is to go up

very close 10 individual objectS (including other paintings)

and then come back to one's workplace and carry out the

painting from memory. What would be painted would have

to be an idealised montage with the details of insects, Bowers

or people. Funhermore, if one has a large scroll and one can

only see about ten inches clearly, the further part of what one

'.'

. . ,·ng is already blurred. Finally, when the painting waslspalnl . h )·funrolled (rather than being hung on a wall as 10 t e west ,.1

the high-class viewer was also short-si~hte.d he woul.d ~e 10

h.. g what he had ex....rienced 10 hfe - detail 10 the

I e palfltln r-, nd , blurred background. Indeed, he might notIOregrou , . . .really see the picture at all well. This glV~ an added ~ISt to

the complaint of an old artist, qUOted by BlOyon, that People

look at pictures with their ears rather than with the eyes.'

Chinese and Japanese art is famous for the strange haz)'

portrayal of middle and far-distance objects. In this res~.ct it

is quite different from the art of the other great traditions

such as Islamic or Byzantine painting. The congruence of

this mysterious and underdefined representative style with

what one would find in elite artists who were often myopic is

intriguing. The degree to which it is related obviously rests

on the degree 10 which there is evidence of unusual levels of

short-sightedness in China and Japan. If such evidence

exists, it would add a final twist to the SlOry of diverging

vision, for it would reinforce the fact that western eyesight

was made more powerful by glass by suggesting that eastern

eyesight was facing a large-scale challenge in suing objects

at a distance. We will notice once again the comparari\"~dif­

ferenc~ between civilisations where glass was widely avail­

able and those where it was linle used.

'"

S pectac lesand Predicaments

IP/'y Iras nor A/WI Q micrwropit t)'t!

For ,"isplaill muon. Ala" is t10f a Fly.

SQ)' M'hal tlrt use, wrtt jinu optics gil' n,T'ifUput Q mitt. nOf romprt/wlil rllt IItQII n!'

"'k~.n<kr!\>pt.·.... n E....), "" Man'

TIS 0 N E of the ironies of life th.u jusl 3S rhey reach ,he~ak of knowledge, in their lale Conies and fifties., manyprople find it impossible to continue reading without

glas~. They have [0 hold what is 10 be read at such a dis­tance away from their eyes that they cannOl distinguish Ihe

charaeten. This was a serious drawback up to the fift~nlh

century, npttially for bureaucracies and companies wheretbr most skilled in literacy and accounting had 10 ghoe up~n. as ~reyes failed. It bttame an even more ~riousdis­

ability after the printing revolution made books for scholar­ship or privalc enjoyment widely available. It may therefo~

stnu many as no surprise that il is exactly Oil the periodof growing wuhh and bu~aucracy Ihat the making o( spec·IXLct developed rapidly. The eyeglasses made o( twobi-eonvu lenses sutpmded on Ihe nose to help those withold • \ong-sigtll (prubyopia) were probably invenleod al

'44

~round AD 1lR~ in nonhern haly and Ihdr usc ..pread rapidly

in Ih~' nelU cenlury, so !lUI speetad~ wcre a widespread

f~':lIUre of European lif{' half a century before mov"ble metal

printing "":IS in\'ellled by GUlenberg in Ihe mid fifleemh

':~·l1lury.

The ~n-~'I:IS of lhis dl'vdopmem in weStern Europe were

immense. The illvt'ntion of spectacles increased the inlellec·

wallif... of professional workers by fifteen years or more. As

a number of hislOrians have poinled OUI, Ihe revival of

It':lflling from the fourlet'nlh cenlury onwards may well btconnected 10 Ihis. Much of the laler work of greal writers

such as Pelrarch would not have been completed Wilh­

OUI spectacles. The active life of skilled craftsmen. olien

engaged in very delailed close work. was 31so almost

doubled. The effect was both multiplied, and in turn made

mort" rapid. by another technological revolution to which it

~'as connected. namely movable type printing, from the

middle of the fifteemh t:entury. Obviously, the need to read

Sl:lIldard-sized prim from melal types in older age wuanolher pressure for the rapid development and spread of

speclacles. and the presence of spectacles encouraged print­

ers to believe they had a larger publi<:.The invention and spread of spectacles with glass

lenses may bt seen as a necnsary, e\'en ine\'itable, ck\'d·opmelll until we step outside western Europe and look tothe east. If we do so we are faced with a real puuk for,as far as we know, up to aboul the seventeenth ~rury at

the earliest glass spectacles were not devel~ to anygreal elltent outside Europe. In Islami<: civilisations, inIndia, in China and Japan, the western type of 1f>E<LiCkswas practically unknown until Europeans int.rOduced themfrom the sevente-enth ~rury. Why was the dc...elCf U_

'..

....---SP[CT~CI.KS • , D

• , D

of sp«lacles confined to one tip of Eurasia for abo 'Ut lOUrcenturi~? There are several lheories. One is that lilt:Chinese. at least, had an alternative natural S"L-..ustancewhich could be. and was occasionally, used, namely rockcryst:!l quartz. Yet ,,"ven the rare quanz speclacles lhat Were

made seem not to have been lenses; they were JUSt Aat slabsUsM to prOtect the eyes.

In pursuing this puzzling absence, we can focus for amamenl on the Japanese case. The Japanese knew of the

concept of pUlling lWO pieces of quartz on wires in front

of the eyes from their Chinese neighbours. They had made

very fine blown glass obj&ts as early as the eighth and

ninth centuries. Many Japanese nowadays wear glasses Orcontact lenses, perhaps one of the highest rates in the

world, and il seems unlikely that this reRects a recent

change. When spectacles could be manufactured widely,

they became very popular. The traveller Isabella Birdthrows an interesting sidelight on this in the 18805: 'The

entire police force of Japan numbers 11,000 cducated menin the prime of life, and if 30 per cent of them do wear

spectacles, it does not detract from their usefulness.' Thusthere was a huge demand for spectacles in the later nine­

t«nth century. Funhermore, we know that eye diseases

and attention 10 the eyes were: very widespread in Japan,w;th constant cleaning of the eyes. Yel, as far as we can

sec, spectacles wert' practically unused in Japan until theninneenth century. We are left with the intriguing puzzleof why they were not developed.

The puzzle taus us 10 China, from where Japan receivedmost of its major technologies before: the nineteenth century.~ oldest ceruin accounts of double-lens spectacles usingg1UI are from Ming accounts (belWeen the middle of the

_,6

hand sillteenlh centuries) and refer If} w("'item~ftee: Earlier references to spectacles were to dark ..ub­lmpo '( ',en 'tea' cryslal) used to protect Ihe eye.. agamsistances 011 . 1 . )

1 d dirt for healing (quartz had maglca ptrlpertleS orgarean , f I" hto disguise the reactions of judges r.om luganls w 0

appeared before them. It was from the middle of the sev~n.leenth century Ihat spectacles made of glass became fairly

widespread.The uadition that glasses were as important for status and

eye prOtection as ro counter lhe effects of ag~in.gcontinuedup to the end of the eighteemh century. ThIs IS shown by

Gillan's accounl when he accompanied the i'o-lacanneyEmbassy of 1791-4: 'The Chinese make great use of "pecta­

cles ... The eye glasses are all made of rock cryStal.' He con·tinues that 'I examined a great number of polished eye

g1<lsses after they were ready for setting, bUI I could nmobserve any diversity of form among them; they all ap~ared

10 me quite flal with parallel sides. The workmen did notseem to undersland any optical principles for forming themin different manners so as to accommodate them to thevarious kinds of imperfect vision.'

In 1868 the missionary Williamson obsetved lhe makingof rock crystals into speclacles in Shantung province. Citinghis work Hommel states at the lOran of the twentieth centurythai 'I was tOld in Tsingtao that Ihe famous optical <~:orks of

Zeiss in Jena has procured from the samc locality rod:cryslal for oplical instruments.' And he adds that 'Only invery recent times have' Chinese opticians revolutionized theirlrade by the introduction of foreign methods for testing theeyesight and fining glass lenses according to their testS.' He~onderswhy, if it is true Ihat Europe<ln glass speaacks.~Introduced to China in the fifteenth Cftttury, 'the Chin.eote

'47

-s pEe T ~ C L E 5 AN\}

rook rhe revolutionary step to abandon Ihe use of glass forlenses. and employ instead a material but poorly fined for thepurpose'. So there is another mystery. The Chine~ had theidea of a material for prOtection of the eyes. They also,according to Joseph Needham, had the notion of magnifyinglenses. Why did they wait 10 import the idea of magnifyingspectacles from the west and why did they make so little useof spectacles once they had them?

OttO Rasmussen was brought up in China in the late nine­teenth century and was moved by the sight of blind beggarsin Shanghai. The fierce lighl of the Chinese sands causedhim 10 suffer from sun-blindness for a while. He trained asan ophthalmic surgeon in America and on the basis oftwenty-five years of research in China from 1908 he built upan unrivalled picture of Chinese eyesight.

He believed that the absence of the development oflenses in spectacles 10 Overcome sight defects was partlybecause of the non-development of glass in China. It wouldhave been strange if they had suddenly leapt from a situationwhere there was very little use of glass into the kind ofexperimentation with lenses which we see in the wesl. Thisexplanation may be sufficient. But we would like to explore asupplementary and rather extraordinary hypolhesis which isalso suggested by Rasmussen's work, although he himselfdoes flOt make the link.

This involves looking more closely at the nature of whatthe e.ye was expected to read, and variations in eyesight. Inrelatlon to the objects of vision it is worth remembering Ihedifference between printing a: the two ends of Eurasia.

",

Chinese and Japanese printing usecl wood blocKs. The~·Iy made in different sizes and redrawn as needed. Inwere caSl

the west, on the other hand, expensive metal Iype priming

developed leading 10 Ihe printing of numerous, often fairlyrough and small, standard-sized books which would havebeen very difficult to read in older age without spectacles.

All of this, of course, makes the large assumption that the

nature of the eye problem at the twO ends of Eurasia was the

same, namely presbyopia or the growing inability to seeclose objects clearly after the mid-forties. This assumptionneeds 10 be tested. \Ve know that this was the major problem

in western Europe, as it is today. But supposing this was notthe great difficulty in eastern Asia? Suppose that the majorproblem was the opposite, namely myopia (deterioraling farsight). If thai were the case, it would have a strong effect onthe development of speclacles.

Myopia usually starts to manifest ilself in childhood,between the ages of four and ten. To cure this wouldrequire making spectacles for a relatively powerless group(children). Furthermore, it would not seem so necessarysince in relation to reading or Olher close work, the diffi·cully can be overcome by holding things up very close to

the eyes. Added to this, the concave lenses which areneeded to COrrect myopia are far more difficull to grindthan convex ones. Speclacles for myopia were invented inthe west only after some twO hundred years of makingConvex lenses for presbyopia. Finally, as the child grew up,the retina stretched so the myopia might have p;1rtiallycured itself and sight would have normalised. Thus spec­tacles are very unlikely to develop in a civilisation ....hosemain problem is myopia.

With people who mainly suffer from presbyopi... the

''9

SI'[<;TACLF.S •• 0S p [ eTA c L [ S .. "

'2. CO't(".. ..., f~," [01' wtyopid

TIw ~arl~ d~icted eoroc:av~gb~ for myopia. Painring by Jan vanEyd. 14)6. Cona~ Imin ...~r~ lim madt in Eu"¥ "'1M c....llury and

a half afl~r convex 1.-rl$eli for long-sigtlltdness.

,,0

.' p,.,h~piacharacteri<'lically devel()p" fr<lmo poslte IS true. J-

Ph. or forty" people reach the peak "r theiraboul t e ago. . .

P-ple or such an age are lIkeliest 10 have Ihe polll­C3reers. ..v. I wer to be needed ror bureaucratic and olher pur­lca po . .poses. They 3rc also likely 10 have the money ltl IOv~st 10

I < TI,<> convex lenses lhey need are much caSler tt,spectac eo>. o.grind lhan conC3ve lenses which need 10 be hollowed out.

Furthermore. ror the long-sigh led person or presbyopethere is no way round Ihe problem. The object to be c;.een iseither close up and blurred, or rar away and unreadable. Sodid Ihe Japanese and Chinese suITer rrom unusually high

rales of myopia?What Rasmussen encountered in his many years or

working with Chinese eye problems astonished him. Hesummarised the research or a quarter or a century by sayingthai 'only 10 per cem or all lenses supplied by lhe ancienls,

and similar amount by the moderns (excluding high asrig.malic) were ror old-sight lenses. It is Ihe other 80 per centlhat matters; the 6~ per cent ror myopia and lhe I ~ per celuror glare and therapeutics.'

The significance of the degree or myopia comeS OUI onlyif we compare the Chinese resuhs with those ror ornernalionalities. In '9}0 a Chinese experl published figures ror~69 Chinese and S68 white residents or Peking who had beenexaminw in Ihe previous fWO years. Some 70 per cent of meChinese invcstigaled were myopic comparw 10 jO per cent orlhe foreigners. Furthermore me degree or Chine~ myopiawas far higher lhan thaI of foreigners. Although unrortu­nately Rasmussen does not specify the sources and dales orthe 'Old Chinese Records', he was convinud lhat 'myopia is,and has been ror centuries', me greatCSI a.u~ or eye prob­lems. He believed thai 'almOSI a quaner of !he nation was.

,"

srFCT~ClES ~:,<o

-2--5 P E C r A c L E 5 .""

and probably still is, myopic. Sevemy.live ....., rr- cem 0 ..nsJ>«tades \\'orn are for shon·sighlt~dness.'

Rasmussen's early ligures for high myopia in China and

the implications for Japan can be cheeked against more

recent data. In 19~0 ~he eye surgeon Patrick Trevor.Roper

suggested that while In western cOuntries myopia rates were

about I~-lO per cent of the total population, in China and

Japan the rates were about four times as high at 00-70 per

cent. A recent graph of the incidence of myopia in England

shows that by the age of seventeen it is aboUl I ~ per cent, and

the highest peak is at about forty when it is a little under 30

per cent. This contrasts with rates in the Far East, which are

far higher. Specialists refer to rates of 8S per cem of school­

children in Taiwan being shorHighted. One of the highest

Utes ever recorded is in Singapore, where 98 per cent of

medical graduates were found to be myopic. In an interview

conducted with Dr Takashi Tokoro, an eye specialist in

Tokyo, in April 1999, it emerged that, among children aged

about eleven, 30 per cent suffer from serious myopia, by me

age of lifteen, this rises to so per cent, and by university

entrance at seventeen, to 70 per cent. Given the fact thar

there is a high level of 'late onset myopia' as well, it looks as

if 80 per Unt of the adult population might be seriously

myopic.

What stands out very strongly is that certainly in la~n.,

Taiwan and Singapore the rates of people with myopia are

very high, and one suspects the same is true in China. Thus

the current situation suggests that myopia may well have

been, as Rasmussen argued, the central eye problem in much

of eutern Asia in the £wentieth century.What is more problematic is to know how far back this

pattern reaches. Apan from the problems of obtaining any

,"

d "d'""' there is the added problem of seeing wM-therhar eVI ",the rales were changing. It appears that they were high by the

" CI,",na Had there been a long·lerm change, and'920S m .when had il begun? We shall have to proceed by ['lit) mdirect

hod~ neither of them entirely satisfactory, but at leastmel ~,

roviding circumstantial evidence. We have 10 establish whal

;he probable reasons for Ihe high levels of myopia in eastern

Asia are. If Ihese can be discovered we can then ch~k

\\'helher Ihey were present in the earlier period. If so. II

5«ms reasonable to argue that myopia may well also have

~n widespread. The second involves a deLOur. There has

been considerable speculation on Ihe possible effects of

Widespread myopia, bOth at Ihe individual ('myopic person·

alily') ilnd wider institutional and cultural level. We can look

for some of these effects. This second venlUre is also impon.

am for it links with our wider attempt to see how changes in

human vision, whelher by glass or in olher ways, ha\"e

shaped cultUres, and in rum been shaped by culrure.

One of the major theories to account for myopia is genetic.

There is clearly some relationship be£Wttn heredity and

myopia. II is known that cenain families lend to be short·sighted aod olherslong·sighted, which is nOI surprising~

shape and size of the eye are inheriled. UnfortUnately, thelimitation is thar heredity, as usual, is mixed up with a familylifestyle. The complexity is shown by the facr that surveysindicate that idemical twins are not usually both myopic.

Panicularly imeresling as a lesl of Ihe generic theory is awell·known srudy of CaniKfian Inwr which me- rbatgenerics is not at !he TOOl of the matter. TI.eir "Yes ... ere

'IJ

~---$~F-CTACLIi.s , " D PRI';OrcAW

E " 1 S

•

examined over three generalions. Only \ p'r cent of th

older generation displayed signs of mvnpia wh 'J- , ereas 6S

cent of Iheir grandchildren had e1on=ted e) b II p"1:>- 'e a s. The

research also showed an increase from 2 per cenl '.. . mYOpia In

one generation 10 ..S per cent m the next Thi'. . . . OCCurredwnhoul .my obVlous change In diet or lifes<yl' 10. e Onechange was in eduCillion. This suggesls thaI 'y .estramIhrough reading is a more relevant faclor.

Another theory for the prevalence of myopia is rnat

weakness in me eye caused by malnutrilion may be a major

background factor. Early in his booklel Rasmussen wrOle

mal blindness and eye troubles in China were due 'above all'

to 'malnutrition, due to the absence of Vitamin A in their

foods'. He refined his study by looking at the regional inci­

denceof myopia and found that, while myopia was high inall

regions, it was 'highest of all in the Yangtze valley and

Central China regions'. He wondered whelher in this area

'the primilive farming methods, particularly of rice and

vegetables, eKhaust Ihe Yangtze valley soil more than else­

where and produce inferior crops'. He suggests that the

vegetables in this region are 'neimer as tasty nor salisfying as

me same mings in me Wesl or imported to China'.

At the end of his booklet he comes back to me same

mmle, drawing attention to the subdividing of plo's of land

as population built up: 'As this situation developed, the land

was overdtivated and underfertilised.' Rasmussen sum­

marises what he now guesses is something going back over a

thousand years: 'fn such circumstancn, it could not beexpe-ct:ed otherwise than that the quality of grain, rubers., andgmeral produce for domestic consumption deteriorated in

chemical content and sustenance value.' He then refers 10

'the evidence of modern Western and Chinese medical and

'"

I foods were deficient in "'llamins andf rming eltperls t lal, h d· ,cause of diseases that sent millions blmd Qr

were t e Irt'C . .., I· ',"Dn' If this was true Illlhe last r".,ellty )'l:iW"reduct'(! Ill:lr VI •

he asks huw far back did il go: 'I suggest that in Ihe older and

h· >1 populaled areas of the river basins it must ha ... emorC't IC Y ,bC'en a de\'e1oping problem Oil least I.~oo years ago.

Se....eral comments can be made abour Ihis suggestion.

Firsdy. it is generally agreed that vitamin A deficiency (as

well as olher deficiencies such as calcium). does indeed hOi'" e

a serious e{feci on [he eyes. There are numerous studies 10

this effecL Vitamin A is 10 be found in liver. eggs. buner,

milk and cheese and in fatty fishes and in some yello,,'

....egelables. The lraditional mainly vegetarian diel had hardly

any of Ihese and even the fish component was usually small.

Vitamin A can also easily be destroyed by cooking, and il has

been suggested that the frying characleristic of China may

affect this. Since we know very litde about lraditional diets in

China we have to be cautious. But if it is true that vit.amin A

mainly comes from ilnimal sources, it is not difficuh to see

how the reduction in animal products as the Chinese increas­

ingly relied on rice and vegetables probably had a consider­able effect.

The problem, however, is thai WI: are dealing with aneffect (myopia) which has a set of imeracring causes..~

effeclS of nutrition undoubtedly interact with genetic ooonand eyestrain through close work. This can be SoeftI in mep~esen[ situalion in Japan. Currently there are extremelyhigh rates of myopia among Japan~ schoolchildrm.. Yetschoolchildren have free school milk and nowadays eat a kM:of meat, cheese and vegetables. This, one might suflOis,e,would rule OUI vitamin A deficiency. This is clearly the cawnow, but it may well be that in the past it was an imponarn:

'II

.... u• , D

contributory factor, weakening the ey" ', causing diffi

in reading in dark classrooms and hence' . euhyxacerbatln he

effectS of close work. The fact that the diet is n g t'h ' , 'Ah be OW!Ttuchnc er In vitamin as en more than comp, _~

nsateu for badded pressure on the eyes through various kind f ,rs 0 Slramwhich we shall discuss shortly.

Rasmussen also suggested that nutritional deficiency Wti

compounded by various features of Chinese daily liVing

which caused unusual suess on the eyes. He developed Ihe

well-known 'eyestrain' thesis which currently dominates

research on myopia. He argued Ihal the effects of malnutri­

tion were increased by 'the strains, pressures and con­

tractions' caused by slraining the eyes. The distortions, heargu~, 'musl tau the form of Rattening in the horizontal

plme, elongation of the pan of the axial diameter, contrac­

tion or tapering of the ciliary region, with increased curva­

ture a.nd forward displacement of the crystalline lens. The

sum of these distonions, varying with each individual,

squeezes the optical system away from the relina, lengthen­

ing the distance between the retina and the nodal points.'

What men were the causes of the 'strains, pressures and

contractions'. and is there anything unusual which might

suggest that they were worse in China than in other civilisa·tions? Here Rasmussen develops an intriguing chicken and

egg argument; the tendency IOwards myopia led the Chineseto concentrate on dose intricate work which then made.L_· , ,utaT myopia worse.

