THE MANDEVILLE MINIATURE: CORRECT OR FAULTY? Farr Seine In westem and middle Europe during the 9th century, a paradigmatic change in glassmaking took place with far reaching consequences. Instead of Mediterranean soda (trona), the source of alkali changed to home-made wood ashes. Factories for working raw glass (as we know them from antiquity) changed to integrated factories that produced glass from raw materials and finished objects at one place. ‘These were the forest glasshouses. They were situated in forests because wood was available, both as a raw material Fig. 1 The Mandeville ministre Fi. 2 The Eichsfeld furnace (afer Lappe and “Moses 1984, 210, ig. 3) and as fuel. Glass furnaces, which were circular in Roman times, beeame rectangular. About the year 1120, the German monk Theophilus described the construction of furnace.’ Then, in Res metallica, first published in 1530, Agricola provided information on the current state of glass technology ‘During the four centuries between those two publications, there sno known written account of glassmaking. However, there isa detailed drawing that offers a complete picture of |The Mandeville Miniature: Correct or Faulty? in 14th-century Bohemia, It is the so-called Mandeville Miniature’ (Fig. 1), produced about 1380 and housed today in the British Library in London. The drawing shows an oval-shaped furnace. On the right side is the stokehole. Inthe centre isthe furnace itself, which contains the melting chamber with the sieges on which the pot stand. These are visible through working holes. On the left side of the drawing are the annealing oven (/ehr), which is attached to the melting section, and a cullet bin. A boy is shown tending the fire, while two craftsmen gather glass and shape a vessel. An attendant loads the /ehr, while the master glassmaker performs quality control. In the background, sales and purchasing agents are depicted. ‘Numerous finds of medieval glasshouses have been made inwestem and central Europe, particularly in the mountains of Germany. Unfortunately, most of them are poorly preserved due to the plundering of stones by peasants in ‘the neighbourhood. One exception is a late 1Sth-century factory at Eichsfeld in Thuringia, exeavated by Lappe and Maes * The ground plan of this glasshouse (Fig, 2) can be divided into four sections: D The main opening ofthe fire trench or stokehole, andthe working pit forthe stoker. (C The melting chamber, crossed by the fire trench, At each side is a siege or platform for the pots, along with the remains ofthe oval superstructure —a clay dome covering the sieges B The extension of the fire trench, enlarged to a firebox, over which the annealing chamber lies. AAstokehole at the other end of the fire trench, with a paved floor to collet the ashes for reeyeling. These ashes, with their alkali content, were an important component ofthe batch. ‘A comparison of the Mandeville Miniature and the ground plan of the Eichsfeld glasshouse shows a close correspondence, even in the details. We may thus presume that this type of furnace may have been the standard for forest glasshouses until the 16th century. At that time, an important new development took place: the production of colourless glass d fa facon de Fenise, combined with a return to soda ash asthe flux or the refining of wood ash to potash. Concurrently, the circular furnace, described by Agricola, was reintroduced. In both the Mandeville Miniature and the ground plan of the Eichsfeld glasshouse, the frit furnace mentioned by Theophilus and Agricola is missing. According to Theophilus, this was part of the melting furnace, while Agricola described it as a separate oven. Inthe miniature, the circular hole next tothe furnace is almost certainly the place where the batch was mixed, and the worker shown there must be preparing the batch. The batch is then carried tothe furmace in flat pans. This sal thatthe drawing reveals. Here, however, Agricola takes over. His description of fritting is incomplete, but not his illustration (Fig. 3). It includes the pans and the crushing of the hardened frit. According to Theophilus, the batch was spread loose on the bottom ofthe frit oven, and it was then raked during the fritting process. The frit pans shown in the Mandeville and ‘Agricola drawings were certainly an improvement. The pan carried by the worker in the Mandeville Miniature will be placed either inthe melting compartment or, more probably, in the annealing chamber. Expxores “Theophilus Pesbyter: De Diversis Artibus (Deutsches Museum, Munich). eorgivs Agricola. De Re Metallica (Basel 1556), The Mandeville Miniature. A Bohemian forest glass house from manuscript of StJoha Mandevelle'sravels. The British Library ‘AdMs 24189. * Ulrich Lappe and Ganter Mobes, ‘Glashten in Fichsfel’ Als Thiringen, 20, 1984, 207-18, FRITZ SEIBEL Auguststrasse 12, 22085 Hamburg, Germany 209