Byzantine Polycandylon
by HL Aelfgifu verch Morgan
(copyright 2004)
Figure 1. Bronze polycandylon with three (of nine) blown lamps. Eastern Mediterranean, 6th -8th century CE. Gemeentemuseum, The Hague.
What is a Polycandelon
Polycandelons are a form of early candelabra utilizing oil lamps rather than candles. They were commonly used in the Byzantine Empire in the 6th to 7th centuries. Polycandelons were used in both secular and religious settings, and were made in a variety of forms and materials.
Who Made Them and Who Used Them
The components of a Polycandelon would have been made by several different people because specialized skills were needed for constructing each part. Skills needed include such things as glass blowing and one or more forms of metalwork. I made all of the components of my polycandelon myself.
Polycandelons were used in such places as churches and wealthy private residences. They range from very simple, to incorporating complex designs. Religious polycandelons often contain imagery such as crosses. Polycandelons sometimes contain purely secular decorations like scroll patters, circles, part circles, and quatrefoils. These designs were used to cast complex shadows. Design variations can be seen in the pictures of polycandelons throughout this paper. As I intend to use my poycandelon in either my residence or my pavilion, I chose not to use Christian symbols on my polycandelon, and instead intended to use quatrefoils and scroll designs as decorative motifs. Unfortunately my original design was not possible due to difficulties in casting my bronze segment, so I instead have a basic design of small circles within two larger circles, such as seen in figures 2 and 9.[1] [2]
Figure 2. Plain bronze ring polycandelon. Date Unknown. Museum of Madaba, Jordan.
Overall Form
The specific forms of polycandelons vary somewhat, but basically consist of some sort of planar metal circle or rectangle containing holes which hold glass lamps. The glass lamps are either shaped like cones (fig. 1, 3, 4) or like bowls with a hollow elongated stems attached (fig. 2). The metals used in the polycandelons range from bronze, brass, copper alloy (fig 1, 2, 8, 9) or iron (chain in fig. 1 & 2) to silver (fig. 10). Polycandelons are either suspended from the ceiling with a hook or from the wall by means of a bracket. I have chosen to construct my polycandelon in the form of glass cones set into a brass ring, with a forged iron chain and hook to suspend it from the ceiling or a stand for display.
The Glass Lamps
Figure 3. Blown glass lamps with blue spots. Eastern Mediterranean, 6th -8th century CE. Gemeentemuseum, The Hague.
Form & Decoration
I have chosen to make glass cones as the lamps for my polycandelon because I have found more pictures of this type of lamp (fig.1, 3, 4) than of the stemmed sort of lamp. There are several examples of cone-shaped lamps which have blue dots on the upper portion of the outside, near the rim (fig. 3, 4) and I decided that using blue dots would make the overall forms of the lamps more interesting, so I included them.
Figure 4. Blown glass cone, probably used as a lamp. 5th to 6th century CE.(Tait, Hugh. Cinquemila anni di Vetro. Silvana Editoriale. 1991. pg. 101.)
Tools
The tools and techniques we use in glass blowing today are essentially the same type used in the Middle Ages. The basic tools of a glass blower include those used to actually melt and cool the glass and those used in forming it.
The tools used for heating and cooling are:
· a furnace to melt and hold glass
· a place to re-heat glass - either the mouth of the furnace or an additional heating area modernly called a “glory hole”
· An annealer to gradually cool off the finished glass so it doesn’t crack while cooling.
There are several different examples of medieval glass shops that can be observed in pictures and from descriptions, and they all include these heating and cooling tools. Unfortunately, while glass is available from most periods, all of the pictures and descriptions of tools, furnaces, and techniques are from later periods. In, On Divers Arts, written by Theophilus somewhere between the 10th and 12th centuries CE, methods for creating a furnace for working glass and for making an annealing furnace are described. [3]Another example is from a description and wood cut of a furnace from the Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio: The Classic Sixteenth-Century Treatise on Metals and Metallurgy (fig. 5). [4]
Figure 5. The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio. Furnace for melting, working, and annealing glass. Woodcut.