H.d'. ~~ the early devdopment of China as iii great~ C1vi1lUOOn 'fIith a higher concentration on writing

".

other. Close auention 10 writing and reading put anthan any . H drew attention to the early and

a stralO on eyes. e .' h' he'ttr '\,e development of calligraphy and pamung, W IC

eXlensl. . c" of the sight' and to porcelain anduired 'lOlenSiVe u",- ' .

"\'1, ' m,"ufaclure 'both arlS requiring intenSive use ofc Olsonne "

lhe sight'. f IThe situation was compounded by the lack 0 g a~s

windows and of appropriate furniture. Craftsmen work.e~ In

iii-Iii sheds and in back rooms with hardly any light coming

Ihrough the oiled paper. The problem wa.s panicularly

serious in schools. It is thoughl that myopia lends to develop

belween Ihe ages of four and tcn. Rasmussen used the

famous phOlograph of children crouching over ,heir work

and wrote at lenglh aboul lhe study habilS of children. For

example, the 'writer has seen children resting their left

cheeks on the left fisls while pointing to characters or writing

wilh Ihe rigill hand scarcely twO inches away. It was not

uncommon a few years ago in China 10 see a class of children

benllow over their books, the only part of Iheir heads visible

10 Ihe teacher being tlte lOpS.' The 'overconcentrarion on

wrinen characters as a source of learning ... was bound 10

create eye strain and seriously develop inherent tendencies',

Classrooms 'were nOI merely poorly illuminaled, but in mOSTcasn hardly illuminated al illl'.

. Sup~ we take the thesis thai inlensive education, par­lL~lIlarly when combin~ with a difficuh script, is highly sig­mficalll, whal evidence is there for this? One way to proceed

would be 10 look al class and occupational differences. Earlywork in Euro~ at ule starl of the twentieth century sug­~~Sled much hIgher rates of myopia in the upper classes, who

. ere p~esumably more intensively educated. Particularlymteresllng i1re two cases. One is the wry high inci<kntt of

'17

f he I'weOl iethAt the slart 0 Iyopia in parts of Germany,. mong close worker5 were

m h figures for myopIa a centcffiwry leG ny while it was about 1~ per'n erma • haboul ,0 per cenl' fi contrasting schools at t e samein England, Other ~:es I, was suggested at the time. 'I r dlllerence.lime shoW a Simi a f G ny w"' particularly difficult [0

h· nnV' 0 ermaIhal the got IC.] r·d d that this was the cause.

'" Aan

ther intriguing case is that of orthodox Jews, made tono f early ageead learn and intensively study rom a very .

~~m figures suggest thai over 80 per cent of tee~ageorthodOx male students are myopic, three or four tI~eshigher rates than the rest of the population. Connectionswilh close work in certain occupations, for instance, thejewel-cutting industry, might be suggested. And an amusingSlOry illustrates the effect of myopia on the ability to playgom"

A television programme in July '999 entided Tile WorstJewis!J Foothall Team in l!Je World showed a team of under­thineen-year-old players in the nonh Manchester leaguewhich lost '7--0, 10-0, 13--0 and 2\-0. Intriguingly theirSponsor was a local optician, who had perhaps got to knowmany of them quite well. He said that 'he hadn't knownwhen he agreed to sponsor them just how bad they '9o'ere.W~en he did see Ihem, his first thought was that they'neededdlelr eyes testing, though most of them were alreadywea.ring glasses.' One of the young boys suggested the fol.~owmg, reason why they were different from other teams:Th~Y.IUSI pass it [the ball) while we're busy standing there

Or slflmg down or h . Th ... w arever. e OptiCian may well have:n nght~ even wilh glasses, distant vision may be difficult.

lIer 10 Sll down and wait until the ball bumps into you.

lJ. Myopi, dti/Jmt i" C/''''QOtto RawnuMen, who ~roduo:es this picture in C/'Utut Eyui,/'I anJ

Sptnadu (p. ,8). dtKribei this 1$ 'the mosl-published pkturt inophthalmology; purdtued by the wriler in a photographer's shop in

IIt:nWn about 19'4 (rom an amateur', snapshots o( ~l)'pical scenes inChina", nriwr posed nor commiHioned.'1be childml ",rt ....riring

.lib thrir he-adl very dose 10 the p"'per. The Jenning ",nd wriring of up10 th~ thousand ulremely dtl",iled Chinese char"'ctcn will product

pa.rtialbrly high IltVtl. o( eye Anin (or Chinne influenced popularionJin USUnI~11le effort is (a, grule, than for die' stand""dised lenenin use in Europe. O(~n the abwnce o( good lighl, bec.aUIt the school.

had no g1us ...indovs, encetb"'lts the problem.

,.' '19

,60

The connection between close wo k dr r an myopia h

nDled lor a very long rime. In his"'" as been1 rf!Q(Ut 011 fht D'

Tr04Umtn. published in English in I B lStCl.l(J: of, 'd' 70S, ernarda R

maZZ101 ISCUSseS the disastrous effecls of fi .. am.. . nl' work In mdLl

tnes such as lace.making and sewing in E ",'I

. urope. 1\ oVlng Onnear y two cenrurles, Browning in a widely '_"repnnt.... lCOXIbook of me late nineteenth cenrurv WfOle thaI 'Sh 'gh "

OJ on-51 liS

due to two cau~: concentrating OUf anemian almost exclu_

Sively on near objects - as in reading, drawing, needlework

etc.; and never using our eyes (or any length of time in 6am~

ioing objects 31 a distance. Small-rype schoolbooks art' mOS(

destructive of the sight, especially for very young childrrn.'

Sub~uent r~arch and specialist studies have confirm~

the hypothesis. Clerks, seamstresses and compositors wert

traditionally higbly myopic.

It is nOt JUSt a matter of small prim or bad light. Otherfactors include posture (sitting at the wrong distance), poor

definition, poor contrast, the actual size of objects, poor leg­

ibility. Human eyes strain to see what is presented to them, If

thue is sustained difficulty they become distoned.

A recent overview of myopia edited by Grosvenor andCots IUggeslS that near work is the most imponant faclOr in

its development. Panicularly imponam here is education,

Myopia i, lns frequent in populations where there is no com­

pulsory education. Sustained effon to bring small ObjKtS,

such as lenen or numbeR, into focus increases the pressure

in dw: eye and acceJerates elongation of the eye which pro­due:es myopia, Thus one study showed that workers who

spall a lot of time looking through microscopes tended tobecome myopic within two years, It is perhaps this attention

"1;"'"~ , C A,~ ,P " E "

'6,

A :" 0sr~CfACLRS

'd f 'me that.. over long petlo SOli

to minutely detailed wrlllO~L wyer's Myopia'. Famously in. known as a

leads to what tS, It Hot Marilyn Monroe made the con-

the film Some Like I'hy,"",or she hunted down a mand k'ngaweal, .

flecrion an see I 'lasses as a result of scanntngematurely wearlOg g . h

who was pr f k exchange transactions 10 t eIhe tiny figures 0 stOC

newspapers. . . . f theHere we come to one of the mostlOmgulOg ~ans 0 .

on' If auenlion to detail and close work 10 bad lightargum,. . h '

1 'ods affectS the eyes and if it is more t an lustover ong pen ,simply a matter of direct eyestrain, but also of the co.nnec­

lion between the eyes and the brain, in other words the mten·

sil)' of concentration, we mighl look at the question of

education and writing anew. Western opticians have long

suggested lhat the increasing hours of schoolwork of our

children's pressured lives may be behind the rapidly rising

rates of myopia (along with other suggestions such as com­plllers, lelevision, etc). But if this is increasingly true in

weslern COUntries, it is much more so in eastern Asia.

In Japan and South Korea children often go [Q pre-school

and stan serious educalion when they are three or four.

When lhey are in primary school they do very long hours..

We summarise a visit ro a Korean girls' middle school asfollows: 'Visit girls' middle school and are allowed to film a

class learning Kor~an ... Children stan school at 8 10 • mfi . h . '"

illS al ... )O p.m., then go to "crammers" where in bad liglo,andg I . ,

enera nOIse, they COntinue to srudy Until 10 p.m Wewere lold rhar when they return home th r. '.I h ey Olten engage 11\Illernel c iU until 1 a m Th . h

reSI 'B h '. eu eyes ave about five hoursthe 'cr/ t ~ age of.seventeen, they might well have extended

mmlllg penod to ~ d 'd'few break! for g. I yon .m.t. night. Tbere an very

mes, cu IUral aetlVltJes Or ~y'C' Iullnge teo

•A i'o' I), " ,

-,-

Ihrough a male of complex language is placed on young

children. Lik('",'i~, the knowledge Ihal educalion is the onegaleway 10 a good job and starns in a merilOcratic civi1isati~n

pUIS huge pressure on parents and children. The fact that big

department stores have areas which spKiali~ in recom­

mending and selling the appropriate c101hes for mothers who

are laking their tiny infants for an interview al a good k.inder~

garten is JUSt one small indication of this. Another is the

famous image of Japanese children silting PilSt midnight in

the cramming eslablishments, literally holding their eyelids

open with matchsticks. BUI it is not JUSt a maller of the hours

of work, the lighting and the parental pressures. There is

probably something else which has scarcely been noticed but

we think is just as important. This is the nature of what is

being learnt, and in particular the writing system,

When asked, Dr Takara said that he thought that what

was really crucial, apart from the long hours, was the

extreme preSSure that was caused by trying to write and

memorise the three vocabularies which constitute Japanesein particular Ihe two or three thousand 'kanji' or Chine~~harac~erswhich are essential even to read a newspaper. TItis

IS so dl~cuh that almost half the time thaI a Japanese child

spe~ds m school is devOled 10 language learning _ hence

~utllngpressure on Other subjects and lengthening the srudy-mgday. Thecha , ' ,a r cters are very ,"tneate, have 10 be accurate( Il~ preferably beautifully executed in a world that ,"a.Icalhg"ph I' hi u""Yso IIg y), and above all remembered r I"lt see lor lie.bel' ms mOre than a coincidence that the high myopia

I IS concemrated in the places where the Chinese chaters are learnt Sin T ' <>e-

. gapore, alwan, China and Japan are 1Mmost extreme ca~s. Soulh Ko .

example, The preSSure of houTS a~~ac;:mami:~~r~~~~

.6)

411UJS----" S D

~PfC;;14C;;I_F~

In Ihis Slrange land there was in vogue for centuries, aodeven millenniums, a syslem of ellaminalions, which origi­nally slarled wilh Ihe objecl of tesling Ihe abililY of th~already in office, gradually widened in scope till it becameall-embracing in point of geographical extent, and was thetest of ability which all had to undergo who desired admis­sion into the Civil Service of the immense empire with itsthousands of officials; wilh this end in view, boys wereincilC~d 10 learn their lessons and be diligent; with this aim,men pursued their weary cour~ of study, year in and yearout, till white hairs replaced the black, and the shoulders,which at fint merely aped the scholarly SlOOp, eventuallybent ~neath the weighl of years of lOiI, No other rountryin the world prestnlS the curious sight of grandfather,fatlw:r, and even son, competing al the same time,

We m,ly think Ihal this is a ne Iw p lenomenon .Irue th.. 1 pressures have increased B . h ,and II is

. UI I( as for \'e Ibeen a fe,Hure of Confucian-influenced I ry ong'. cu tures wher A.J

callnn and learnmg the classics mean, h e'tlJU_, . so muc . An de

of the exammallon syslem in nineteenth_ ,COUnt. century Chma b

Dyer Ball gives an indication of lhe pressur f ' , y_.J • esOtntenslveCtJucallon.

In an anicle on 'Examinations' deS(;ribin h. . . g [ e sYStem ofcIvil service examinations which laSted until I h '903, e Wnltsas follows:

He describes how people went on trying to pass until th~i,r~ighries. with 'untiring perseverance and indefatigable tOIl.

He continues in the same vdn for several more pages.

This is JUSt pan of a system which one can still see if one

VI iUl a Japanese school, where enormous pressur~ to ~em:riSe' classical writings and master a vast literary ,"henta

n

VIlf.Olc .... ll"rs, , "

One way in which 10 approach a period when records areme3gre is through looking at possible effeclS. This also has a'Q,'ider interest, since ultimately it is the cOR'>e<Juences of dif­ferences in vision that we are concerned with. One of thesemay be seen in the nature of Chinese an. The suggestion wasmade by RasmusSt'n thai the fact that Chinese (and Japanese)paintings and drawings are famous for meir very minutel)'detailed foregrounds and vague mountains and douds in thebackgrounds, might have something to do "'ilh myopia.E"en if there must have been many other COntribUtorycaU5n to this well-known feature. as discussed in the prtvi­ous chapter, me study of visual repr~ntarions o"er the cen­turies will prove a fruitful area for exploring me history oftyesight.

There d~ seem to be something intriguing here in merelation between painting and myopia. It is a theme pan.lypicked up by Trevor-Ro~r who points ou! that myopicpainters necessarily lend 10 avoid detailed representations ofobjl.'cls outside their limited range. This also affectS the dis­lance from which a painling should bt' seen. To appreciatem:my Chinese and Japanese works of art one needs to standmuch closer 10 them than to some of the more famous exam­pit's of western an. Trevor-Roper tven notes the fact thatChinese artists tend to concentrate most of the detail in the

tOWt'r left triangle of their paintings. though he does nor,unlike Rasmussen link this 10 myopia, bU! rather to, . .'gravity'. TIle nature of ,h", medium on which the paJnnng

,6,

""C' consider 110t just glass but vision in general we can see apCllt'ntial1y interesting difference berween civilisations.

" N 0

high as in Japan. BUIlhe Koreans de"elo d h .( ' I) . h pe a P onetlc sen"angu ,Wit a small character sel. in th c.r h P'

h. . . . e IIlfeem centUt.and t IS IS now used In all teachmg until h' h h )

'. 19 sc 001. So lan_guage learning constltutes onlv about one sixth h h' . ,rat erl anahalf, of the school lessons. One has the school

. preSSUte, bUtone does nOi have the Chinese characters in ,I,. I·

~ ear ler yeatsof school. What are the resuhs in terms of myopia figurt'S?

Although the figures are ver)' small and impressionisticonly, they are intriguingly JUSt whal one might ptedict _intermediate heR'een Japan and the \t'est. In rwo elememal')'cla~ (average age 9.5), the proportion of children 'Q,.taringe)'egla.s~ was betwee:n 8 and 11 per cent. In a boys' middleschool, with ages berween rwdve and fourteen, the averageswere bel"een 10 and 10 per cent, and in a girls' school, ontquantr of rhe rwdve studentS in one class had glasses. In iI

class of 6ftee:n-year--olds one-third of the rhitty-six pupils'''''ere wearing glasses. A little over a third of fifty-four elem­entary school teacher! wore gb,s~ The general impressionfrom rhese figurn is that the proportions lay exacrly betwttrlthe rates One would find now in Japan and England.Unprompted, the English master said that he believed thatchildren's eyes were getting worse, and all the reachers wtrthostile to the crammers, but said nothing could be donebecause the 'biggest problem in Korea' was parental pressureon their children to study hard and get into a good university.

We have seen rhat nutrition and close work are among thtcausesof fluctuations in the nte of myopia, and mal me eXira­ordinarily high rates of myopia in Japan and Singaport now­alhysare: likely tobe closely rebted 10 the educational system,and ~rhaps the learningof Chinesecharacters. The high rateof myopia may be one faClor in the non_devtlopment ofoptical glass in eastern Asia, until recently. Furthermore, if

,6,

SPECTACLES AroD PREDICANEroT$• , p

is done (absorbent paper) and the artlSllC medium(water-based inks) are also likely to alter the Situation.

It is templing 10 go beyond this to other art forms. For

example, in Japan one wonders whether any of the conven_

tions of drama ~ Noh and kabuki - were related 10 myopia.

There are the sounds and gestures of kabuki, the absence

of importance of facial expressions (fixed expressions are

painted on the faces, instead of allowing them to change

subtly as the drama unfolds), the huge cosrumes, particularly

using the red end of the spe<:trum, the fact that (as can be

seen in traditional prints) the audience tend not to look at the

stage and often face away from it, even the existence of a

projecting footway 10 take the actors OUt into the audience,

so they can be seen more closely, may be important. All this

suggests the audience found it difficult to see what was going

on at some distance in a dimly lit hal1.The red and gold kabuki costumes could be evidence that

Widespread myopia may also have affected the discrimin­

ation of colour. Whereas a typical European will see the blue

end of the spectrum best, it seems likely that Chinese, Japan­

ese and Koreans see the red end of Ihe spectrum more

clearly. Trevor-Roper noted the predominant part played by

red and gold in Japanese and Chinese art and that there was

no specific word in Chinese for blue. To this could be addedthat the primary colours in these three countries, apart from

black and white, are brown-red, yellow.red and blue·green.

That two should be from the red end of the spectrum and theother from the region closest to that end is interesting. Like­

wise the faer that many ceremonial and dramatic costumesare red and yellow is notable, as are the reds and golds in

many temples and royal bUildings. Reds are more predom­inant in Shinto shrines and Chinese temples, though

,66

-

. . also highly favoured in royal palaces. TheturquoiSe lS .. d ,ather than yellow, sun on the Japanese Rag IShmous re ,::1,0 often mentioned. Trevor-Roper explains the link with

. 'ollows 'The blue rays of light are refracted moremyop13 as" .th..n the red, and so arc brought to a focus slightly in front of

the normal retina, and the red rays correspondingly just

behind it; hence lhe myope, with his abnormally long eye,

will see red objects in better definition ... '

It would also be interesting to look more closely at litera­

rure. Certainly in the weSt the contrast in the images used by

a myopic poet such as Keats, and a normally sighted one such

as Shelley, is illuminating. Those of Keats are based much

more on the other senses of smell and sound, or are much

more fanciful, while Shelley deals with distant prospects. Itmighl well be wOrlh examining the very rich literarure of

Japan and China with this in mind.

There is also a certain amount of anecdotal or indirect

evidence. There is the considerable concern in traditional

Chinese medical tracts with eye diseases of various kinds.

Older ethnographies record the widespread presence of eye

medicine shops. some of which had been in operation for

more than seven generations. There is evidence that some

ordinary Japanese children had amazingly acute microscopicvision. Edward Morse in the 1870S described how he was

shOWing 'a little country boy' the fearures of a beetle which

'when pktced on its back iumps into the air'. Morse showedhim how this worked 'with the aid of a pocket magnifier'. In

lhe west 'only entomologists are familiar with this structure'~et this Japanese COuntry boy knew all about it. and told m~II was called a rice-pounder ... '

In the work by Li Yu translated as Tlte C,lrIwl P,ay~,Mat, originally published in 1634, we are told of a lady who

'"

, " .was 'nearsigilled', The author explains thai thi~ 'd h., mil e eres~ci3lly attractive. 'Most nearsiglnoo women,. . . re preuyand Intelligent. And for women there IS a cerlain adv... amageIn nearsIghtedness; It makes them save their feelings for lilt'serious business of marriage instead of squandering thempremamrt:ly on passing advenlUres.' He approvingly qUotesthe 'popular saying' Ihal 'She may be nearsighted, bUI in themarriage bed she knows what she is doing.' Thus 'near_sighted women afe largely immune to temptations of thiskind ... It has been rttOgnized from lime immemorial thaimarriage with a nearsighted woman is usually happy and fr~from scandal.'

There afe many other areas which might provide dues.A5. Mann and Pirie suggest, 10 consider the effects of loog­sight on 'seating arrangemenls in cinemas and theatres, thesize and position of public notices such as signpostS, the useof me blackboard in schools and others of our commonarrangements, which presuppose clear sight for Ihings morethan six yards away'. If we nun this on its head, and wonderwhat a civilisation with very high myopia rares might exhibit,a number of curious features of Japanese civilisation take ona new meaning. What must it be like to Jive in a world whereeverything be)oond about one foot (a third of a metre) isbturm:.l?~ in relation to Japan, for instance, one is led to won­

der about the ceremonious bowing which is more easilyobserved than the minutiae of facial expression, the gener­ally impassive expressions, the giving of name cards to indi­cate identity, the emphasis on whole body communication(wa) ratOO than facial gestures or speech. What one wouldhave to do is to walk round Japan with glasses which createdmyopia - and then see how many things were visible and

,6&

d gestun:s and use of n/Ji~e had mOideI human art an h ' "..w I I' . landscaN' created for t t: Vlsua yI m

ore so. sillS iI ,,-11(m

ch31lenged? Ch', ' 'og are3 is the non_developmtnt m ma,One mtngUl. order was invented of far-sIght weapons.where gunpoW ' becourse there are olher reasons for this, bUI it may well also

I t ted to Ihe fact thai the Mandarin class, at least,party rea .. ruld nm have found them easy to use. A historian a110'0 • • .China, Mark Elvin, pointed out to us that detenoratlon In

eyesight mighl be seen in changes in h~nling, sh~ling andeven stargazing. Some might even facetIously pOint our thatit may thus be more than a coincidence thai the Zen an ofarchery required the archer to learn 10 fire the arrow withouth3ving to look al the distant target. After constant practice,the archer intuitively knew how to aim without consciouslylooking al the targer. This would be specifically an activityfor the elite.

Another effecl miglu be the skills in 'micro work' whichhave long impressed weslern observers of Japan; the in­tricale traditional crafts of lacquer, iTlro making, ntuuk.tcarving, bonsai (miniature plant) growing, the subtle move­ments of the tea ceremony. Many of the professions whichinvolve minute work have in the past auract~ people withs~n~sight; ivory carvers, miniature painters and so on. ThaI~hls ma~ have a direct continuity into the Japanese skillslO cenalO branches of modern manufacturing many of.....hich have Ih, 'ffi " '(. ..' .. u x mIcro mlcro-engmeenng, mKTO-l'1t'CtroOtcs m' . )". ,Icro~computmg , does not seem implausible.[ he IIlstructions on how to u" -", good r _> 'J .... UI S millnu acrurnl Inapan afler the Sec d ,.., Id Wh on war ar were also in minuscul~

c araclers, practically unreadable to a westerner.One also wond abo hers Ut t e shape and natuteaf Japanese

'..

SPECTACLES • " D• " D

homes and Iheir furnishings. The rooms were tiny-, h d h - - 1- - d h ' as wereme ouses., an I elr simp IClry an 1 e absence of ~u _

rnltUrewould make mem ideal for a people who found fOCUSing on

objeas even al the far end of a large rOOm difficult and whomight find moving around crowded furniture Irying.

Anomer well-known feature of Japan is the emphasis on

the other senses. The sense of smell is parlicularly well

developed. NO! only are the revolting smells of westerners

often commented on, but also mere has been a huge develop.

ment of the an of discriminating seems. Numerous booksexist on the subject and me palate of differem scents and

incense was vaSI. The Genji, an eleventh-century novel, is

full of competilions 10 detect subtle varialions in scent and

the approach of the Prince was often heralded by his per­

fumes.

Likewise there is a very great emphasis on sound. Tiny

sounds are noted and used: the sound of water dripping, Ihe

tinkling of bells, the sound of a frog jumping into a pool,various tapS and clicks during the tea ceremony. A Japan~

friend suggested 10 us that Ihe Japanese had a better sense of

he:.ring to compensate for their poor eyesight.Again, one notices the love of whole masses .11 a slight

distance, ramer than small things which might nOI be setn.

Thus the cherry blossom tree, a cloud of pink or while, a full

moon, the shape of Moum Fuji which is so distinctive andobvious. Mann and Pirie poignantly capture this as follows:'If a child is born shan-sighted it will make no complaint.

This is often nOt realized, but is obvious if we stOp to think... a small shon-sighled child given glasses for Ihe first timew sent for a ....I.1.k shows the SLille of mind. She said "Look!

Do you know that a tr~ is made of leaves?'"1nere is a nouble absence of 'prospKts', of viewing

'70

_ f -gh,e"eing 'potS in traditional japan. This waspoints 0 SI ~ ,_~ 'b T- n Screech who suggesled it was bec".use of an

IlOh:u y 1mo, ._', population from spylllg oUllhe he of theanempt 10 stOp UI

land, but this can hardly explain il. It is much more likely Ihiumany people would nOI have climbed the crags or lowers

which filled western countries since Ihey could not see fromthem until the introduction of eyeglasses from the west.

After the use of eyeglasses spread in the eighteenth celllury,going up in balloons and looking out over the countryside

became a craze in Japan.The last area is the mosl controversial, but it is worth

considering. This is Ihe e((ecl of myopia on personalilY· Thisis difficuh ground, bUI here are a few suggeslions. Mann and

Pirie suggested thai a myopic child is

intensely interested in books and in all fine detail and verybored with games ... Such children win scholarships andmay be correspondingly unpopular ... they drift imo jobsenlailing dose work. rhey get round-shouldered ilnd peerar Iheir work. They get wrinkles at Ihe corners of theireyes bcotuse they arc illways screwing up lheir lids to II')' 10

make a son of 'pinhole' camera to help them 10 see diswuobjects beller, and this gives them a feeling of Slmn.

This theme of Ihe bookish myope, with a card-index type ofmemory. very highly aware of colour which is used fordistalll cues, inward-looking, finding extrovert behaviourdifficult, bad ar team games and so on is to be found in muchof Ihe literarure.

The Iheme has been explornl by Trevor-~ in asection called 'The Myopic Personaliry', which taUs as irstheme an eye-specialist'S remark: 'Bul you don'l unckrsund.we rnyopet are difTerenl ~ple.' He refers to 'w studiou.

'"

SPECTACI.ES • , 0

and rather withdrawn myope', and quotes a Ion d .g an faSClllating passage from a Dr Rice on these themes. -

A near-sighted child cannot do well on the pl.y dgrounbei:.use he c.nnOt see. He will nOl like to hUnt because hec.nnOI see the game or the sighls of his gun. He will notlike to Iramp because distant objects are poorly seen andfor Ihal reuon, nOl .ppreciated. He will not like races 0;aviation or Iravel or spons of any son. As .ill rule thcscpersons do nOI like the the:alre. or the motion picture ...The: child who knows that he: cannOt excel over his fellowsin ~mes gets a big sadsC.ction OUt of the conqucsi of memind mal he can comm.nd ... He pleillscs his teacher 001he loses his friends ... Such a child il5 we: have described isnot dependent on others for e:ntenainment and is Iiilble to

grow nthcr contempruous of the ilbilities of others. Hedoes not adapt himself 10 lhe surroundings and is not

willing to mau compromises.

In any discussion of biological and other differences, it is

extreme.ly imponant to avoid any ovenone of moralising or

superiority. Even the title of a chapter along the lines of

Trevor-Roper's TJ,~ WorM Throu.gh. BIWluJ Sigh.l would beinappropriate. It is [rue that myopia is now regarded as a dis­

.bility and many consider it a misfortUne. In fact, it has many

advanUog~ and has been behind much of the creative work

in both east and west. A person with myopia probably in­

habits a more intense, intimate, meaningful, kind of world.

Myopes see the world at a different angle, in an unusual per·

ipCClive, which is perhaps why myopes are more highly reP'"resented even in art schools and, when they are there, prefer

not to have their vision corrected.

'"

Man of the greatest poets have been myopic: Mi.llon.

Po 6oethe, Keats, Tennyson, Yeats. Among wrller~,p". J • "d Edward Lear were myopic. Notable myopic

James oyc... W.. "·,,I"ded Bach Beethoven, Schubert and agner.mUSICIan..' .

Gregor Mendel, the first investigator of modern genetlcs,

lIo'as anolher myope. We are IOld that among really gifted

mathematicians, myOpeS are four times as common as in Ihe

general population. .Perhaps more surprisingly, many of the greatest palmers,

for example Van Eyck, Durer and possibly Vermeer, were

myopic. Myopia was particularly prevalem among nine·

leenth-cenrury impressionists., for example Cezanne, Degas

and Pissarro. In a lWeOlieth-cenrury French an school, the

proponion of myo~was aboullWice the national average.

Myopes are successful in education and the ans. They also

have the compensation of baving less of a problem in

reading without glasses in older age.

h is thus essential to avoid the pejorative ovenones remi­

niscent of what one used 10 find in school playgrounds, where

children who wore glasses for myopia were picked on as swots..It would be very unfonunate if it were 10 be thought Ihat one

was arguing Ihallhe half of the world's population who uSC'

Chinese characlers (not 10 menlion onhodox Jews, Indian

Brahmins and o~her ~ore than usually myopic sub-groups)were somehow IOfenor 10 the long-sighted peoples of the

western world. On the other hand, it is not wise jusllo ignore

~he possible differences for fear of being thought politica.J1mcorrecl rac'sl 0 . I· d Y

• I, neOla lSI, eterministorwhalever.lnsteadwecan see thaI there isa possible added rwistto the storyof thedevelopm~ntof glass instruments in e:ast and west.

fro~n :~Iauon t~ the:. high-level civilisations of Eurasia (apanam, whIch 15 another story), in other words China

'1)

""""!AII.~\ AN"--u_---

and Japan. lhere m:lY havc bccn:l movemcnt t d• '. OW:lr sa world

wlIh an :mcnllOIl /(J mlcru:.copic dClail Ill· d .. c omm3nce of

~nscsOilier Ihan the eye. combincd WiTh less - c, . 1. a urine flng_

~lglll.1( one wanls 10 push lilt: Ihesi~ lO ils ClI".m-. . '" .., fine: could

suggesl Ihal IhlS helps lO brmg OUI .Mlme of whill i, I.pttu lar

ahoul the wt"Sl. As we shall sec, Wl"STern glass lechnology

eXlended dlC~ already reasonable l:Yes wiTh u.-It'SCopes OlM

microscopes. and correcled lht· effect of old age Willi SI'«I_

acl~. The Chincst' and Jap:mese turned their eyes into

vinual microscopes, having earlier had eyes whidl were

vinual lelescopes. BUI Ihis was al some COSt 10 themselves

and helps explain some unusual feaTures of their civilisation,

juSt a5 glass does in the wesl.

In China, Japan and for a lime Korea, eyesight, or at leaSI

the ability to see far 0((, may actually h:lve deteriorated.

Reliable knowledge may h;lve Icvelled 0(( or even decreased.

The world became Aallcr and closer, lhe authority relaint'<l

from the past when the world seemed clearer was increased,

curiosity 10 discover new things was diminished, the wrillen

word and memory of paSI achievements were stressed. In Ihe

Well, seeing i belieVing; in the east, hearing and reading is

believing. The senses of smell and of hearing and remem­

bering are given grealer weight in Ihe eaSI; experimenting

and touching and seeing in the Wt'SI. This was reinforced by

language, a veil of complex writing in th~ east, wh~reas the

Wnt incrt:uingly became an oral and visual cuhure. Bolh

hav~ their charms and Iheir advantages, bUI in the grim

world of practical politics il was the weslern solulion, 10

e._end the human eye with spectacles, which won th~ com­~ilive bau.le. Now the entire world has spectacles. And we

have Corgotten lhe thousand years o( history when thingswere very different.

'"

V isions of the World

Cltuultv, Polocv, CaJdu, aNi PanictJ.lor Housu, 0- tltcu

clticfUt OrflamulU aJ ...·ell as COIIvefll'cllCU, to Gla»;[or rIuuIrOlUporeflt Sulmoncc guards Ihem ..,i,"'tt from tOO ,real

Heo.l o.lId Cold, willtout Itilliring ,It, /fllromwiofl of lit,

Ligltt. Loolr.iflg-GlaJJts, arul otller 8reo.I Pla,ts of Gla»u

o.re so many surpri!illg Objecu,o our Eyu, reprtsefl,i", so

disfiflcrly alld lIoturally all elle" from fltt lcruf'O tAe grealCSt

Actions of ,he Objccu before ,hem, wllereby also olle may

Qlwoys Ir.cep Ilimse/f ill a lIeo.l o.lIi ag,ceo.hle dress.

NotwitlUfQlldittg flor aile itt 0. TIlO/l.Solld of ,Ilwe ..,lto Aalle

Illem, eller refleer "" Ille AdmirahlCflcss of Ille Work, iliAd is

beyond daub" Otte of I"e elliefcst, aM mOSI ptrftCt Pieccs of

Ar,. o.ttd tllafl w"iclt Alo.lI Can mo.lr.e fIOlhillg more WIOft4erj'J.

H., d q..' cit m-rt,~'"~WcC''''''atd A. C. f_

GI- ..A~..JD c,,...p.\)

lrH£Rf: IS A GREAT MYSTERY concerning howour modC'Tn world emerged. If we ask w~t ba~

bttn Ihe hOilf dol.t"n gre,lIest tnm.fonnabOM 1ft

the field of human knowledge, boIh in cootmt and JOrm,there can be lillie doubt Utal me RmaiSAnCt" and thr:Scientific Revolution would be among dM»C' sek:c«d.Along with IhC' evolution of language and cIDc:otuy oi

."

\'I$IONS o , TilE "'ORlO",SIOrolS or TilE

WOK L 0

wnlmg. the transformation in the tools to hel hP Urrtansundersland nature thai occurred between about

AD 1)00and 1800 is clearly of enormous imporrance. Upo h

. nternhave been bUIlt Ihe new technology of industrialis hm, t enew social system, Ihe communications networks 'h, e newpolilical sySlem and the global culrure which we now

experience, Looking at human history as a whole, the

effKls of what has happened in the very recent past, ind

which first happened in only one corner of Ihe world, are

dramatic indeed. Vel when we ask the question why did

one of Ihe greal changes in human history OCcur, it is

difficult 10 find any saiisfacrory answers.

In order to solve this mystery, we firsl need to define Ihe

question mort: carefully. Whal exactly do we mean by the

terms 'Scientific Revolution' and 'Renaissance? The 'Scien­

tific Rrvolution' needs, in fact, 10 be split into !wo 'revolu·

oons', The earlier one occurred roughly between 12.50 and

1400 and it consiSled of several fearures. These included tM

absorption of Gree" learning by way of Arabic scholars, 1Mdevelopmenl of universities, the improvementof logical tools.,

a growing concern for precision and accuracy, the increasing

sophisticalion of mathematics, chemistry, physics and in par·

ticularoptics, a slronger emphasison Ihe authorityof observed

visuil evidence ralher than the aUlhority of Ihe ancienls as

written in textS. This fint revolution laid the necessary founda­

tions., indudingthe experimental method and method of scep­

ticism, doubt and suspended judgement, for the more famOUS

scientific revolution, which is usually dated from Ihe IS90Sthrough totheendof thueventeenth cenlUry, Thissecondsci­entrnc revolution e:xplicidy laid out the scientific project as we

know it, with ilS use of scientific instruments in order to gainvery large quantities of new reliable knowledge,

,'"

If we broaden the definition of the scientific revolution in

I . Ywe can see that it was not just a sudden break.Ii1Swa 'hI I bu' had its roots deep in classical lhought, whlc ,

I IrOUg I, .combined with Arabic advances., Rowered III the work of

medieval thinkers. We are thus dealing with somelhing

which covers over half a millennium, from about 1100 to

beyond 1700. Likewise Ihe geographical range is narrow for

while many demenls were found dsewhere, the whole sel of

interconnected pans was, for a period, uniquely found only

in areas of western Europe.This is the puzzle. Why did this great event which trans­

formed human vision and underslanding happen Ihen

(1100-1700), there (pans of weslern Europe) or at all?

Thcn~ was clearly nothing inevilable about il. Indeed,

grealer civilisations with more sophisticated technologies

and social structUres showed few signs of having such a rev­

olution. It was clearly an evem which changed our world, so

why did il happen?If we IUrn to what we call the Renaissance, it is cooven·

tionally lhought of as occurring in the am (painting, archi­lecture, literalUre) and to have a sel of fe3IUres which include

a growing precision of observation and representation, themalhemalisation of the rules of painring and architKrure,

the developmem of methods to represem penpecri\'e so matIhree-dimensional space could be convincingly depicted on aIwc.dimensional surface, growing rt:alism in Ihe ponrayal of

nalUre, new architectural and poelic devices which gneincreased intensity and power, new concepts of me individ­~al and his or her place in the universe, and a new COI'IUpt" o(ume.

Once these charaCleriuics are lisled, we can euily set'

how Ihis set of anributes overlaps greatly with the scimrilic

'n

""M'".""" .. , .. , , " I ... ".,"

or kn(lWlt'd).:,I' rt,\,·lllIh'n. 'nli, ('\'t'rI'l' I. ' "u"w It·,-,· 1, ,rt'pr('~"lll,'cllll,m 111 ,lit' \\"lI'k lit" Lt'lII1,r!!" ,I \,. , "'tin. ,I 'u,', 1 I, ,~, I .,'" ,lo"IJSCI(,IlIl!lC ,Ille a \,'n,USS,U1n' ).:,,·llIU' Ie IS '. '- • ,I"~ tll Sl't' th;1lbOlh rnu\'o.'m,·n.s M" b,IS"',ltly ,lh"II' till' ,'X"'n,i ,. I·, . "ll,' rl'ILlIkl1owlt'tlg;t'. G,lins ill IIIit' lide!, I~'r ,'x,lm"II' m,lll, .' J,'.', I' nl.lll(~ Utthe reprl."St'!lta'IOIl 1,1 tllr"t··cllllll·l\';I'Il.l1 'Ill," ", t, 1>IMlii It....dback into ,he OIh,·r. Tilt, mils, tJb\'inll~ ,'S 11111,1,· ",. ,I· .., 1I~ ,~ IIIthe fidd of optics, whidl W;IS lilt' 1~,und,lIi,," d;~illlill" inbOl Ii till' ea rly scient ific ft'\'t 1111 til III ,\lI( I It"'Il,li'i',llll't' ,I rt.

The ltt'n:Jiss:mce in IIl1'St' ,..'ns,'" st.trh·(1 in till' S:U1lt'period as the first sci('ntific r('\'"huion. dl," is .Il>lIlIt III\.'middle of the ,hir'ecnth (·('lIlmy. ,mel it ,'stcmlt'el lip ,,, ,Iblllt'the srar' of Ihe second phase "f lilt' sl.'it'lllili... r,'\'ulwiull"halis up to about '(,00. The art':l in whidl it •...:t.-mr('(1 wasroughly the same. with a particu1:tr I,}(;us in nllrlll"rl1 halyand nonh·western Eurupe, It W:lS nil' III bt' lillltld in anycivilisalion outside western EUfllpe.

Since Ihe scienlific revolutions .melthl' nt'l\:lissance wert'really all parI of onc phenumenun, manifc."St:llion~ of Ollt'tremendous development, so il is sensible to SIfJP differemi·ating them. jusl as ;1 is profilal>l~ tn sllsp~l\d the distinclionbelween ,he hrSt and s«ond scicluific revohllions: both a~encompassed wilhin what we miglll call a knowledge reyolu­tion,

Haying done Ihis. we can see Ihal in order 10 e"pla;n why,he knowledge revolulion Ot:currcd, any explanation has 10meet cenain criteria, Since tht' rate a' which reliable knoW­ledge was ptoduced began 10 increase markedly from [hetllirl«nth cenlury, an explanation must cOlltain elementSwhich were preielll from ,hat dale. '·Ience the invcntion ofIhe: printing prell or the discovety of lhe New World, bolhoccurring in Ihe fif,eenth celllury, are 100 late fO be among

",

1., ,·",,,,·velll" Ihllu,,11 ri,l', 1I1.'y '111 ..1,1111 ,UII! ellp,HI'!t II'lIn·'·'l'l.,... ' ...

,lit. "",y,·'n.·..I. '1'1'1'11 ,,~.ill', .111 ClIpl,II",ll'"' 1Il'1'1 "IlJol,KC'"

, , . wll1dl "I'I'W r.II)I(lly "fll't ,Ih'nll 11.00, hCIIlK IdfKely.•' "r:; ,.,.110,,'111 "" mlll,'d I",ro,t.". FLll"lht'I"IIl"fl', wll,llevct lhe f'I(''''''I.11,,'y IIIl1'l he Jl.lrticlll.,r1y 'itrlluKly prc-.cnl III buth holly .IIKIIlI'I'III-WI''ilern b'fl'lw, f"r ,lie klll,wlel!j.\c rcv(,lu'l.m"",.tlfred 'iill1llh,LI'L"llI~ly ill t!lI:liC tWo .ll"cas, FUrlhc:rmlltc,I"ill~ Ihe ,-"nlllJ>:lr.l!ive IIIcl1l1l<l, the faclor ut faclOr5 mU'l1 be1.1"~"1 Y,11,<:(.'11 I iII ,III ,,' I1I:r ci viI i";lt i, Ill", where tllc kn' lwledw=fl' v' ,1111 i, ", ,Iill n, 'I 'lC"'U t at Ihis ,ime, Final Iy, cn~eltis'cncc (,I'

cllil .... ill,.I\'-"c i'i 1111' cl\ou~h. II must be possible to show how,h,. f.lI.:tol' or f:lCt"r'i :lL:lU,ll1y pr"dllccd the cenlral fcature ()f,Ill' kllowkc.lJo(c rt'vllllllion. Th:I' i.. III say, hnw could il orlhey h,IW (Iin...-,ly or indirc."Clly cllclluraKed :I more precise,l'e,lli"i,' .LIlII de,:,;I ...(! kn"wlcdw.~ (,f 1l:llllre, hdpccl give lheb.l.. i.. Ii,r Ihl' rul,·, which I1l.1dc tile reprl''iCnlalion flf n:lIUft"mort' ,1('cut,IIt', ,lIltl stilllllbll'c1 curi<r.>i,y and confidence in ,hep"r"llil (Of Illb nbil'ctivl'?

Jlld~ed by Iht'.... dem:llldinK critt'ria we call go rhrough,Ill' v"tiou, I'ltp1.m:uillns which have been advanced by11ll1111'roll.. wrilers 10 solve ,1'e..e pUl1.!es ill ordt'r to lIee howfar Iht'y lIlt'et 111t''>C Ic.... t... If we kaye on one side for IheIll\llllt'n1 Ih" eI"'CIJCr philo~lIpltical and cuhural facIO" whichprovided an indi'ipl'll~;lble b:lsis for whal 11:lppened. i' iJworlh listin~ ,hI' most likely candidates which could be con·'cndt'fS fHr an explanalion. Tht'sc include lhe following: theIIleck.nisalilJn of ,hI' wllrld view through Ihe dcvelopmentof macllincs; specific legallr.lditions; Ihe gro....th of particu.I:tr lyplo'S uf city; a particular social $Iructurei trade andt'xpll,rat i'lII: a pIli rat and yel eu Itil rally uni ted civilisation; the{!evdopllleni of commercial capilaJismi !he <kvdopm~t ofl~ica! and rhelorical methods; ,he impl'O\'em~tof method,

'79

\'1$101'15 OF TilE "'OIlLD o , , " . WOIILO

of storage and dissemination of information (e.g. priming).

universities; tools of time (clocks); ans of memory; tools or

measuremem and calculation: networks of knowledge; trustsand associalions allowing collaborative long-term work.