As other illustrations of medieval glass shops include the same aspects – an annealer, a melt furnace, and a place to re-heat glass, and as these are necessary to the craft of glass blowing, it seems reasonable to assume that they would be part of a Byzantine glass shop. These furnaces were run off of wood, and fires were kept stoked by apprentices and workers who carefully watch the quality and heat of the fire. A modern glass shop such as the one where I made my lamps consists of the same elements, but is run off of electricity and natural (or sometimes propane) gas for fuel, with regulators to do the jobs of the apprentices and workers.
The tools used for shaping the glass are:
- a blowpipe -on which to blow the glass
- a punty -on to which the glass vessel is transferred when it is time to open the mouth of the vessel
- a marver -a place to roll the glass to shape and cool it
- jacks -used for cutting in necks and pulling necks on bottles
- tweezers -used for pulling out bits of glass
- shears -used for cutting and trimming glass
These tools can be seen in medieval illustrations in manuscripts such as seen in figure 6. Here a glass blower can be seen blowing through a pipe and marvering the bubble of glass on some sort of flat surface.
Figure 6. Depiction of a forest glass shop from Sir John Mandeville’s Travels, Dated 1420 – 1450. British Library, London.
Tools and techniques have also been mentioned in descriptions. One particularly good description is from the The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio (pg. 130-131):
It (glass) is worked by being blown by men’s breath with certain iron tubes... With one of these they take the glass from the pot by attaching it to the point and then wrapping it around... and giving it the form of a large ball. The first thing they do after withdrawing it is to press it on marble, turning it over and over so that it unites. The blowing on it through the opening of the tube they make it like a bubble and they elongate it by swinging it about their heads... and finally, in short, they give it the form of the vessel which they wish by warming and blowing, by pressing and enlarging. Then separating it from the first tube they take hold of it again at the bottom with the other (tube) and improve it, cutting its mouth with a pair of shears...”
These are the same type of tools used today in glass blowing, and what I used in creating my lamp.
Glass
Most glass shops imported glass from other areas to use in furnaces. Usually glass would be melted down into ingots near a source of materials, and then exported. Then it would be crushed up into “cullet” to use in the glass furnace for re-melting, occasionally raw materials would be shipped and combined in the glass furnaces, and this is modernly called “batch”. Glass from failed attempts which was not polluted by colored glass would usually be saved, crushed, and re-melted in the form of “cullet”. Such glass was sometimes even exported from places like Syria to Venice. [5] [6] [7] The shop where I blow glass buys it in the form of batch, and adds in recycled glass in the form of cullet, in a similar fashion to some medieval glass houses.
The glass I use is one of the types of glass made in the Middle Ages. There were three major kinds of medieval glass, pot-ash glass, soda-lime glass, and high-lead glass. All three types of glass were used through the medieval world, depending on what materials were available. The glass used in the shop where I blow glass is soda-lime glass. The usual temperature for the working range of medieval soda-lime and pot-ash glass was around 1800 - 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The glass I use is workable at temperatures between about 1900 and 2100 degrees Fahrenheit. [8] [9]
While I used a medieval type of glass in my projects, is much purer (clearer) than most medieval glass except Venetian crystalo. Glass manufacturers were always working toward glass that was more pure and clear, but usually glass was tinted by minerals. Common tint colors included: blue-green, olive green, amber, brown, and yellow. I chose to add a yellow tint to my glass, a color common in early attempts at crystal glass throughout Europe. [10]
Figure 7. Polycandela. Metal. Byzantine, 500-600. Royal Ontario Museum
The Metal Holder
Technique
I originally planned to cast a bronze ring for my polycandelon; however all of my casting attempts were unsuccessful for various reasons. I have included them in my display as I documented my attempts and used mostly period methods as laid out in sources such as, The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio, Theophilus, and The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini. The current ring section on my polycandelon is a simpler design consisting of brass rings brazed to larger supporting rings. The design is based on those seen in figures 1 and 9.