Clearly all of !.hese are importam. Yet we can short

_

circuil the discussion by stating that few of them seem 10

meet all of Ihe crileria set OUt above. Probably the Ihree most

promising are mechanical clocks. universities and other COr_

porale institutions. imd a particular fragmented yet unified

political and economic syslem. Yet there still seems to be

something missing. We have a picture of many of the

pre.conditions, yet what tied them IOgelher and allowed one

ci\'ilisation to move toward new systems of thought still

5eC'ms 10 elude us. So where else should we look? If we were

detectives, ....'e might look for something that has been over­

looked because it is tOO obvious, staring us in the face. We

belie\'e that an obvious missing faclOr in our understanding

of how one civilisation broke through into a high level of

reli.a.ble knowledge, is glass.

We hilve argued !.hat glass transformed humankind's relalion

with the nuural world. h changed the sense of reality, privil­

eging sight over memory, suggested new concepts of proof

and evidence, altered human concepts of self and identity.

The shock of the new vision destabilised conventional

wisdom, and the more precise and accurate vision providedthe foundations for European domination over lhe wholeworld dUring the next centuries.

The IIcry of what happened now seems relatively clear.In «rural and eHtern Eurasia the shape of the hislOry of

,80

. b .•lly uniform. The knowledge of the substanceglass IS aSIC ."

d I make it spread from ItS source III the Middle East,an lOW to . .

b bl by at least ~oo Be in the cases of Ind,a and Chtna.proay .The revolutionary new method of glass-blowtng was known

aooUi AD ~oo at the latest. In India praclically no glass indus­

Try developed as a result of this except for bead and bangle

manufacture. Likewise in China and Japan glass was seen as

a cheaper, bUI inferior, way to make decorations for secular

aoo religious purposes. Glass manufacture reached a high

poim in Japan in the eighth century and !.hen faded to

nOlhing and by T~oo the art was lost. In China it expanded

until about the temh or eleventh century but again faded

away after ilboutthe twelfth century. Islamic civilisation was

a bit different, lying exactly berw~n the twO extremes.

Glass·making Rourished and by the eleventh century Syria

and adjacent areas were the most sophisticated glass-making

centres in the world. But !.hen glass manufacture declined

abruptly and hardly any glass of any quality was made

betW«tl 1400 and 1710.

In western Eurasia, the history of glass was different. In

the sOUlh, Roman civilisation gave Ihe impetus to wonderful

domestic glass for utensils, especially for wine. and hen« toVenelian mirrors and wine glasses. In the nonh. Chrisuom­

ity plus the climate were conditions that encour-aged !ht and

coloured glass in the medieval period. So the glass t~·nology improved rapidly, spurred by luxury, trade, religiouszeal and the desire for comfon. Early on. the wlb andknowledge of mathematics were good enough to mUespectacles and the desire 10 overcome presbyopia made thispopular. With lenses, prisms and spectacles a growing inter·est in [he properties of light could be explored which lalerled thrOUgh to microscopes and telescopes. Like'.ise the,.,

VISIONS OF TilE . , 'I II E WOHlll

d('vdopment o( gbss artefacls and o( mirr. htS ad det

('fT«ts on chemislry and astronomy. TIle e{feets on lhe p'f h d . per_«pIlon 0 space. on l e ommance o( vision on h ] h' eal and

agriculture were considerable.

We can examine Ihis slOry in a little more delail b d' 'dY 11'1 _

ing glass up into il5 major uses. The use o( glass r••II r verra-

rerie', thai is glass beads, counlers toys and ,'en'A]] ,, .... ery, ISalmoSI univ('rsal, 01.1 least in Eurasia, though even this was

absent in the half of the historical world comprising Ihe

Americas, sub·Saharan Africa and Australasia. This is really

th(' exclusive use for glass in India, China and Japan over

most of the laSI fWO thousand years. For this purpose, glass.

blowing is nm absolulely required, nor does this use have

much influence on Ihought or society; ils influence is in the

field of luxury goods and aesthetics. Basically glass is a sub­sritule (or precious stones. Hardly any o( th(' potential of

glass as an inslrumenl for knowledge or for improving the

physical environment is exploiled.

Hislorically rhe use of glass for 'verrerie', that is vessels,

vases and other conlainers, was largely restricted to the

western end of Eurasia. There was very little use of glass for

vessels in India, China and japan. Even in the Islamic

territories and Russia, the use declined drastically from about

the fourteenth century with the Mongol incursions. In rela­

rion to China, in parlicular, this use can be seen as mainly an

a1t('rnative 10 pottery and porcdain. The great developers

w('re rhe Italians, first the Romans, wilh their eXlensive use ofglass, and then the Venetians with their 'cristallo'. Much of

!he teehnial improvemenl of glass manufacture .U05e frOm

this W it is particularly associated with wine drinking. Thuswe have a phenomenon much more sp«ific in scope, findingits epicentres in luly and Bohemia. There 3re various links 10

".

, h r. r example the faci th,lI the fine glass neededscIence ere, 0 f f

]._. micrOSCOnf'S was made from ragments fIfor the ear 10=< r--

. ., ·Sl3l\o'. Likewise Ihe development of IU~,Venenan wine en

d measuring flasks for chemislry, as well as Iher-relOrlS an .

, 'nd barometers, develo..M our of IhIS.momeler .. r"The uS<' of glass for 'vitrai!' or 'vitrage', thar is window

glass, has also wn restriCied unlil very recently, but 10 aslightly different area. Historically, window glass was only

found OIl The weslern end of Eurasia, and China, Japan and

India hardly developed ;1. More surprisingly, perhaps, nor

did the great 'verrerie' area of the Mediterranean, Islamic

and Roman areas. Although rhey knew of the possibilities,

the glass window was lillie developed. The greal window

r('volulion mainly occurred in Europe nonh of the Alps.

Two of Ihe main faclon were cold c1imale and religiousarchiteclure, incorporaTing the Gothic Slained glass windo>;l,·.

from about the eleventh cenlury stained and then domestic

glass, with its auendanl technological developmenrs, spreoad

and transformed archilecture, social life and thoughl, but

only on a large scale in nOrlh-western Europe.

A founh use of glass comes from ils reAective capacitywhen silvered. The use of good glass mirrors was again cir­

cumscribed in time and space. The devdopmenr of glassmirrors covered the whole of weslern Europe, bUI largdy

excluded Islamic civilisation, perhaps for religious reasons.Glass mirrors were also nOI developed in India, Cbina andJapan. Nor were they really developed by the Romans. Theyare thus Temporally contained. only becoming common andof high quality from lhe Ihine't'nth Cenlll!)', and geographi­~ally limiled to Weslern Europe. Yn wy are a crucial (eoaronI: Ih~ development of the sciences o( opcics and o( perspee_live 10 an. Withoul !hem, much of whal has happened in dw

'"

\'ISIOfl'! OF Ttlt; o , T It E

..

increaSt' in reliable knowledge of the nat I. ura world to who

W~ gJ"e the I~rms (he Renaissance and 11,- Sc> >fi "h~ lentl c Re I

tion ,,"ould not have occurred. va 1.1_

A final major use is for lenses and prisms ad' .I > I" n In panlcular

I I~'lr app lcanon 10 human sighl in Ihe form ofA > 1>1 h spectacles.gam. Wile! e concept of the light-bending and .. . magnify_mg propemes of glass were probably known 10 all E >

. .. '. uraslanclvlllsallOns. only In one did the praclice of making lenses

really develop. [hal is in western Europe. As with mirror~

the developmems also Occurred quite late. mainly from lhe

thirteemh cemury onwards. This coincides precisely with

the medieval growth in optics and mathematics, which fed

later into all branches of knowledge, including archilC{;lure

and painting. It also influenced a specific and imponam

sub-branch of lensa, the development of spectacles.. Glass

spectacles wl:'ne nOI used in Japan, China, India, Rome or

Islam. Only in westl:'rn Europe from about 1180 onwards dMt

they begin to spread, latl:'r to form the crucial step to micro­

scopes Mld tl:'!escopes.

From this WI:' can see that the more than half of lhe

Eurasian population, which was conslirutl:'d by India, China

and Japan, only had glass for one of the five purposes. The

middle section, Russia and Islam, added some use of glass for

vessr:ls. Western Europe as a whole made use of glass in four

ways, by adding mirrors and lenses, but only from the thir­

temth cenNry. North-western Europe had all five major u<;tS

in profusion by adding windows_

We believe that there is more than a coincidencl:' berwttn

lOme of the major divergences in the knowledge systems of

oS,

> d h development of glass. Firstly, there is the· TS:.Juonan ted I d> I

CIVI I • Th area where glass eve ope iO mu -I lion In space. e Id

corre a E ON" was the area where a new wor· I ways, western ur ... -, . d

lip e hi I .......1 under the term!'> . Renaissance an· . roug y umr-~

\'1s~on '/C._ R olulion' occurr~d. Despite the fact thatl!'>lamic·$clenlln<.: ev . h

Ch > knowlodge was far more eXI~nSlve up to t eand Inesc

If h cenlunl it was nOI in those areas that the break­t'Vo'e t'J> h > >d rlhrough occurred. Secondly, there is t e COIllCI ence 0

liming. The rapid development of glass, particularly for

windows, mirrors and lenses, occurred in weslern Europe

from Ihe thincemh century, and this is just the period when

lhe major breakthroughs in optics and mathematics and per­

speclive began to be noticeable. Meanwhile, Islamic civilisa­

tion, which had been well in advance, began to give up glass

from the thirteenth century and abandoned it almost entirely

from the laler fourteenth; scientific thought withered away in

that area. In reverse, when scientific glass instruments were

introduced on a large scale into Japan in the later nineteenth

century they led to major developments in lechnology andscIence.

If this were just a coincidence in space and time, with no

plausible causal connection, we might dismiss it as just a

curious parallel growth. But it is not difficult to su lhe acrualeffective links. It is apparent in the lives and works of most of

Ihe major figures in the west who developed the new world

view!.. There were Alhazen, Roger Bacon and Robert Gros­selesle with Iheir explicit use of glass inslrumenl5 in thedevelopment of mathematics .and optics. There were thegrUt Ren.aissance experimenters in pe:rspecrive and the more

accurate observation and representation of n.arure, fromBnmel1eschi and Alberti, through Leonardo and Diirt'c. Allused mirrors, flat planes of glass and lensn to experiment

oS!

\',SIO"S o f' T H 6 o , TilE. WORLD

with vision and light. Then there were the great ~8..,. vemeenthcentury scientists, Galileo, Kepler. Newton and oth 1-ers w lOsework centred on the investigation of nature tlno h I. ug gassInstruments. Almost every great scientific advance neededglass at some Stage. Furthermore glass helped to extend themost powerful of human organs, the eye. This only hap_pen~ in one pan of the world.

We are, of course, narurally wary of all single-factor andr~uctionist explanations. h would be ridiculous to argue

that glass was the only thing nttded. As we have seen, its useis dependent on the context and there were many olher

facrors which also determined the massive increase in reli­able knowledge which is the foundation of our world. It was

at the mOSt a necessary condition, but nOt sufficiem in ilSdf.Yet itd~ not s«m tOO much to argue that if one had to pick

one factor above all others, more importam than the growthof cities, the rnival of ancient learning, clocks or priming,

then it would have to be glass. Without irs developmenl, it isdifficult to s« how the new world vision could have beenest.ablish~.

Yet this d~ nOt mean that there was anything inevitableabout the outcome, or that there was any particular design orpurpose involved. Glass was developed for other uses; it was

its beauty and utility which recommended it to people. Onlyby a set of giant accidents was this substance also one whichwould bend light in a way which would change human visionof the world.

Accidental though it was, the effects of Ihis technologywere immense, but originally only in one area of the world.The story of glass again shows the very different effects of anew technology in east and west. Likt: gunpowder, printingand clocks, which had little or no revolutionary effect in

,86

I d eastern Eurasia, glass revolutionic;ed westerncentra all .

E',What in summary, were these effects~

uraSt:!.' . ' IThere is the dramatic transformatlon of it baSically aura,

b' d <ul'ure similar to that in all other civilisations, 10reJCt- ase ,, II dominated one. The sense that what really mat·a Vlsua y

tered was sight. Here we have argued Ihalthe increase in thepower of the human eye and mind thro~gh the de~elopmelll

of glass technologies is one of the mo!>tlmportant mftu~nc~withoul which this would nol have happened. Though II

cannot be absolutely proved, it looks highly probabl~ thatglass was one of the most important factors in the peculiardev~lopmenl of a visual, experimental, rarionalislic, 'scien­tific' and r~alistiC world. That disenchanled world which weassociale wilh Descanes and eWlOn grew out of glass.Glass was absolulely essential for me revolutionary develop­m~ms in Ihe generation of reliable knowledge belWe~n theIhineenth and eighteenlh centuries upon which our world is

founded.We ho~ to have sketched out a possible story of me way

in which illCreased k.nowledge fttds into beller 10015 ofknowledge, which in rurn feed back inlo more knowledge.This helps 10 solve the long-debated problem of why it wasEurope, and not Islam or China, that mad~ the crucial break­through 10 a new and more reliable understanding of thenatural world.

Glass is not JUSt a tool to think with, but also a 1001 toimprove comfort and efficiency. The period berween thethirteenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe saw many ofthese potenlialities unfold and they are an imponant pan o(

'"

\'ISIONS OF , " , --2--o , T II f.

fh~ slOry of th~ inrelJ~ctualeffects. As w~ h I. av~ a ready~

Ih~ ImeJlectual and rh~ mat~rial ar~ imerlink d " ".~ .1\ any of ht

wilys in which glass began fO em~ inc ~_.J • t. . rea.>QJ rehilbl~

knowledg~ 10 shapmg humankind's a"~fac,u , 1d. . . a ""Or fhtn

fed back 1010 mcreasmg Ihe .........sibilities of f h .r-- un er rapidildvances in reliabl~ knowledge.

JUSI as it improved comfon and rhe:' lenglh of rh. •.•" WOrl\.lngday through windows, glass probably affecfed heahh. Class

leiS lighf imo imeriors and is a hard and cleanable surface.This was one of iTS anraclions ro fhe fastidious Romans

in relation 10 utensils, and likewise for one of The greatglass-using and representing civilisations, the Dutch. With

meir enormous windows, il was in Ihe Nelherlands fhat fhe

use of glass developed most. T ransparenl glass lets in light sohouse din Ixcomes apparent. The glass i~lf must be clean

to be <'ffective. So glass, bOlh from ils nature and The effectsil has, is favourable 10 hygiene. That the twO major

glass-using civilisations of me sevemeenlh cenlury, Holland

and England, should be widely nOted for their cleanlinessand good health s«ms 10 be linked. II is true Japanese houSt:sachieved even greater cleanliness by Olher methods and

wimout glass. But in colder nonhern Europe windows wereprobably a very imponanr faclOr for the warmth theyprovided.

The new substance did nm merely alrer the privafe home,but in due course transformed the growing consumersociety. Here the focus shifts nonhwards to England and a

century later. The lead glass sh«ts produced by using coalwere ideal for a nation of shopkttpen to glaze their shopfronts with and foreigners marvdled at the results in theeight~th century. The change was well captured by aFr~ viSitor to England. 'What we do not on the whole

.88

, "s glass like this, generally very. France he notes, I h . d

ha\'c In '\ TI e shops are surrounded wit 11 anfine and very c e

h,,· d'''~ is arranged behind it, which keeps

II the merc an 1,"," b"'"'d Y ff while still displaying the goods to passers- y,the US! 0 , . • ,

. a fine sight in every dlrecllon.pre:::'::~ as houses and shops, the new application began to

, grieulrure and knowledge abouf plant... The usetranSlorm a • f h 1o( glass in horticulture was not an invention o. t e ear y

d E O~'"S The Romans had used forcmg houses010 ern ur r- .and proTected fheir grapes with glass. This Roman idea was

revived in the later Middle Ages, from about rhe fourteenthcentury, when glass pavilions for growing Rowers and later(ruit and vegetables begin 10 be noticed. As glass becamecheaper and particularly Rat window glass impro\,ed in

quality, the development began 10 exceed fhe Roman use.The growing of orange trees under glass was noted in 1619

and a heafed glasshouse was built in 1684 in the Apothe­

caries' Garden at Chelsea. As this happened glass clochesand greenhouses improved the cultivation of fruit and veg·

etables, bringing a healrhier diet to the population. Just as meglass window lengthened the working day for the humans, soir did for plants, changing, as if were, the c1imale and usingsolar energy 10 grow nutritious food (or humans. A transfor­

mation which is now happening as a result of plastic in manycold, dry and windy parts of the world such as nonhernChina, happened in another way much earlier with glass.

Finally we can note a plethora of other useful invmtionswhich altered material life. Among those mat hii\'e.

been noted are storm-proof lanterns, enclosed~

:arch_g1.a~ lighthou~ and strttr lighting. Thus travdnd naVIgatIon were improved. How efT~ve .'OU1d the

SUCcnsoC5 10 Harrison's chronometen halve b«n wirhoul

'8,

WOIILO

ems so obvious. Yet if we look through whatThis all now se h" f modern thought or the

n wrillen on t e orIginS 0

ha~ ~glass Iheconnection seems to have been larg~ly ov~r~ro e °d So why has glass been so invisible and Its socialooke . h h' beenhislOry so little swdied? Specifically, w y as H notrealised thaI i[ is a crocial part of the answer 10 Ihe largest

question in intellectual history, namely why pans of Iheworld witnessed the knowledge revolution of the fourteenth10 seventeenth centuries, comprising the Renaissance andScientific Revolulion? Assuming that there is indeed a con­nKlion, the omission is imponan[ for illeads us to reflect onthe methodological approaches needed to study a phenom­enon like glass. The factors which are specific to the peculiar

qualilies of glass itself are discussed in the introduction tolhis book. Here we will briefly summarise some of the

melhodological considerations which would affect the studyof this and many phenomena in the past.

We believe thaI one powerful influence on the way inwhich we have seen the subject has ~n the effect of com­

bining history wilh anthropology. Anthropology is a broadlycomparative discipline: it concerns all pans of the globe andinvestigaling what is common and what unique aboul pani­cular instirutions or societies. We are constantly trying todetect absences, to look at co-variations. [0 test the strengthof causal links by looking fO see what seems invariably to fitlogelher. This is the essence of anthropology and it is whatwe have done in this book by looking at five diffeemt civi­lisalions.

.This comparativt method also leads us to notice thingswhich ar: ubiquitous in our own environment. By setting ourOwn agamst other civilisations where glass is absent we havea backdrop against which its oddness becomes apparent.

o ,VISIONS

glass? Or again there is the effect f vi '. . a g ''.':is boltlincreasIngly revolutionised dist~',b . es, which

, 1It10n and Slexample, glass boules crealed a revolu( . d' o~age. Forb II ' . Ion In nnklng h b'Y a oWing wine and beers 10 be mo 'I a liS

re eaSl y sloredtransported. Since bolh of these drinks w'th h . . and

. 1 I en tanrlLn andhops were medIcally very important Ihe ff

. eelS may againnO! only have been to encourage manufactur" d. ...,traeandagnculrure, but also to improve the health of I

. . . peop e whocould more easIly aVOId drinking polluted water Th. . . e waysIn whIch glass altered the flexibility of storage and distribu_

tion is a rt'volution similar to that caused when freezing and

canning opened up new possibilities in the second half of~nineteenth century.

Thus, at first through drinking vessels and windows., thm

through lamerns, lighthouses and greenhouses and later

through cameras, television and many other anefacts our

modern world built round glass has emerged. Through

another chain of events it revolutionised health. Mic,roscopes

made the discovery of bacteria possible, the germ theory that

emerged led to the conquest of much infectious disea~.

Glass even affected what humans believed (stained glass) and

how they perceived themselves (mirrors). So it enltred

human civilisation at all sons of angles., but al first only in

one pan of the world. These differem aspects wert also all

interconnected in complex ways. For example, windows

improved the workshops, spectacles lengthened the workinglife. stained glass added to the fascination and mystery of

light and hence a desire 10 study optics. It is this rich ~I of

inter-connections of this largely invisible substance which

makes it so powerful and fascinating.

'?" " '

Would we ever have 'seen' glass and its i .. .. mponancC' 1( ......C' h•.J

r~mamed as hlslonans of a particular Eu ...ropean COUO(

~v~n Europe as a whol~~ One has to go 0 "d ,,- ry. Or. UtSI C' <l1C' whol

s)'St~m to see somelhmg so obvious If onC' e. slarts at a ph,

nomenan straighl on, on~ often looks righ' ,h gh " "rou II. 8v

ahering the angle of vision, suddenly new and . /IInponant

areas stand OUI.

Many phenomena, including almost all increases in reli.

able knowledge, can onl), be identified if they are seen as [ht'

result of the work of a nelwork of interconnected centres

spread widely apart. Glass technologies in western Eurasia

moved from place to place and the whole area from Syria and

Egypl to Scotland and Scandinavia has been one intersecting

system of people and ideas. In this many-centred, diverse,

competitive system lay the s«rel of whal happened and why.

This could not have been seen if we had confined our inter­

est to one coumry.

The anlhropologkal perspective has a considerable time

deplh. AnthropolOgists have tried to trace the whole evolu­

tion of Itomo sapitfl.S from his ape ancestors up to the pr~nt.

A thousand yean is quite a shon period from this perspective

and its effect is to make us consider the last hundred thousand

yea" as a whole. We then gel a sense of long-term develop­

ment and widening trends. This wide historical frame allows

us to pUt events such as [he Knowledge Revolution (in

science and art) into perspective. We can investigale before,

during and after the event. It is then much easier to pick out

long..disrance connections, to see 'buried' links, things that

run underground, or are important for further development

but lie we.ll back. in me past. A relatively shon-Ierm Vtam~~would be the fact that 10 understand how me sleam engt....as developed we need to move back. from the eighteenth

OFTIIE

u h lass used in Ihe discovery of Ihe ...acuum in(~lllOry Ihro gh :C'nlUry and then back inlo medieval glass­[h'" se.....IlIet'llt ...

b1o",·mg. ., h II logy usually has a fUllcllonahst approac . t

Ant lropo . '

k'what difTC'relll inslilUtions or technologies do for SOCI-

" -, b h " "" d h"I,er these could be performcu y 01 er msutu-tliC'S an w .lions. This is pan of ils comparative melhod, companng

di((erelll phenomena in different societies and sometimes

showing they have recognisably similar funclions. This com­

parative approach is vital in understanding the hi~tory of a

phenomenon such as glass: its non-development 10 eastern

Eurasia was nOI due to lack of knowledge or rationality, but

because Ihere were other things which performed the func­

tions which glass performed in wC'stern Europe.

The anthropological perspective seeks to be holistic, that

is 10 say it treats phenomena as complex, inlegraled systems.

For C'Xample, an anthropologist characteristically studies apanicular tri~, ...illage or other group in all its aspects, reli­

gious, political, economic, social, aesthC'lic. The strong bar­

riC'rs between mC'SC' spheres created by Ihe division of labour,

in its widesl sense, with the development of 'modernity' are

inappropriate in most of the areas where anthropologists

traditionally work. In the case of glass, this holislic approach

encourages us to see the interconnections between me differ­

elll features of the paSI. The conventional distinctions whichare useful starting points fOr thoughl soon become rC':~

a~d. in ~he end block invC'Srigation. For example, the strongdlsllnct.IO~belwttn science .ilnd an differenri.illfi the study o(

lhe Anls!lc RC'nil.issancC' and me Scientific Revolution OT clif_feren1 I""""'" f . .~ ,

• J l'"~~ 0 SClenllnc il.dvaoce, (or inst:aneC' those in thethl~~n1h and sevenlttnth centuries. By 1TC"31ing _'---__hohsllCilIl . . r ...•.....~

y, I( IS possible 10 ~ thai we are dealing with

-OFT H £Vl510NS

'.''9J

o , , " , o , , It E w 0 R L D

an immensely complex bundle of .

"

1 . Interconnected ~VI' lie 1 mcludes technology 'I ('atures

s mue I as it doe I' 'and which can only be studied "f c S re 19ion

I we lorgel dis· "boundaries. elp mary

Anthropology is also what we migh IITI h b

.. I ca materialistJere as een an increasing tendency in th h ''D ' . aug I, al leasl

since ('scanes work In the mid-sevellleenth. Century, [0 ~p_

arate rhe malenal and physical. the province of It 1(' narural

sciences, from the imelleclual and social Th',· ' 1. ~ IS anOt leT

division which is c~allenged by the anthropological experi_

ence: Amhropolog.sts oflen work with living peoples andfind II hard to forget the fael, which is often obscured when

we only deal with wrinen records, that rhe physical world is

nOl separate from the mental. Anefacts and technologies

have always been a central concern of anthropologists. They

even tend to divide their subject by technological criteria, for

instance by modes of production and tools. They have ofren

collected artefacts for museums and pUt on displays to show

the relations between material objects and social concepts. Soan anthropologist would nOt be surprised to find that some­thing as physical as glass could alter our world and a number

of leading anthropologists have written illuminatingly on the

role of various technologies in social variation.

This can be put in a slightly different way. II is very diffi­cult for us to appreciate the way in which the malerial and theintellectual are interconnected. In trying to understand this

we have developed the idea that much of social developmentcan be underltoocl as a triangular movement. There is an

increase in theoretical understanding, reliable knowledge ofsome kind. This is then embedded in improved or new phys­ical artefacts. These artefacts, if they are useful and indemand and relatively easy to produce, are disseminall~d in

'"

.. This then changes the conditions of life andhuge quantities. k' he possibilities of further theoret­

may well fe~d ba~hi;:~;ngle has occurred in many spheresical e"ploranon. d f 'g round this dosed circuit and

r~ d the spee 0 movmof I e a~. ]. b h'nd much of what we describe as humanits repemlon les e I

development. f h'The history of glass is an excellent example 0 ~ IS move-

be een the material and the theoretical which occursment tW . hagain and again. For example, the improvement m t eory

(mathematics and optics) led to the develo~~ent ofimproved lenses and mirrors, which were multiplied ~ndthen fed back into further theoretical developments, whIchled back into microscopes and telescopes, which later

improved health and agriculture and allowed even more

research.In fact, it becomes difficult to distinguish the material and

theoretical. Anthropologists have long seen technology as amix of things and ideas, of ideas embedded or congealed in

objects which themselves only have their power from thepractices which dictate their use. Thus technology is often

defined, as by Marcel Mauss, as 'traditional effective action'.It consists of ways of understanding and changing the worldwhich include things and ideas. Nowhere is this more

obvious than in the simultaneous development of ideas andtechniques in the making of glass. II is both a mol of thoughtand a tool with thought embedded in it. What is peculiarabout it, is that it is the only substance which directly influ­ences the way. in ~hich humans see their world. It is the onlysubstance whICh IS a real extension of a human sense organ:lnd the most powerful one, the eye. '

w Th~ anthropological approach to understanding theorld IS what might be called ·structuralist'. Anthropologists

'91

"ISIOI'IS OFT Ii E ""ORlO

-o , r II ~ ..... 011'-1}

h:n'~ focu~much ~('Ss {ha~ historians On individual peopl~,

~"~nIS or thmgs winch are Imponam, bUl on th~ir r~lalions

on Ihe balanct'S and liming of Ihe forces aCling upon the 'm.Thus it is not jusl Ihe presence or absence of glass we can.

sider, but how much there is of it. how it is used, how it

enters inw the relations between humans and lhe nalural

lIo'orld, and how il filS with other causal factors which equally

need to be considered. This is oflen combined wilh a dialtt_

oc..J method which sen forCe5 in an ever·resrless mov~mem

dlrough a set of oppositions, contradiclions and resolulions,

as in Ihe famous dialectic of thesis, antithesis and symhesis.

Anthropology emphasises social strucrures and Ihe way in

which people do act in concen bUl are deeply influenced by

their social networks, and looks at the degree 10 which theit

cuhure encourages their activilies. The development of reli­

able knowledge is seen nOI 10 proceed. through a number of

steps on a ladder 10 which we can attach famous names ­

Alhazen, Crossett'Sle, Leonardo. Kepler, NeWlOn, Einstein,

etc. Rather, these names are mnemonic devices for us,

instances of and catalysts in much wider movements ofthought.

furthermore, ahhough not, of course, confined 10 anthro­

pology, th~ working experience of trying 10 understand

numerous societies and civilisations reminds anthropologists

~at causal paths are very complex. h is nor enough to use aslmp\e.minded idea that every effect has only one cause, or

that cause and effect hilve to be close in time and space. Once

we art: a......re of the extended chains of causation il is easy to

see that if one step is missing, even if it is far back along me

...

IIi I oulCome will be different. We saw Ihe

h:Jio lhen t le na,. fl', in relalion to glass when we nmed hrlw. rlance 0 t 11nnpe. I s was needed al some slage in lhe develop·rn;my nrne5 g as h' d'

1 d· 10 a discovery. even if il was not I e Imme 1-ment ea LOg

1. bl' g factor. Only a consideration of these complex

ale yen;) 10 . . .

h llows us 10 see the mdtrecl. partly htdden. butpal ways apowerful influences of something as diffuse and complex as

glass. . . .Looking back over hislOry and usmg mamly wntten

rt"Cords, we are oflen impressed by the purposive, planned,

ralional, broal-directed nature of human life. From Ihis it is

easy to slip itUO an unexamined form of teleological think­

ing, 10 believe thaI Ihe most importanl developmems are

planned, designed by human aClors (or by Cod). The con·

sideration of human civilisations over long periods and in

di..'erse inleraclions, as well as the microscopic ifl\'estigation

of daily life where humans patently have linle idea of the

actual consequences of Iheir actions. reminds anthropolo­

gists of the imporlance of unintended consequences. The

importance of the random, chance, variation, becomes

obvious.

This helps us 10 appreciate more easily thai me history of

glass appears 10 have been largely a sel of happy accidents

and unintended effects. \Vhal happened conforms ve.ry

closely to a Darwinian, seleclionist model. The whole Story

is an illustration of 'random variation and selective relen·

tion'. Things invented for one purpose are then used for

OIhcrs. Indeed, this is the single most imparlanf facf 10

emerge from the history of glass. It was developed to rombeautiful and usefullhings for humans. OnJy through a gianlaccidem did if lurn out Ihal this magic..J subslance coWd ahabe used 10 extend human vision and hence alt~ thoughL So

'97

\'15101'5 OF THE "'OlllO, " ~

that. in its absence. OUf modern. affluenl civilisation couldnot exist. We miglll, as a friend put it. call this the EeyoreEffect. The empt)' honey pol which so disappointed Eeyorewhen he received it from Pooh became transformed intosomething marvellous by the burst balloon from Piglel _ a

'Useful Pot for Putting Things In' (and appropriatelyenough. another use of glass). Anthropologists nOlice Ihis

U}'OTe Effect daily. They see that a newly introduced tool Or

technique - steel axes, a new CTOp, irrigation system,

weapon, plastic buckets, cricket - i<; very often exploited in

many 9i'3Ys 'which were not originally envisaged.

Funhermore, a new technology can transfoTm a culrure

well outside the area in which it operates, enabling a much

",'ider array of new things to occur. This helps anthropolo­

gists to undersWtd the cumulalive nature of technological

development, what could be called the 'J\·leccano effect'

b«ause it is like adding a new piece 10 a set of that famous

building kit.h is a general principle thaI as each piece of reliable

knowledge was added, for example the techniques of glass­

blowing, of making fine mirrors or flint glass, this did nol

memy add one more item to the stock of things humans cando. In faa, it led to the possibility of doing dozens of new

things. Just as adding a wheel to a Mecc:ano set transforms the

potentials of all the previous pieces, so it was with glass. Theeffect., unless stOpped., is that reliable knowledge and effec­tive action 'to'ill expand exponentially. This has been the storyof the VU! grOWth of the last three hundred years, whe~human understanding and control of nature has grown at a

Car gua~ than linear rate. The hislory of glass is a very(IOOd example of this. Its po....er and effects have becomepara: and fHUr and glus il5e:lf has nOt JUSt been one added

'9'

b, permitted innoV<llion in so many

~rhumans,u fl'resource 0 . A h lechnology grew more power u 11

hnolog1es. SIe.other lec d b ter drinking glasses, or mirrors, or

. ' 51 l(a 10 etdId nOI IU I d health housing thought, commu-

. ow anes. bUI a tere , ,\\'md, P . I hopping and a host of other areas.

'cauOns tra.. e , 5 'h01 .' I ment negatively brings out Its strengt '

pU[[Ing I Ie argu I dh h they are innovators of new know e ge

Innovators, w et er r. . I new knowledge thaI is built on the use 0

or tn parucu ar, d "f"r ( h' glass) have to use what is available. An Iarte aCIS sue a , . .Ihe knowledge and artefacts are not available. then 11 IS :eally

very difficult for them to use it. Because they ar~ rhen. lOtO asecond order of innovation, with innovation bUilt on lnnov·

alion. You do get such activity nowadays, the perception of

more desirable innovation and the difficuhy of producingthat bei;:;ause you need an intermediate innovation in order to

do il. But human capabilities are really very limited and you

unnat really go back that far. For example, the early work in

Italy on the barometer, or in England on the vacuum.

rtquired very sophisticated clear glass technology. If glass

workings of a suit-able quality had not been in the vicinity.

there could have been no barometeT OT vacuum experimenL

The Chinese could not have made a sophisticated barometer

or vacuum chamber with rock crystal. And they certainly

would not have developed glass over thousands of yelrS justin Ihe off-<:hance that it might one day be useful in order 10

ma~ a barometer. It was an unrelated accident that glass wasavailable in hOlly where the barometer was also developed.

People living in the Orkneys in the middle of the seven.

teemh century could not have made a barometer or vxuurnchamber.

Whal has happ,n-~ ,", ,h.,' .. . _L_ •C'U tnnovauon IS coming iWUUI In

a seleclionist mod b fe y way 0 people using what is avaibbk

'99

\"~ION$ n. r II ~ "'0111.11 Vi .. ' '' ...... . , H , "",1111'

I

•~,

10 lhem. Yel it is more tllan jusl a manerof ..vailabilily. Class

was available 10 the Romans, bUI Ihe Romans were nOI

potential innovators in lhe field of the gencr,uion of I.. rgc

amounts of abstract reliabl(' knowledge. Tho~ in mid

seventeenth.century Italy or Engl..nd Iwd both the I;l..ss .. ndthe panicular curiosity. So if glass had been av.. il:tble in the

firsl half of the seventeenth cenrury in China il seem~ vt-ry

unlikely lhat il would have led 10 the discovery of the micro­

scope, telescope and baromeler. There is no reason why its

pr~nce would have had this effect. The presence of glass is

a selectionisl, necessary, but nOt sufficient, condition.

A long and wide perspective helps us to counter a view, p.r·bcubrly prevalent in our technologically overwhelmed

and alculative age, that technologies once discovered will

inevilably be retained and improved. Amhropology and

archaeology have shown that lhe abandonment of appar·

ently useful lechnologies is a Widespread phenomenonthrough the ages. Irrigalion systems have been allowed 10

collapse, fishing hooks abandoned the wheel even writingCo ",rsaktn. Thus it is no greal shock to find that glass should

tave been more or less abandoned in eaSlern Asia.1lw unde:ntand· f h" Ing 0 urnanltind must encompass our

~,ologic.alas well as our lOCial evolution _ hence the inlene-lions we explored in the p,.,',o h '

UI e apler In our hypothesisas 10 the l;:aUIef of myopia.

Anthropology is famous (and infam"'··)" 1 1. . ",.... or Ill! cu turarel",uvism. It dncribn and analysn diffe,. 'h'

III wa)'1 In w Ichhumans faa W dullengcof life,bul on !he whol ' ", . . e It rellall15rorn Judglllg one as monll)' belter than ..~~L Th' ,- .....ner. IS 1$ a

. . when we c"n,idcr Ihc way... In which Ihe1M.·lpful llC....\x:c:I've f I

J , r E·ura.,ia llic..d 10 "vcrCf/me Ihe d,fficulry" InwIWHen .. 0

.' nJ "ven increase reliahle kn"wlcd~e.III pre~rv...1 ... . • .

. . ' , .. J'pam:'>C CCf,n'JmIC h"lflllan :tndSome ye,lrs "W'.1 ' Akir<l H..yami m:tdea di..tinCIIIIll ncrwcen thedcmOJj!;rap Icr, ' .

, 'I' .' . r A,,'" which tried 10 increa..e a~lIcultural and("IVI ,~..llf)n~ 0 .. ,

craft prnduction by increa,>in~ human labour, whal he called

an 'indu.. lriou.. rcv'Jlutinn', and the civilisalions at the Olher

end of Eurasia which did so by replacing human labour bymachint.... and non-hum:tn cnerl;y, whO'll is famously called:ln

'industrial rcvolulion'. In a curious way it is possible to ~e

the ",mlC divergence flf srrategics in the :tllempt to increa§t

the amount of reliable knowledge in the world .

In ca..tern Asia there w.s an 'induslrious' revolulion - the

cXlcn.. ion of literacy, the development of woodblock print­

ing, the muhipliealion of wrilten characlers, the eXlensions

of rhe schooling and examination systems. This put huge

pressures on the human eye, which became, Ihrough pro<­

gressive myopia, a SOrt of surrogate magnifying glass, able todo wh..1 cuuld only be done by glass tools in Ihe w~t. It wa

an intensificalion of intelJeclual produclion which~ some

interesling parallels to Ihe eXlreme atlemion 10 detail andinlensification Ihal is found in Ihe many craft skills pncti.KdIhere and in Ihe produclion of wei rice.

AI the weslern end of Eurasia, Ihe human body was not:

forced in the same way. Increasingly the chief inSlrumml ofknowledge acquisition was slTenglhened by glass instru·ments, jusl as the human muscles were supponed by M'W

lools that made wind. w:uer and animal power a hu~ .".plemem 10 hum",n labour. So a who'e 5el of 'machines' .os­Ihinking - glu5CI in old iI~, pri~s and m.iIfP1ifrin8 gI ..minOR, leI~ and microscopes _ was de"doped. All

\'I~IOS' Of rilE 1110lllOV I \ I n :<' I,,, I II f

industrial revolurion of the imellecr took place as a COumer_pan to the industrious revolution of the easl.

The relativism of the anthropologist would not placeone as 'bener' than the other; they were t';l.IO differemapproaches, each of which had their Strengths and weak­nesses. It JUSt happens that me path which leads throughindustriousness starn to reach the limits imposed by the lawof diminishing returns much sooner than the pathwhich leads mrough machines of thought, which is stillshowing pou~ntial in a world 50 heavily based on glass,whether in compming, optic fibre networks or television andphotogTaphy.

Yet we should nOl push the analogy 10 'industrious' and'industrial' too far since it would then be<:ome misleadingand diven us from other, more imponam, differences in thisCORteXt. The core of the difference may lie elsewhere. In thewest there was a growing understanding mat there was a dif­ferent class of knowledge that could be generated, experi­mentally, and by 'torturing' nature. A5 mis realisation grewvia a loose but effective European nerwork, resting on insti­rutions such as universities, originally conceived for quiteOther purposa, so approaches ~re developed 10 furthergtenttate knowledge, 10 make it more reliable and to commu­~Ie it withi~ingprecision. In the EaSI, such possibil­lUeS hardly evolved, becaUR the existence of this body of~lcdgewu not recognised and the curiosity to pursue itdihgcndy was weak. In this conteat, the presence or absenceof clear glass bec:omn a pivotal, enabling device. Putting itlIIOft: forcefully, even if China and Japan had developed fineckar glau on a large scale, it is .till doubtful that there wouldhave been the developmenl of reliable knowledge thillloccurnd in pans of the W"t.

In all of this, of cour'il:. it is esse-nllal 10 remember thaiglass isonly an enabling, perhaps ncce<;sary, but far from 'uf­fident cau<;e of rhe massive Ifan<;formation in the methods ofobraining and the overall quantily of reliable knowledge.Glass, we would argue, was a necessary CdIUse in the develop­ment of new Ihought sY'items in the west and their aMtnce inlhe eaSI, but il was nOt sufficicnl in itself. Many other rhing,were needed. Such a complex outcome waJ the result of amultilUde of inleracting pressures. Thus this book iJ jusl onepan of Ihe story of ,he emergence of (he modern world.

" ~. '. I 4 ~ ~

l\J)P("J([i 1Types of Glass

THREE DiffERENT GROUPS Of types of glass are

discussed in Ihis book; ~a. p~tash an~ lead glass. Afourth type, the Venetlan cnstallo, IS rneOlioned•

though mis is a form of soda glass. The major constituent of

all these glasses is silica, chemically known as silicon dioxide,

quam or rock cryslal. Sand is granulated quartz. Indeed,glass can be thought of as quartz, which in its pure form is

very difficuh to work. which has been modified by mehing

with orner chemicals.. This produces a material which can bereadily shaped al a more practical temperature as it goesthrough its semi·liquid stage.

Silica comprises approximately 44 per cent of the earth's

mande, by far the most abundant compound. It mehs at 1726

ckgrtts ~tigrade, much 100 high a temperature for earlyfurnaces. In addition, when it does m~lt, it d06 so quil~ sud­

denly, and does not go through a gradual so(t~ning range, as

it is h~at~d. which ~nables glass to be shaped so effectively.

In order to reduc~ Ihe m~hing temperature, silica, usuallyin the form of W25h~ whit~ sand, is mdled with another

chmUcal compound 5UCh ;as sodil (sodium ciilrbonill~) or

~h (pcnssium carbonal~). Soda mdlS at 8S1 degrttS

~tigradeiilnd potash at 901. This is roughly the 'while heat'which can be seen when there is a good draught on iI charcoalor cokr: fire.

7

AI Ihc."::tC lemper.Hurt.... and above, Ihcy dt."Compo'>C.pru-. I v"lumc.'S IIf the galt carbon dlollide. rillS,

ducHlg .arge I

I W·,th air (o'ygeTl and nilrogen) Ifapped In I lCloget ler

.. I . p-o,lw.:es ~ very frillhy melt. M"dern ~Ias'i.oogma nllX., .making b done ill furn,lceS at ISao III 1(,00 degrec.., .II which

lemperalUre the glass is vcry fluid and thc larger b~bbl~can

rise 10 the lOp. In addition, small amounlS .)f arscnlc b)(lde or

anlimony oxide can be adelcd. which assist in the removallJf

lhe very smilll bubblc~.

Thesc advamages wcre not available until ,he middle of

the nineteenth century. Furnace lemperalUres were much

lower and a multiludeof even quite large bubbles can be s«n

in mo.., museum specimens of glass.

Glasses made from silica and soda or silica and potash

alone are not swblc; lhey slowly disintegrale from lhe aClion

of water, even moisture in the atmosphere. Stability is given

fO glass, both soda and potash glass, by th~ presence of a

small perc~n1age (S to 10 per cent) of calcium oxid~. Thi5

was oflen introduced quite accidentally, as an impurity such

as broken shells. in the sand. A typical composition for soda

glass would be 7~ per cent silica, I' per cent sodium oxid~

(from theo soda), t per c~m calcium oxide (from lim~on~,or

accidental calciferous inclusion, such as sea sh~lIs) and S per

cent OIlier oxides such as magnesium or aluminium oxid~.

There are large deposits of soda in some pans of the

world and il was from deposits in Egypi thaI suppliC5 for thecaStern Mediterranean glass industry w~re obr.Iined until

around 700-800 AD. Supplies Ihen became more difficult to~lain and the ash of a sea marsh plant, barilla, which con­13med soda, was widely used.

In many inland areas, soda was morC' difficult to obtain 50

polash was substitul~ for soda. Potash is contained in the

o •

burnt ash of m:lI1Y plams. bracken and bc.'echwood .art' typical

source'S. and so foresls thai were near a SOurce of Ic {'an sandbfi"ame sites for glass production. the so-called 'for<><c I

. . . .~"I g as "The medlt:'val descnpllon of glass-making by Theophilus.. aGerman monk wriling around I r20 AD, describes glass­making using wood ash.

Potash glass would Iypically contain 10-1 J per (elll and

like soda glass is ofren accidentally stabilised by the presenceof lime as an impurity in Ihe raw materials. Even so, potash

glass is more subject 10 disintegration or severe surfaceweathering due fa water [han soda glass. The proportions ofthe major constituents of glass, thar ;s silica, soda, polash andlime, are very variable and different glass-making cemmhad different customs about the mixes thallhey used. Indeed,it is oft~ possible: nowadays 10 make: a fairly good guc:$sabout the: pia« of origin of a medieval glass from aroundEurope: or the Middle EaSt by a careful analysis of its con­5titu~ts.

Sand, even me sand we call 'while sand', is usually notwhite at all, bUI a brownish colour. Mosl of Ihis brown is dueto iron oxides which end up in the glass, colouring it with agreenish tim. Old glass bottles can be deep green, while evenmodern window glass displays a green edge.

OUr glass is best made using pure raw materials; thefavoured source of silica for me famous Venetian crislalloglass was me: while quaru. pebbles from Ihe bed of the riverT~ which flows down from the Swiss Alps and throughnorthern Italy. These pebbles were: roasted in a furnael." andrhcn pulverised before being mixed with Ihe soda frombarilla, which had il5elf been purified by dissolving in waterand lhen ree tall'· "rL _rys ISing.. rR: choice of thc:sc pure rawmill1."rials produced a de:ar and re:adily workc:d glass, but

"'"

Oxide) COlllenl was often

I Ihe lime (calciumIforlUllate Y . I were ralher prone 10

ur d Ihe finished artlc estOO loW, an .

. er limedisintl."granon ov.. h' .h r'Il'rcenlages of lead oxide were

Glassn cont3Uung Ig r ~ . M he

d. China before the tenlh century and 1fI l urano. I

rna I." 10 I . Ihe early ",v-k" g ,",land of Ihe Venelian agoon, IfI

glass-rna m .h Y

Lead glass has an allractlve appearance,enteent centur. r h"" , h"'gl' lustre or sparkle, and is easy 10 CUI and po ISglVlIlg . .

on a wheel. It was used in a coloured form for produclfIg artl-

ficial gemstones.\n England in the 1670S a clear lead glass was developed

(3 typical composition was ~1-60 per cent silica, :.8-38 ~er

cent lead oxide and 9-14 per cenl potash), to compete wnhthe: Venetian glass Ihal was being imponed in large amounts.This new glass was highly successful, producing heavy.robust. but lustrous glasses and bowls, well suited to engrav·ing. As a material for containers, lead glass would not occupya significant placl." in our SIOry of Ihe rise of western civilisa­tion, bUI fortuitously it had some remarkable optical proper­ties. ThI."Se were nOI recognised for over fifty years after itsoriginal manufacture, but they enabled substantial improve·mems in the qualily of the images of first telescopes and thenmicroscopes to be acllil."ved.

><"

\.l \ PJ)(' 11 rI iThe Role of Glass in T

E wenryxperimenrs thar Changed

'he World

liT WAS SIX OR SF.VEN Y'h d h h h . EARS ACO lhal we firSI

a a une t <lIther . .'. e might be someLl"ng p:lfliculoarly

. In.u~resllngilboullhe rolear glass in lhe unfold' , (samtlfic-eum.indu . I . . mg 0 uor1 I Sin. western CIVilisation. It was a funher

=:~ lfr"lyears unt~1 we realised ,hiu the almost complete~'- 0 c ~r glass In Asia bet; h

P''''"do<! r are 1 e sevcnleemh cenlurya ay 0 comp'iIring i '.

lion of ne Itnowled e nnovanon, Including innova-

Tille first hunch g.: as bgJelWeen lhe two ends of EUfilsia.ulal ass was ab " '

....otem devetop so ure y cruCial 10n'lml was ha~ 0 th

micrOiCope:, lelncope ~ b n e observation lhal Ihe

biology medicin. arOmeter had revolutionised, , astronomy and h .

obtain a brOader view of th. c emlstry. In order 10__ ..I L_. . e Impon"n~ of gJ , ,..... '>nlCe In the developme1u of the ass In scIence

~y~ the Afenty-ri h rnodern world we haveh -p menUt athave~ h

muc respected histOrian of sci. 0 c OSCn by theh' boo' G nee i1t xford D_

IS Il U", Sl:i~fllific£X"I . .... ' nom Harre, inCA .J 1"1.. r nmlflU: Ill'ln!y~ .

GIllIG VW/' P~1l'of tAl WorlJ (Pta. Xptr,mtllu tI,al

Harre did not use lhe pme idOfl, Odord, 198/).• . . nee or abstonc:e f

cntenon In his d'lOice of eXIYrim. So h 0 glass ilS ar~ nl. I !!'WI""

mellls ean act as iI rilther rilndom ilnd ob' . enlyexperi.leCllve Wily in which...

....---r II I II" " '" '. I • ~ ,

I" rdnfi,rce ur refUle Ihe view rhal ~Ia'i" wa~ uf cemral

imp"rlancc in rhe dcvelf,pmem f,f 'iCience.

Of clle twenly eXI>crimem'i which are dl><;cnbed, SIXleen

l',uld n'll have heen perfurmed willl',ut Ihe use (,f glass

oIpparalU\, 'i..,metimc.. a.. a rran"parenl conlainer, .."melim"

01\ "plic.ally WlJrkl-d components such as prisms Qr len~

Ilert: 1\ a brief dC'>Criptiflll f.Jf the experiments and the rnle of

~Ia~.. in rhem. Dale~ arc nece'i'iariJy impreci..e. Sometimes, as

wlrh Arl!.H,rle, exaCI dale.. are not known; somelimes b«au~

Ihe ellpcrimem WiI'i develuped over SC'veral )'ears.

A,i.umlt, 1:. JSD lie, described the devdopment of the

chick embryo. Glass nor used .

1 If/tllium Beaumont, American army doctor, 1:. 18H'

Taking advantage of a permilnenr hole in the stomach

lining of an ilrmy porter, following a musut accident, he

expcrimemed on the process of digestion. Glass conwn­

CIS were u..ed to observe digestion (ceramk COfltaiMn

could, with considerilble disildvantages, have been JUbsti·

lured). Temperature bmh inside the SlOmach and in ester·

nill experimental jars was me~,",redwith ~ Jiquid·i....g.ra.thermomeler.

J Ro6trt NfJrman, C'. ISSI. Tile first carefully IU'Orded

measuremenlS of magnetic dip! Ih~t is 1M way in which a

balanced compass nM:Ile. afler magJK'rising, will dip

down towards the eanh as wdJ as seeking North aDd

Sourh. Tht compass needle was Roated bell( + ...surface of wilter in a large ckar wine gf-.

04 SttpJ,~lt Halu, r. 1116--4. Tne eN hi; I· • of ..

which .up moves upwa. and doa•••• AlIt .....

These moVftlWf1U _N d"Irad a' t! .".. ...

alUlChed 10 !he CLII end of • 1M h ...........

-

TilE tlOl~' OF CI.ASS Till' 1l01.B. O~·

~ Konrad Loren l , c. 1926-,8. Experiments to d .. . ... elermme th~

condltlons of Impnntmg. the acquisition of fixed behav_

ioural pauerns by the young of a species d' I·urlllg t lelrearly development. No glass required.

6 Gali/to, c. 1603. Investigation into the nature of accelera_

tion using a smooth bronze ball rolling down a groove CUI

into a long sloping wooden beam. and timing the motion

with the pulse. No glass required.

7 Rohert Bo)'le and Robert Hoolce, c. 1662. Measurement of

the volume of a quantity of air trapped in one closed leg

of a u-shaped tube, under the influence of various 'heads'

of mercury in the other, open-lOpped leg of the u-shaped

tube. The ability lO produce a long, strong glass tube, to

bend it into shape and 10 seal one end was esselllial to thisexperiment.

8 TI.eoJeri, of Frtihurg, c. 1300. A spherical blown glassflao< 'Cj .

, POSSlU Ya unne flask, was filled with clear waterand held up >bo 1 I . .ve eye eve and whIle facmg away fromthe sun. This suce f II .. ess u y Simulated the role of raindropsm the formation of . b. ram ows. Glass was required andused optically. h d. sa s ape container.

9 LoUIS Pa.lfeur 1880 Th .t '.: e preparauon of artificial vaccineso protect againSt lllfectio d'series of cuI . us lsease, by the creation of a

lure. with an ext d d .ea<:h. The use of L_ • en e lime period between

tnc: Optt<:a1 mi<:rosc . h . Ilenses was essential to th'd' ope Wil liS g ass

e 1 enttficatio d· I· fthe micro~ CQnc, d n an lSO auon arne .IQ Ernesf Rutl.erford C'. 1,_, Th fi .

. ,. e rSlln51a f h ·ficlaltransmulation of one ele . nee 0 t e artl -

menl (nllrog, ).(hydrogen). The apparatu~ d n Into another

use Wi15 la Iglass, used a~ a container far tit . . rge y made of

. e gases In the .II A. A. Mu:lrebQn and E. W. Morley, 188 Aexpertment.

7· n attempt 10

dthe movement of the earth in spaee by comparing

etect d·· . hI

. of liglll in twa different Irtellons at rig lthe ve OCIlY .angles 10 each other. The results were negatl~e., bUl a

good negative result is often as ~seful as ~ poslllve one

and il comributed to a Nobel Prize for Michelson. The

apparatus was high precision optics using glass for many

companellls of lenses and mirrors.

12 jacob and Wollman, 19~6. This experiment explores

mechanisms of heredity and Ihe direct transfer of genetic

material between bacteria. The use of lhe oplical micro-­

scope was an essentiallOol in the identification and isola­

tion of the bacteria.

l) I). Gibson, 1962. Gibson was concerned with the way in

which we perceive Ihe everyday objects that surround us

in our ordinary lives. He conducted experiments which

showed that perception was a far more complex process

than a simple matter of seeing and touching. No glass

was required.

l~ Antoine Lavoisier, 1774. Mercury was heated in air, which

produced an oxide of mercury which itself ~s healed,

thus regenerating oxygen, in a glass bell-shaped jar, thebase of which was standing in a tub of water. The he.acingwas performed over a period of twelve days by means ora large glass lens which focused rar-; from me sunlhrough the glass bell jar upon the mercury. Glass in dif­ferem forms was essential al each stage of the ex~rimeru.

I~ Humpl.'Y Davy, 1808. Davy isolated potassium, sodiumand six other elementary metals from melD: of their sahsby passing an electric current through the meh. Glass wasnot a Strict requiremem for uue main experimem (cenmicparts, for instance, could hav~ been used insread of ....for the outer comainers for the ball~"" be ..-.d). Bur

."

THE "'OL" OJ' CLASS ,,"OLE Of CLASS

glass was certainly required for the containers to colleciand analyse the gases evolved and hence to determine rhenature of lhe reaction.

16 J. J. Thompson, 1897-1903. In a sealed glass tube comain_ing gas at very low pressure - the forerunner of rhemodern cathode-ray tube used in television sets - thedeAeenon of a beam of cathode rays by means ofelectrically charged deAector plates demonstrated theexistence of particles smaller than atoms. These we nowcall electrons.

17 ls{lfU NttAftM, 1672. Newton used three glass prisms anda glass lens to separate white light from the sun into aspectrum of colours, to recombine them again to whitelight and then to separate them again.

,I MHul Foro4oY, c. ISn. Electricity was known to beprocluoed from a number of sources, the cell or battery,friction with an insulator such as amber or glass, bymoving a magnet with relation to a conducting wire_ byhealing the junction of two different metOlls, and 'animal'dectakUy produced, for example, by the electric ~I.Fanda)t pnfOilued a serift of uperimenls 10 establishthat, however pmdueecl. the Nctricity from each source__ rnn 'daltiaI r. _

'! -....-..uad utensively both as anU I d*ttw and 1n .. _--=--_--_"-1 of eJectricity slongedcvIcft k.nown lOday. Lqrdln jan.

19 J. J. Bff'{CUIU• •1.0. AD~ _rie, of experimenlSwhich cktumined --.•...-1... '- .... I:. ••L •. --,....... rune, u.e :1l0rn1C~ of fony-6vt: dc:aoa... Few die ,...i.. meuure-meru. of volumft of Uquick, 1n _I... be ... .U'Id",thclw\d.r of _ ... pioneer,

mg p.n, .........WUet.kntial.10 Duo S,U,., '913. Stern~uedIbM b (_0 <ltomseM" rQOkcWa cre~ by the V<IfIOriepUc:-l ollbe -..uen.Js...

d behave both as particles and waves. G~ass isconcerne ~ I lhe main apparalus, but is used In thenot. essentla .w ent vacuum pumps and photographicanCillary eqUlprn ,

plates.

u,

Further Reading

In order to keep the leXt uncluttered, we have dispensed withfootnotes and bibliographic citations This book ,.• h. ~, owever,highly dependent on the work of others Th~ "011 .. . . . '- I' oWingsectIOn mdlcates some of the books and articles which havebeen used for each chapler and provides (unher reading forthose who would liu 10 pursue spttific issues. The fuillitiesof the works ilfe listed in the bibliography below. If youwould liU further information on glass and its history please\'ish www.alanmacfizrlrvu.com/glass.

1 lnvisihlt Gloss

~ section on glass in Lewis Mumford's Ttclmics tlllJ Civil­isation was a major influence ill the stan of working on this

book. On clocks and printing see Landes, Eisenstein. On thestrangeness of glass as a substance see McGrath and Frost,Honey, EnrycloptJja Britannica under 'Glass'. For someother sumub.ung general WOrks which cover various aspecls

of the themes in Utis book. see Adams, Crosby, Gregory,~ Perkowitt.

:z Glau Ut w WUt- ftom Muopotamia to YellictFor gener;a1 studies of glass which cover mosl or all of thisperiod see Sattie and COIde, Engdopttlia of Glan, Tait,Honey (various), Klein and Uoyd, Singer el aI., Etu::yclopeJia

".

"V"TtlEM MEAIlI'«.

. . d 'Glass' and '~'Iirrors', Liefkes, McGrath andBnran",ea un er

" Derry and Williams. Cnamhus Eneyd(l~dl(JFrost. vose, . H

.GI • Dauma Enevclontdia of World Art. VI. a}~.under ass . . OJ - r

Moore. Bray. Zerv.'ick.On early and Roman glass: Allen, james and Thorpe.

Bo.....erstock et OIl. On glass between ...00-1100: Ha}~.

Dopsch. Wilson. TIleophilus. On. glass fr~m 1100-1700:

Godfrey. Braudel. r.,'!umford. DaVies, Anghcus. Ashdown,

Houghton. L'Art du Verre.

J Glass and tnt Origin of Early S,itnctWe have relied principally on the works of Crombie andLindberg. Other useful background works ,ITt.. Huff.

Nudham, Tnt Shomr Stitnu, Park, Ludovici, Bernal. Onmagical thoughl and science see Kiuredge. Yates. Walk.er.

-I Glass anJ tht RtnaUJOlfU

There is a vaslliterature on the Renaissance. Here are <I few

of the authors we found useful.General background: Burckhardt. Hale. Lamer. Buru.

Goulieb. fry, Clark. Hay. Art: Panofsky, Gombrich, Baxan­

daH, Wolftlin, Harbison. Hauser, Witkin. Arnheim, Miller,Friedlander, Baltrusaitis, Gell, Ayres, Bazin, Kahr. On per­speclive: Damisch, While, Bunim, Wright, Ivins. Kemp,Edgerton.

On the the psychology of perttptton: Blmmore,Gregory; contemporary accounts: Albern. Leonardo cbVinci, VaSilri. On individualism and its causes: Curitlkon nal., Gurevich. ?o.'lorris. Abercrombi~. Macfarlane (Dn,Uu).On autobiography and individualism see Deloany. On paiN­ing and tht' mirror. Mumford. On ja~ altirudes comirrors: Benedicl. 101.; KOf'StI~r. 17); Riesm&n and Rieman,

"I

Fl'"TIlE" "EADlNCrllll'T II f.1I

'1,1":"II ~. ~

2-;. For mirrors and their mysleries. Gregory.

j Glass and Later Scitna

For early suggestions concerning the relations between glassand science 'v..hich originally inspired this chapter, s«~lumford. Ttc/tnics. For Ihe connection between glass andscience see Singer et al.. iii; Derry and Williams. On micro_scopes. see Ludovici. Mills, For barometers, Knowles Mid_dleton. For the twenty scientific experiments, see Harre.

6 Glass ill lilt Ea.stOn Islamic glass-making: Baltie and Conle, Tail, Klein andLloyd, Honey, Singer el aI" iii, 230. The best single source isOliver Walson's article in Liclkes.lslamic architecrure: Blairand Bloom, Talbal Rice, Bazin. Glass in India: Singh,Dikshit, KJ~n and Lloyd, Banie and Collie, Liefkes.. Glass inChin..: Phillips, Lieths, Needham, Klein and Lloyd, T..it,Necdh..m (Shorttr Scitnct, 4); Bailie, Coule and Temple,Elvin, 83-4; Needham, 'Oprick ArtisIS'. On mirrors, Balus­trailis. On archite(;rure in China: Williams, 716-3; FOrlune,79-90; Hommd. On painting on glass: Jourdain and SoameJenyns, Crownan, ch. 8. Glass in Japan: Blair, Klein ..ndUoyd. European accounts of glass in Japan: Kaempfer, iii,71; Thunberg, Tral'tls, iv, ~9, iii, 179; Oliphant, 189; Screech,134-6; Alcock, i, 179.

, Tiu ClQlIr of Civj/utuiDtu

For !he introduction of gbss into China, see Liefkes, Baltie..ocI Cottle, Phillips. For the China trade see Crossman,Osborne ch. 8, For Japan and the introduc:ion of glass, seeScretch. The descriplion of art in China and Jopan is huedon Sulli B'nn, Inyon, U. fuge, Bowie, Clunu, Dyer Ball

,,6

Needham and Wan~.

, ~ alsounder 'Art '

8 Sptctacltsand Prtdicamtnlsd'scussed in Mumford, L.. rner,f ....clades are 1 d'" dh m

The effects a Sr-- ItI, See also Elvin, 81--4 Ojn ,'jet: " ,DiI\'ies, Landes (Wta )'. d eye sight: Trevf,r·Ropcr

. 'Onmyoplaan G ' h'Oplic):. ArnslS . 0 bson Tokoro, l.)l"JOflC.G svenor and Goss, 0 ,

(various), ro .' 5 Harman Browning. ParsonsCh Mann and PIne, outer, ' G

an, I p , J H'ly Nielsen Eden, regory.dDkeEldernce,OI, . v·

'C', ,",. ~""c1~Dt:dja under 'Eye Care', 'Myopia'.' Ita·amDC ~ OJ r 'V" , \,1;/e')lon

c_ , d' B,,'lollllica under ISlon , .mins'· LJI()'(IOpt la , .1ber; is a massive documenralion of the history of ophthal-

mology (in seven volumes) in Hirschberg. On Japanes:ehouses and furniture, see Morse. The lirle of this chapter IS

laken from .. book on social theory by the lale Ernest

Gellner.

9 Visions of Iht WorldFor a useful preliminary overview of theories of the originsof Ihe scientific revolution. see Shapin, Scivtlific_ For a

longer overview of theories, Cohen, Snuuijc &voIwion.For Ihe Renaissance, the seminal book by Burckhardt TJu

Civilisation of Ihe Rtnawonu in Italy is still unsurpasS:d. Amode,rn study is Hale, The CivilisatiDn Df Europe in 11KRtl1QI.J1fVlrt Some of h h 'I '

• • t e t eorettca ISSUes concerning cau-sation and methodo! d' ,R'J" ogyar~ Iscu~mMacfarlane:.SavQg.

IQQ,t and Male' h' h •, . tIIg, W IC also discuss other 2~c of theonglnS of the mod -r----"d' ern world. The distinction ben.'ttnIn US1nous' and ,. d "Akira H ' l~ uSlnal was originally developed by

ayaml of Kelo Universiry.

, 0 • QUOTED

Sources forQuoted Passages

(Full titles 10 all me texts from which qU0l3tions aTe taken aTein the bibliography below.)

I Invisibk Glass

McGrath and Frosl, Gla.u, p. 197; Honey, Glllll, p. Ij Dr

Johnson (Rmn6ler no. 9. 17 April'7iO) is qUoted in McGrath

and F""" GI=, p."

z Gbus in t},e West -from Mesopotamia to VOIueTait, Glau, p. 166 (Agricola); W. R. Lelhaby, qUOted in

McGrath and Frost, Glass, p. 104 (medieval calhedrals). Thereferen~ to HoughlOn comes from the article on glass in theE"o/dopeJia Brittumica.

J Glius and tlu Origin of Early ScierICt

Einstein's famous remark on the origins of science is quott<!

in Crombie, Sritfl,(t, p. 41 The quotations (rom Grossetts1e

and Bacon au from Crombie, SciuKt, Optia, pp. 198,101-2.

4 Ct.u aNi t.4t lWwisstJIJCt

Gombrieh on picture writing, Gombrich,An, p. 144; Filartit'.. 8runeUnchi, quoted in Damisc:h, OngUl, p. 6] (lt2lianphi omiaed); Leonardo on master of painters, Nolt-

,,'

I" ' ••' Leonardo on painting in a mirror, Paint-

hooKS \'0· II. p. - • f I. ~. Leonardo on perspective on a pane 0 g ass.,

mt· p. 20.. . d' I• ...J' Wn'ghl PUS_ClIvt p. 87; Leonar 0 on Vlsua

quou..u 10 • r- , f . '\'d AT boob \'01. ii. p....8: Leonardo on use 0 \el.p> rami s. "ott . . .

.' • 6 The nUQlations from Thunberg are 10 hiSPamtlng. p.•1 • ,

Tra,·~b. \'01. iii. p. 18~.

5 Glass and Lal" SrieflrtBacon. Ntw Atlrmris, p. lqj Ihe quotation from Knowles

MiddlclOn from Baron/t.ler, p. }.

:; The Clasn of tivilua/toruAll Du Halde qUOIalions are from Du Halde, vol. ii, pp.

I16-S; Williamson. quoled in Banie and COllie, p. 21.4;

~tacanney Embassy. in Cranmer.Byng, p. 299; Thunberg,Tralltu, vol. iv, p. 60; Screech, pp. 1]7, 194; Sullivan, pp..-1-1; Clunas, p. IS4; Sullivan, p. .H; Clunas, pp. 176-"7; andSullivan, pp. 4], ~8, 80; Bowie, pp. 7j-6; Rasmussen, Sptcra­du, p. S6; Gombrich, Illusion. p. 7]; Sullivan, p. 19; Ras­

mussen. Sputac!u. p. ~6; Binyon, Fliglu, p. 10.

a Spu/ac!ts and PrtdicamtnlS

The first quote is from Bird. p. 16~. The quotations fromRasmussen are from his pamphlet Sptctac!ts. The television

review was by Roberl Hanks in Tht Indtptndtnt, 7July 1999.The OIher quolOlIions, in order are from the followinu· 8ird, ~ ,p. 16~; Macanney Embassy - Cranmer-8yng, p. 299:

Hommel. p. 197; Browning, p. 109; Dyer Ball. p. oUr.Trevor-Roper. B!lmttd, p. 41; MOIW, vol ii, pp. 10'1-6; li Yu,p. 117; Mann and Pirie, pp. 146, 1~9, 160; Tre,-or.Roptt,Blunltd, pp. 11-1 •

'"

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0_ ' II ftUI s LelltfSfrom} (H'oooks, 1986) apan IpPOC~ne

Landes., DavidSR' ." tvolUllOll. In T,- C

Md:ill8 of l.\e M-J 1FT In'/t:. If)d~ anJ Iltt:P -trnworld(H

ress, Cambridg, MA arvard University, , (98)

A _

1lIIlI.IOGIlAPll\'

- Tltt If/talth and POl'/'rty 0' Narl/)ll$ If? S A. • 'J • Try 0"1(' r.. So

RlCh and Sumo! So Poor (lillie. Brown & Co. '9911)Larner, John, Culrurt a,/(/ Tradition in Italy Uf)O-t.po

(Batsford 1971)

L'Arl du Verre section of L 'Encydoptdit dt Didl!rot I!t

D'Alt",6trt (eighteenth century. reprinted in facsimileby Imer·livres. no date)

Liel'kes. Reino (ed,), Gla.u (ViclOria & Alben Museum '9 )Lindberg. David C., Tht 8tginninBs of /Puttrn Scitl/u. 97

TIlt Europtan Scitntijic Tradition in Philwophical,

&Iigiou.s, and Instirutional Conuxt. 600 BC to AD t-/5o

(Univenity of Chicago Press. Chicago, '99 2)

- Rogtr Bacon and ,ht Origins of Ptrsptctiva in tht MiddltAgu (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996)

- /Wgtr Baron S Philosophy of Nrlturt. A Critical Edition(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983)

- TJ.toriu of V-uifPIfrom AI·Killdi ro Ktpltr (Universityof Chicago Press, Chica~ 1976)

- (ed.),Jolut Puham and ,ht Scitllct of Optics, Ptrspu,ivatOnuruulIs (Wisconsin University Press 1970)

ludov· . L J S .M:I, • ., tt,ng Ntar alld Suillg For (John Baker

'966lMac:;rl:a.ne, Alan, TJ.t Mal:inK of tAt Modtrfl World:

UWIlI ftom WUt 0Nl East (Palgrave 2002)- The Or£g· .r E /.•

11U0) t&B ulllndi"iJllalism (BlackwellOxford,I978) ,

- TIl, Riddlt of tht Modern World: 01[ L·, '" I'dEl· M ' trry, wta til011 ,ua lIy( acmillan 1000)

- Tht Savagt Wan af Ptatt £agl d JM / • . '011, apan alld tht

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alUl, Ida and PIrie, Anloinelte Th. S . ,(Penguin 1946) '~"ttof S~t",g

u.

•O C~"I'IIV

~1~1.1

d F A C Glass ifl A rchiuctllrtG I Raymond an rost, . .,

Me rat 1, . (ArchileclUral Press 1961)a"d DecorallOn 'I

h 0 Rtflwion (Nanona! Gal eryMiller, Jonat an, n ')'

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Morris, Colin, TA, Di.scovtryof tilt IndIVIdual 1050-1200

(University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 199~)

Morse, Edward S.,japanne Homts and TAttr Surrowulings

(first edition, 1886, Dover Publications, Mineola. NY.11)61)

Mumford, Lewis, TIlt Mytl, of In, MoLAi.ru: TAe Pentagon

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- TIr, Shomr Scitnct arui Civilisation in. CIWta, 4 vols.abridged by Colin A. Ronan (Cambridge Unive.rsity

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Distosts in Egypt, rAt COlUlmu Df tlu Ntf1F EAfl, I"J¥,ana C/Il'~ ill Antiquity (Odense University Prns., nodate)

01iph~t, Laurence, Nruraliw of rAe Earlof Elgu. 'JMission ro CAmel andJryxm in tAit' YtarS /857> '51, ~vol. ii only (Blackwood, Oxford, 18S9)

IIIILrOOIlA~ltl'

Osborn~, Hiilrold (w.), Till: Oxfor' Companion to tiltDuofatiyt Afu (Oxford Univenity Press Oxford, ), , 97'i

Panofsky, Erwin, Early Ntt},ulandu}, Painting, its OrigirutJ/lti C},aracur, 2 vols, (Icon Editions, New York, 11)71)

- Tilt Lift amlAnof AlImdl Diim(PrincetonVnivenity Press, Princeton, NJ, '97')

Park, David, T},t Firt witl.;" tilt Eyt, a HurorUal Euay Oil

tI.t Nallm and Mttvling of Lig},t (Princ~ton UniversityPress, Prinuton, NJ, 1997)

Parsons, J. H. and Duke-Elder, S" Dutasu of t},e Eye, 1 rth~n (Churchill 1948)

PerkowilZ, Sydney, Empire of Lig},t, a Hutory of Ducoveryin ScUIIU ami Art (Joseph Henry Press, Washington,

DC, '990Phillips, Phoebe (ed.), Tt.e E~clopt'ia of Glass (Spring

8001<. '987)~Poppe"",..r, Karl R., Conjtcturu lUId &futatiollS: Tile GrOWl}, of

Sciouifie KnowltJgt (Routl~ge and Kegan Paul'978)Pnu, Weston A.• NWrt·lWn. and P/,ySKal Degtlura.riorr

(publw..d by lboutho', '9.1)Ranunauini, Bernardo, A Treatise Oil l},e Diseases of

Trtulu".,n (1701)Ratmuuen, O. D., ClaiMse EyuigJu anti 5ptctadu (fonbridge

Free Prell). A copy of mil rare pamphlet, revised in'9~, is in the Needham Centre Libnry, Cambridge.

- au CIaiIt,,, 5JHCUKIu, 2nd edn, rnisecI (Nonhchinap~ 1,1 ,). 'Thn'e i, a copy of this nre pamphlet in theNeeriham Centre library, Cambridge.

- A Tlruil 011 .114 C-., of Myopi4. A copy of this rarebooklet of 1949 is in the Cambridge University library,d ... 9)OOL,').

p! , o..id ..d Ri an, Evelyn lnompton

".

J Mot/ulllfallon, Polmu an.dCOICl'tfJQllfjtlJ In apQ/l, )

Cultllre (Allen Lane 19"7 S" :J:c GtlY4 and popular. T},t WtJftrll CUII/t;. -\

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TalOOI Rice, David, Islamic Art (Thames & Hudson 1975)

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'9JS)- Tlu Nouhoob, 2. vols", ed. Edward ~1acCurdy (Reprinl

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N41ldt (London, S. Miller, .660)W~ H. C., SigAt. Liglu and Work, 2nd edn (H. K"

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<F-'917)......,s. WeIk, T4I MiJJk KingJom: A SUrYty of tAt

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-.n..w, :noA..--s-- (1'o&an '97\)Wid' ......W.,An..JS' .., bat,.,. (Polity PrftS,~-)

woJnr., Heinrich, P,· ...{An RUDy.. T.... I'rNUmfI/_DwrIqTWIU.j' SoW-' $ A", • • M.D.He 1. (G. 8eI1.,p)

D " t ill Puspt'''lj~,t. (Routledge and\\right. !.a'Oo"rence. rt,sptCtl v

Kegan Paul ' 9S,). J Bruno D.1ld tAt Htrmttic. f es A.. GIO' allD

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\1useum of Glass. 1990)

Index

__H _

Figures in italics refer 10

caplions.

AAbbe, Ernst 87

Adelard of Bath 41, 41

Afghanistan 19

Africa, sub-Saharan 51,,8,

agale 11

Agricola, Georgius 12

agriculture 9. 98,182,189.

190,1911 201

air pump 91, 93

Ajanta caves, India 14Akbar BAI-kindi 15

alabaster I'Albeni, Leon Battista ,S,

61,6:1,68,18,alchemy 47alembics 101

Aleppo 101

OJ'

algebra 28, 40

Alhazen 3,-6, 37, 18" 196;

On Visum 35Altare works 22-3aluminium oxide lOS

Americas 181

anatomy 78

anthropology 191-4. 198,

'00

antibiotics 2

antimony oxide 20,

Antwerp 2), 87Apothecari.. Ganlen,

Chelsea 'll<}Anbic philosophy 6)

A<aIric ..pm JJArabie tcholan )..-... h,

•.,&Arabie lbouPc ).Arabo.oo.........,..,.....-ardai ....~,.

ISO [ x•

Arislode 29, 90, 209arirhmeric 40

arsenic oxide lOSan: aUlobiographicaJ

ponrails 64; f1al,

stereolyped p, 17;

glass lechnotogy and

new realiSI an 6l-4.

65, li6--7o; iconic S}.S1; non-realist ~):

palrons60,61;

pictorial space S8, '9;

symbolism n-.., '7;,~~~ perspective;realism

Asia 104,.7,048,122,101,

108; eutem u, I}I,

1049,1'1, In. 151,

161. UlO. 101; wmern'00

astrolabe I}O

astrology 4'astronomy}. '1.91. 117,

111, UlII

aUflospheric ptClWrt IIalomic wdghu 11 I

atoms 111-.,audion Sa

Autcraluia 'I, I IAzlec an '1Awehi.Momoyama

period 114

BBach. Johann Sebastian

'73Bacon. Sir francis !.~, :8.

;9-80,81: N rw

AtlumiJ 79-So

Bacon, Roger 34. J7-8, )9.

4 1.4.1.. 4S. 4i, 6.1.. 181;Dr multipl;~fUio

Jprciuum 42; DeJptculiJ cQmourtmioUJ

"bacleria 2.,86,98, I'}D. 111

bacteriology 98

Baghdad 101

Bahmani Period 10,

Ball. James Dyer:

'Euminations' 162.

bangles 10" 106, 181

barilla 10', 106barium 111

barometen}, 79, 91, 9),199,100,108

beadt I), '1, 10. la" II),114. 111,110,11),114,.11, III

Baw.aonl, Will~m 109bauty 0( sl-1-6, 1868Hthoven,l..udwig van

'7)Bc:lled~dneOrder 108c'dik~16

'I' -

Ikrti. Gasparo 91-2

1'·J)2.12IkrlC' IU~, . .

bmoculars 9~

B ~"Lawrence 1..13lO}v •

biological sciences 98

biology 208Bird. Isabella 146

Bohemia .1.;-4,182

Bologna l), 84

bon!lJi 1(,9Dollie'S; Chinese 110;

DUlch 106:imponance of glass

hollies (1)0; Islamic101, 102.; japanese 11~,

'1°Bowi~, H~nry 1)7, 1}9bowls 86. 101. 101, 106,

118,111,107

Boyle, Roberl 78, 9], 110Brahmins 17}

blOlin ), &), 161

Br~wsler.David 87

Bril3in; glass windowsafler Ihe Romaninvasion 16, 10; glass­m.Uing tradition I);

IU 0116 EnglandBrilish Empire 111

British MUleum. Londoa,...brirdenna of .....

Browning, John 160

Brueghel, Pieter ~8

Brunelleschi, Filippo ~8,

63,64.70. 76. 18~

Bruno, Giordano 47

Buddha 19, 48

Buddhism 1!J, 114

Buddhist art I J2Burckhardt, Jacob 70

burning glasses 33, )'j, 112

Byzantine painting 14)

Byzantium n

Ccalcined flints 2.4

calcium oxide 2.0'j, 2.07

calligraphy 117. 16}

camera 83, 97cum~ra oOJcuru ]6, 97, 140

Canadian Inuil InCarl Zeiss Company 86

casting II, 13, I', 100, 109

c31hedrals 40cathode-ray rube b, 212

Catholic Church 71

Catholic Counfer-

R.funnaboft ..Catholic Inert· 'lice JO'""<1;_ ..CIi......... a', ......C' I..... ."

I N 0 [ X

-...._.a_~

Chang Tse-Iuan: 'GoingUp River at Ch'ing­

ming Festival Time'

55,131

Chames Cathedral 4

chemical appararus 4)

chemistry J, 16, 18, 14, 98,101,1°3,117, 1)0, 181,

,83. 108

Cht-ng, James 1.,0

Chiang Sm.o-shu Inchiaroscuro 140

Chin... )1, S7, 99. 101, Ill,

18}, 100, 101;

ttnmics 110, 121; andgtOmnry 40; g1ass­making Iocr-II, 114,

118, "9, 114, 181, 181,

107; imponed glus11.4; innoduction of...euunglasstechnology 11];

le:arning of p., 39.literature 16,; minOrs

7); myopia "1-7, '56,16), 16c}, 17)-4;

, "natura porcelain Ill>. ,optlcll17. u.8;

paintings on glafS 114;pilper windows 66;lltId plastic:: 189;pottery III, 110j and

'J'

spectacles 14~, qG-"184; unenthusiastic

about glass 118, IF;writing in I s6--,

china 107

Chinese 4, II, S9, 131, '99Chinese art S3-4, 55, 61,

61,76,1]2, W, 114-5.1)7,140-'0,164-S;

and western an '}6--7,U8

Chinese characters, and

myopia 163, 164, 17]

Chinese knowledge 18~

Chinese thOUghl JI

Christian thought 46

ChrisuanilY 17. H)-2.0, J9,71, 102., 181

chromosomes 89

chronometer 9~,g6

churches .., 18, 19, 2.0, 101,

'0'c1assiCill. ideas, recovery of

~9. 71clear &Ius. making 2.00-7clock, m«hanical ')0

clocks ',8),123, 12.8, 180,

18~; ~ndulum 93;precllion 91

cloisonne "7c!oll«lSYSIems ll>-]IClunas., Craig 'J'

'" 'n

coal2.4-~' 12.}. 188

colour, and myopia

,66-7colour spectrum 34coloured glass 14, I 12., 181

Communist Party JO

compass, magnetic I JO

computers 2..161,2.02.

concave glass 149, t50, I~I

Confucianism} I

Confucius 2.9

Constantinople 2.1, 48, Bcontainers 12., 14, 4J, 9J,

110,117, [19, 12.0

convex glass n~, 149. 150,

,"Copernicus, Nicolas 40,

98'core.formed'technique

"cosmetics 102.

Crombie, A. C. 42.crystal (cnstallo glass) 11,

1J, 181-J, 1°4,106crystals 4'cupping glasses '01cups 113, 1]0curiosity 18, ]9, 41, 47, 48

DDamascu. :11, 101, 10)

Davy, Humphry .111-11

."

de 81ancourt, Haudicjuer

'7'Deccan 10~

decorated glass 101

decoration 100, 106

Dee, John 47

Degas, Edgar 17J

Della Porta, Giambanisla

'7Descartes. Reni 8}, 187

discs 101, lOS, IIJ

diseases 2, 9; infectious 85,

86,87,98, 190,110

DNA 1, 89, 98

Dolland, John 86-7drinking vessels 7, t9, 10,

101, 106, t08, 11']-18,

190. 199,1.07Du Halde, Pe~ 110-11,

I2.J, uS. 127. IJ,--6durabiliry of glass ..Durer, Albrecht 61, 71, '"

173, 18S; hisdnwingdevice (ij

Dutch "4, 118;.fu aUoNetherlMlds

EEasr AfriaI_OJ

£.,. ..... CC"''''_'...F A E ,i1l9

!<DEJ(

Eastern OnhodoxChristianity 71

Edgenon, Samuel 64; n,~

&ruziulVUr&disawt.ry of LiruarPmpecriw. 6)

Edoo., 1bonw9.tduc:ation, and myopia

157, '19. 161-4. 17)

&yore Effect 198Egypt 10, '9, J2, 100, 192

Einsran, Alben .18. 19. 40,

'96"dun"",., I;gln ,.8,decu"'ity .1, 94, en. 111

dearons :a11

Elgin, Lon! "IElvin, Mark 16cJaatNr'" '17 90= po 1 10'

U a"

t . I"~_d t....... t".I' .,.

b+ . t '12..... « '.--...•• 01.'•• ----..

... :toG ....14, 107 ..II)OpU I,a; qpid~•••p..

...

technology 8)-..;~of coal in glass

furnaces 24; Jet. aboBrilain

engraving 101

Euclid 35Euler, Leonard 87

Eurasia II, '3, '4, )2, 39,

P,99,IOI, 119, 12S,127, '3', 146, 148, '49,173, 18<>-84. 186-7.'92,201, :l08

Europe; change of

knowledge base 20,

:ls, 38-40; China

importS European

glass I(X); increasingwealth 12, 21, ]9;

medieval )8,42; andunderstanding of thenatural world ,87; su

abo nonh-wesrernEur~; nonhern~,..es(ern

Eao.,.,taO wal method

a.a...,. )~. n. 41, 4 f, 48qtlr.6 hnOC .....~.... ~,

$ slits the world* toUV· .........kJy6t; •••• "r S

• ; ..... JOtI

FFar EaSI 110, I ~2

Faraday, Michae1212

Ferrara 1. 3fertilisers 2, 98

Filarell~, Antonio 6}

films }, 97Fitzwilliam '-Iuseum,

Cambridge 7

Flanders 2}

Aasks 18, }.h 4}, 82, 101,

I}O,18}

Ailt glass 76, 101, 104, 108,

116, 181, 18~, 189

Aexibiliry of glass 4Aint glass 198

foreshortening 1}1

France: glass industry

18--19, IJ, 10

Frankish glassware 19

Fraunhofer, Joseph 86Frost, A. C. 4-h 17~

GGalileo Galilri 27. 28.p,

78, 81. 98, 186, 210

gas laws 91, 9],97, 98gas turbine 2, 91, 97genetics 89, 98. In. 17}Genghis Khan 10]

Gntji 110

.*'SYtI

geometry 18.}4, }S. 4°,41, 61, 7~, 76 ,108,

117, 1J6Germany: glass industry

,&-19, 1}, 14. 70;

gothiC type I S9;

myopia IS9Gibson, J. J, 111

gilding 101

Gillan 114, 147

Giono 54, ~6, S8, 61-4, 69,'37

glass kilns 106

glass making: becomes animportant art form n;

development ofmiJhfion and crysul11; Roman 1)-16;

uadirion continues

on" the fall of Rom<16--],1

glass tools/insuummts:J.

28. -fl. 4l. #, 61. 79,81, 82, 8l. 89. 90. 97.98,104. 112, u.S. 116,=,

giS's blow' • u-." Mo91, 100, 10f, .,. ...

1I...1'••at. ............. ' ...-- -

11'0'0£"

171; ....la, • 'ti S"

...." 2

inlaid glass 113

inro making 169

insulation 81

internal combustion

engine 91. 98

Iran 100, 104

Iraq 12, 100

Islam 31. )2-), n. ~7. 60,

100--1°4. 17)

Islamic centres HIslamic world 76, 18}; an

n. 60. 76. 14); Chinaimports IsJamic glass109; glass-making100-107, I U, 181, .8.1;

knowledge 18~; optics128; and sptttaeks

I"S. 184lwy' and BohemW> gJ­

24; glass-making 2.1--).

<to, IS2.; growth o(

middle class '71; rapidadvances in aL­teclmolosY .j......Rcnai"PO oe ,a.n.

'r

V'

industrialism 1,6

'industrious revolution'

101,102

•••

IIbn Bauula 131

Ibn Sahel J'icon painters q I

impriming 90,210

Inca art ~ I

India 31.99. 18); in theBritish Empire 112;

glass-making 104--9.

110,118,121,181,181;

mathematics )1, 33,39,4°. 108; science108; and spectacles'''S, 18"

Indian an '1. 61, 6:l, 76,

'08-<)individualism '0, '70-'7),

71. 77indwtrial revolution 9]•

:l01. 2.02.

indu'lrWilation 0( ....

prodtacd:on a..rll

ke Robert ,8, 83, 210;Hoo, I.' 8 85

MicrograpnlO 4.

horn 44horticuhure 189

Houghwn, Jo~n .24

Huygens, Chnsuaan

8)hydrogen 110

hygrometer 116

H.• .•a,_ IliQ 1 I

HoU·-... ...N~.Honey. W. 8. t-6

Grosvenor, Theodore'60

Gu Qiyuan I)j

GUinand. Pierre 86Guplas lOS

Gutenberg, Johannes 14,

HHales, 51ephen 209harbour lights 9S

Harre, Rom 90; Great

Sdentific Experiments:

TwelllY expenments

rltat cAtulged our view

of til( world 208-1)

Hamson's chronomeler96. IS9

Harvey. WLiliam SI

Hayami, Akira 201

heaJth IS2, IS8. '90, 19Sheat resistance 82

Hti~ period IIJHelbert, George: 'The

EliJlir' 99he. r.y, and myopia

11)-4

H«1berica1 Tradilion 47h.i..&

-0 ". "1Ib ...,- 9h' 1 ",_0, - 4•0&1'97

..'

Goethe, Johann Wolfgangvon 17}

Gombrich, Sir Ernst S8;An aNI /IIwion 140

Gong Xian '34Coss., David A. 160

Gottlieb, Carla: TIreWinJaw in An 67

Gratto-Roman art S8GK'Ctt }), S1, 61

Grttk ut P. 141

Greek islands 11

Glftb 117jachievrm~ts

m.ade available )9;discoveries )1;

diopul>"'" andcon(raruatiorW logic

1'; npuimental

-.hod";_'Y11,40;c,. Learning'?6;_~

..... 4';

....l ,bY6]...... 100

•II . :w It 190; IM.Laorr'. '"011'tI

Grion.'di, FMhn u,~winding gtu. 11. 11_],

u9. 149. I~I

Gr~.Robe" 41, 41,61,18" 1?6;P."/Huj'/IG ]7

I I'l 0 I;. X

JJacob, f. :u I

jade n, 106, 107Japan p, 99. IS}, 101;

ceramics 110. 111; andcleanliness ISS;dependent on Chinafor its technology 128;education 161-4;fascinated by glass118.130,131; glass­making I U-19. 119,181,182; literature167; mitTors 73-4; andmyop'a Ill, IP.,111--6.163.167-71.I,,,; paper windo...."66;pouery til, tl8;and spectaC-let 14h146.1'1, 1&4;tO~'00

lapanac an \)-4, ,9-60.76,77.1]1-9,141, '4},'e>,

janow '"jan 120], I}O; l.eidm 1.120iaJpu 11

)dtan,Shah nlena 16,147Jesuits]O,1I1,114,ll},

\1.•, n" ul, I}I,I],...(i

Jesuils' Garden, Peking, 36

jewel-cutting induslry, \9

jewellery 11, 20Jews, orthodox IW, 17}Johnson, Dr Samuel 6-7Joyce, James 17}Judaeo.Chrislian religiOUS

tradition 71jugs 18, 86, 101

Jupiter 98

Kkabuki 166Kaempfer, Englebert II~Kamaltura period 114K'ang-hsi emperor 123K'ang-hsi, Emperor 11~kaolin 110, 111Keats,John 1, 167, 17}Kepler, Johannes }~, 81,

83, 186, 196Kings College Chapel,

Cambridge 4, 8Klingenltierna, Professor

Samuel 87knowtedp: comrolling

me tnaN to ]0;

npar-.ion of migioulluwwledp 41; of thepropenin and n.lUre

of ligh l &3;. ·~"tion androutlO'~ . f

bureaucratisation 0

1'; science an.d 78;transformed Inwestern Europe 20,

1',18- 40 .Knowledge Revolution 11,

17&-9, '9 1

Koch, Robert 98Kofun period I I]

Kokan 140-4'Korea 174; set abo South

KoreaKubota 1]9

Llacquer '69lamps 101, 116lanterns 91,101,11], 18

9,

")0

lapis lazuli 11

latitude ), 94, 9~LaYoisier, Antoine 111'Lawyer's Myopia' 161

86 107, Ill,lead glass 14, •8

0---" 104, J07114, I <>"""7'

lead oxide 14. 2007Lear, EdwardI~LeeUW~16

vlUl I].....~~aaa

•

~----ISO E X

I 11J

longitud~ }, 94, 9S.96Lorenz., Konrad 21~Low Countries 8"I~painting102

N-~ ...N ! 'dSi.1' s

1 7 ,

• as""

Mullahs )0Mumford, Lewis 72, 82Murano g1ass.-mmn 21,

12, 1}, 107

Muromachi period 114myopia 69, 1..13, '42-},

201; andd~ workIS6-7. ,58, ,60-61,164; and colour 166-7;and educarion IS7,IS9,161-1;effect onpersonality 171- 2;'rje strain' th .,I S6-7. 158; and~ln-4;

incic:lence In eaIt Asia'\'--«~nida"" 1,o--?49­b'r,kj 169;"''''dw Ie 169;-..... -•.,....... ....if ., .

· '••

7 'f/I.

3,,-13. 47,49, p, 61,62., 7S-6, 78, 83, 102,10-1, 109, 116, 121, 124,181-h 19h 198, 101;and autobiographicalponrailS 6-1, 71;

bronze 112; Chinesepassion for 111;concave -I}; convex 4},74; Grimaldi exhibilSin China 11~-6; metal7}, 7-1,106,108, liS,116; and perspectivediscovery 6}-4; seenas an abomination 60-•silver backed 74; andvision 66, 69

Mohammed 29molecular biology 2,98Mongols 103, l0'h 181Monkwearmouth 20Monroe, Marilyn 161Monte Casino~

Monastery 10Morley, Ed-ward 110-1t

Mone, Edward 167mosaic glasIlOI

Mounl fuji 1)9. .... '"

''''M·ctWf . + ,.__ 7' ...

e' -

•.. .' ,CO I:'" lolll-1

. dllJ,.~., ,""......01'.1 ,J. 7. 1,1)-16

:&O,ll,., 11 ', •n.l4o

medicin~ 2. • H. 103, 208medl~val glass 18Mediterranean 108 8• I r

eastern 12 19 •M-" ,,11.100elll restoration 116

Mendel. Gregor 17}

mercury 111Merovingian gJ"M ,sware 19~pOlan]la 10, p

mica ISMichelson, "L_fUUC" 110-11

microbiology 98micrncrnnM.--f'"--)' }7. l8, 69,

7')-8l. 9l, 117,11')-}0, 160. 181. 183.190, 19S, 100, 101,l.O7. :l08; compound65; history of 84, 86,86--7.89; optical 110,

mM;dd)e East 10, 13, 31, S1,

101 10• l, 104, I...... 110•

-n'I 1,106

UH'ace. Know)-Yfee' e59l• :l}Ma, lA,)cb.17" n ~', ' r __"'~_'0• I ' '71..... 21.l·, P, n,

n,}7, 40, .... 61 .."'71 • ,101, IOJ, 101, la7. II.111, tl)i ,

MM. MarnpI, I~J

oelO

M~ Embassy 114,

47M<Gmh, lUymond'L~ 4-;~"th,lUymond and

A. C. Frost: G14ss inIfrcJ,iuaur~anJ~1Jliote 17S

map=.7magnesium W1m -._ p"xarioo 6

".1)" '"}4, }M ~ esWI..·.~4'

-,J] 'Wicy ofMm± r;ta..."NT' -M )0

,Ida ... 1'70M >'..,+"N _ ...,,,..,.,.

* -.

INDEX

,.,

Needham, Joseph IjO,

'48

Neo-Platonisl thought

4\Nepa181Netherlands eg, an 66 7', . "

140-41; andcleanliness 188; glassindustry 2]. 70, 188;

growth of middleclass 71; rapidadvances in glass

technology 8)-4; Itt

akDutchMU~ e:uving 169New World, discovery of

'"78-9Nnrton. Sir luac 047, 78 ,

80, b, 83. 86,186,117. 196, :111

nJ.b()@Fu 98, 1.01. :1.10

Noh theatre 166Nannan, Raben lOC)

Nonh Atria 11

IlOnh-...estern Europe171, I....

northern Europe: 16, 19.4}, 101, 18), 181

Non~rnSung painters55

nUlrition, and myopia

1'''~.16..

oOckham's razor 41

oiled paper 66, I II. IDOintments 102

opaque glass 14

Open Society 29

optic fibre networks 202

optical experiments 8}

optical glass 20, 75

optics 8, 16, 28, H, }S, 40,

4 1, 4S, 62, 7S. 76. 78,

80. 102, 103, 108. 12S,

127,128, 18}, 18s, 190

origins of glass 10--12

Ork.n~ys 199

onhadox Jews IS?, 17J

Ottomans 104

oxides 6

oxygen 205

p

Padua 2J

painted glass 10

paimings On glass 124palaeomology 98~ of glass 6~, 75,

16, ",1°1, 18S"'-'.,i»VdcLes 11 ~_I}PalReUr Lou-

, II I" 98, 110;.....n-nerh=d gl...Rub 8" ••,.,

pathology 97pecham, Joh1145, 61Peking Ill, 114, 11h 136,

14°,'S'perception 5I, 90. 11 I

perfumes 101

Persia IOl, IDS

Persian an 10<)

personality, and myopia

'7 1- 1

perspective 52-4, 56, S8,

59,61,63-4. 67. 68,

7h 76,109. 1]1,1]1,

fJ4, IH. 1}6, 140, 18],,8,

petuntse 110, 111

Petrarch LHpewter 118

philosophy] I, so; Arabic

6}; AristOldian 49;

Gr~ec~ 6}; medieval7·

Phoenician m~rchams

"photographic platn 11J

phOlography }, 97, :101

physics 18, H, J1. 41. 78,81,98, 10}

Piana del Duoma,Flor~nce 6}

Pirie. Anloinette 168,

'10

•••

Pissaro, Camillt In

plastic d~9

PlalO 48, 59

Pliny H, 105

Poincare, Henri I

Polo, Marco 13'-1

Pompeii 15

Pope, Alexander In;

'Epitaph. Intended forSir Isaac ewton In

Westminster Abbey'

79; 'An Essay on Man'1:12, 144

Popper, Sir Karl }O

porcelain n, 107, 110-11,

119, UI, 157, 181

Portuguese 114. 116. uSpotash (potaSSium

carbonate) 18, .15. Uj.

104-'7ponery 10, n, Ill, 118-.11.

,8.precious SIOnes, imiarion

of 1.1, II, .16. 107, 110,

118,18.1

presbyopia (long.sighlednns) I..... 14l).150, Ifl. lSI

pressing 100

PriestJey, Jmeph.,.,printing 4'. I......... "',......~..

110,116-7

I 1'1 0 E X

prisms 7. 13, 16.2.0,2.8,34,

36, ",I, ,.p, "'l, 49, 69,7~-6, 83, 10"" 118, u6.181, 184,2.U

protozoology 98

Ptol~my 3~

Qquadrant 130

qualities of glass 4-~

quantum mechanics

'JOquam crystal 34 Il.] 146,

l·n.2.°4

RnduJradio communications]radios 1

rainbow 41, 80, 2.10

~m.urini, Bernardo:T,uW~ ClOt tlw

Diu.uu of T'UumDt,60

Rasmussen, Otto 140,141-2., Ltl, I'I~,1'4-'7. IS', 16,;ChUwI~ EY'liBht aNiSpuf4Clu ,5'

Ravenna 1)

a.-'~'4,..

realism p, n. 55. ~6. ,8,

6o,61-2.,76,I09,'lI,

w. 134, 1]6, 137. 140red blood cells 8",

reflection: of light 41, ,p,

80; of the sun 68--<)

refracting tools J1

refraction of light ]9, '" I,

41,80

refrigeration 1

religion, and

individualism 71

Rembrandt van Rijn 64,

71., 76Renaissanc~],11, 76, IH,

140,17,;,176,184,18S,

191, 19]; appliesdiscoveri~s inmedi~val geometry

and optics 17-8, 62.-];

aUlobiographicalwriting 71.; centres ofRenaissanc~painring1]; and glass windows67; and individualism'°,70, 71, 7,; keytechniquc:s in~ailsance art 1)1;

lenses and 8; origins'9; understanding and~~tation of the:ftaturo 1l'Orld '0,

".

. Venetian glass­1M,making 6

republican government 71

retina ,1,1,6retortS], 18, ]4, 4], 47, 81,

1]0, 183Ricci, Matteo I H-';

Rice, Dr 171

rock crystal 11, 146. IH,

199. 104

Roman art ~2., 61

Roman Catholicism 31

Roman Empire 101; faU of

13, P-3, 100

Rome/Romans 2., 100;

achiev~mentsmade

availabl~ 39; China

imports Roman glass

109; discoveries }1;

forcing houses 189;

glass mirro~ nOIdev~loped 18]; glass­

making 1)-16, 1', 100,

111.181.181,188; andMurano glass-makers11; ponery 111; andspectacl~s 184; water.fill~d glasses 16, ));

windows in Roman

housn I'Rosicrucians HRussia 101. 10), 181, 18-4

Rutherford. Erne51 .110

5Sahara, central 19

St Petersburg 87

sand 113, 104, 2.06

Sassanian Empir~ 100

Satsuma ware 114-. 118

Scandinavia 19, 10 I, 19 1

Schon, Ouo 86, 87

Schubert, Franz 17}

science: curiosity 18;

experimental method

18, ]1,}3> 41. 4';, 48;

Gre~k 49; lndian 108;

and knowled~78;

laboratory con«pt 1.8;

and magic 47;math~maLical tool5 18;

modern ..8, 49; rw~nry'great scientific

• •e~nmenlS 90,2.08-1)

scientific appv2W5 -4J. 44

scientific lnstrumet1lS 101.

11,;-6,11.7. 119,IJI,

'"Scientific R~volution 17'-In-I. 14 18~, 191,

19J; tim 176-7. 171:5e"Io~teernh cmrwyn. 78. 79, h. 1]6• •,.

'I'

•I N 0 £ X

vacuum 9'-" '9). I'"ehamber's". aa.« h

liP : ..,v......;' ira ..,.

unguents 101

United Provinces 87

United States: glass-making 116

universities 180

Uppsala 87Utamoro 1;41

u

10, 11

Trevor-Roper, Patrick

Ip, 16S, 166, 167,

171-1; TIlt WorldTllrouglr Blullud Siglrl

'7'TSingtao 147

Tsou-I-kuei 1]6--'7tubes H, 1]0, 18]

Turkey/Turks 11,104

v

Tours, France 1.0

toys 13, 20, Its, 11.4,

,8,translucency of glass stransparency of glass 1,

82,100,188; lack of

Il

Ttableware 102

Taiwan I p, 16]

Tanamushi Shrine I H

lea ceremony 169, 170

'tea' crystal 147

lclcgraph 3lelephone]

telescopes 3, 24. H, ]7, ]8,

6<). 79: 80, 81, 8], 86,

87, 9], 9~, 98, 129, 181,

19S, 200, 201, 207, 208

television 2,],61,66,97,

161,202,212

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord

'7Jlest tubes 82

Teutonic glassware '9Theoderic of Freiburg 41,

"0

Theophilus 106

thermometers ], 79, 82,

9], 116Thompson, J.l. 111

lllunberg, Carl ~ter

7]-"'. 111, 119Ticino river 106Timur Ihe! Grclllll. 10)Tokoro, Dr Taka.hi 1j1

Tokyo "4, "1, 111Torric:dli, Evan.II;'. 9',.'

space 1-] 41 181 8, , • I Sinew conception of 82­

pictorial ], ~8; three_ '

dimensional ], 74

spectacles I, 3, 13, 14: 16,

20, ]8, 61, 79. 81: 97.104,106,112,118 122, ,1]0,14 2 , '44"""'9. lSI,

Ip, 171. 181, 184, 190;dOuble-lens 146--7

Spinoz.a, Baruch 8]

spontaneous generation

theory 87, 88, 89

stained glass 8, 18, 20, 101,

101, 18], 190

steam engine 90'-<)1, 97,

98, 192

steam turbine 1, 97

Stem, Quo 211--1]

Kreft lighting 1, 189Sullivm, Mic.hul: Till

Muti,.,of Ea.ltlrll0IUi If'eJt"IIArt 1]1,

'll, '].4-7, 140S • •__ •

• '&ana 10

• be,. al]., I Ii

U-4, f7,69,-.w, I", '41.,..a, 1ft 100, bOI 101

II ".....1,""_-

__ ('1': Ii " ss~- ....­............." ''I ..-Li4.I......,...'l'An '·

.~ ·-fa'I t '" ".... .., ......

I

..._-------,..

Scotland 16, 19, '9'

Scffech, Timon 129,

,7'

~imentology98

s.n.cc. IIsextant 91

ihading Ip_, 1]6

Shanghai 148

Shantung 11], 147

...... g1... 9'Shelley, ~rcy 8ysshe 167;

AJoruzis 17

shell. 11, III

Shinco shrines 7}, 116,,..14oji(.mduw) lertens 66g,. 101, ti¥ror 110

... l, II; He alIo vDionIiIicI (Wialn clio. iJe)an. ,II, ..... '40"S' .'.IPoI6J

r N D £ X

--""'--I N D E X

Van Eyelt, Jan S8, 60, 61,

64,76, I,ll, 150, 17J;

'Marriag~of

Arnolfini' 64

V~Jazquu,Diego: 'LasMeninas' 64

Venice gJass.making 6,

11-4,70, 103, 104,1'7,

118,11.4,181,181,107

V~rmeer,Jan 17J

Vt1Teri~ (glass vessels and

oth~r domestic war~)

I}, 14, 10, 181, 18}

v~rrOt~ri~ (glass b~ads,

count~rs, toys and

j~w~lI~ry) 13, Ih :10,

,•.Victoria and Alben

MU5aIm, London 7vision: binocular l6;

domirance of 181"•l\laH ,J.ri'"..;Inltl'UJnmts of 11l--6;

Uld mirron 66; md

pttspcaive l6;

realigJ'lment of '9, 60,61,186, '91;~"Uailo

sighl

viumin A 1'4, IH--6

vhnillv;tragt' (window

glaM) 13, I'vulc;anology 98

.,.

WWagn~r, Richard 17}

watches I,ll}, 189

waves 11}

weath~r prediction}

w~ighlsand measures

'0'west~rn art: and Chin~

art 1}6--7, 138; post­

Renaissance I} I

western Europe 17, }8"""'9,

78,99, 112, 184; art of

11th and luhcenluries

n; pr~sbyopia in 149;

rapid development of

glass 18h realism in

an 56; Renaissanc~178; sci~ntific

r~volulion In; stainedglass 101

wheel cutting 100

Williamson, AI~xander

1l},147

wind~glass t}; in

churchn 19-10;

domnric 10; Islamic101; in ~k.ing 11};

.~ use of 1'-16....In.dO'w. 1,61,7' '0<• •

10&, III, "4, 184 IS,.ah~ring Ihough, • •6 E ...

4; nglish

developments 10;

lacked in Japan 117;

plain glass 101;

Roman I,-16; as a

tool in framing and

fixing reality 66-8;and warmth 188

windscreens 1

wine glasses 4, 14,86, 101,

lOS, 118, 181

Witelo 41, 61

Wittgenstein, Ludwig p

Wollman" E. L. 111

Tht Wom}ewish Football

Ttam in tht World(television

programme) 119

---------"'..

writing }I, p, H, 161, 100;

autobiographical 71;

in China I ~6-7;

Japanest 16}

Wu Li 1}6

XX-ray rube 81

yYangne valley IS4

Yayoi period II)

Yeats, W. B. 173

ZZeiss company 87, 147

Zen Buddhism 114