Figure 8. Bronze Polycandelon. Byzantine, 7th to 12th century CE. Harlan J. Berk Ltd.
Design
I chose a design based on the circle, a popular pattern which can be observed from the polycandelon examples below. I chose to not include crosses, as I want this to be a light source for my home, not for a church. I wanted a fairly complex design, and based my design on holding six lamps, as that seems to have been a commonly used number.
Figure 9. Bronze polycandelon. Byzantine. Photograph from excavation of Hippos (Sussita).
Figure 10. Silver
Circular Polycandelon. Byzantine, 6th century CE. Antalya Museum
Figure 11. Copper
alloy Polycandelon with Crosses, Byzantine, 500–600. Diameter 10 1/2 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Chain
The chain on all of the polycandelons I have observed is fairly small, and seems to not be welded in some cases while in others it is hard to tell if it is welded or not. All of the polycandelons with chains present are suspend from three places up to a central hook. Sometimes the chains are from the same or a similar material as the section of the polycandelon which holds the lamps, sometimes not, and in some cases no distinction is made in the description. Sometimes the chain contains medallions, and the medallions I have seen contain Christian imagery, indicating a polycandelon which was used in a religious setting. I chose to forge my chain and hook from iron as I have access to a forge used for ferrous metals which runs on a period fuel - charcoal. I did not forge weld the chain as the examples where I can see the chain clearly do not seem to be welded or brazed together. This also makes sense as welded chain is only necessary for holding a lot of weight, and even filled with oil the polycandelon dose not weigh a great deal. I also chose to not include medallions as part of my chain as I do not want to include Christian imagery on my polycandelon.
I used mild steel as the material for my chain, as real period-style iron is very expensive and mild steel is the most similar of modernly produced products.
I forged the chain in period manner, using a charcoal burning forge, a hammer, an anvil, and tongs.
Figure 12. Polycandelon for 16 lamps. 7th century CE. University of Pennsylvania Museum
The Fuel and Wick
I have not managed to find descriptions of Byzantine lamp fuel and wicks. I chose olive oil as a fuel for my lamp because it would have been available in the Byzantine Empire, and still is.
The issue of finding a documentable wick was even more difficult. I could find no specific reference to how wicks were made or even supported in period floating wick lamps. For my wick I braided together three sections of linen cord to make a moderate sized wick similar to a modern candle wick. I then dipped it in bees wax to stiffen it. My wick seems to draw oil at a reasonable rate and makes a descent sized flame.
Some method is needed to hold the end of the wick above the level of the oil in the lamp. It is also desirable that the wick not simply be draped over the edge of the lamp as was sometimes done with the bowl shaped pottery and metal lamps, because the heat of the flame might cause the glass to crack. The modern method for holding up the floating wick in glass Christian and Jewish liturgical lamps is to use a cork float with metal sheet on top of it. A wax-dipped wick is inserted through the center of this with the flame end just above the metal. Sometimes wire holders are also placed on the top of lamps. I could find no period references to these methods of suspending wicks, but that does not rule these methods out. It was also uncertain if the glass lamps were entirely filled with oil, or contained water upon which a layer of oil was floated. Another possible method of holding up the wick was to bend a wax-dipped wick into a spiral and to bend one end up. This wick could then be floated in the divide between the oil and water. As all of these methods worked fairly well in my tests, I have not been able to reach any firm conclusion on which method was probably used. I have included examples of all three possible methods in my display.
Works Cited
<http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/Roman%20Glass/index.html>. “Glass Making in Roman Times: Lighting in the Byzantine Era.” Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA), University of Pennsylvania Museum.
<http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/litu/hod_PG.7.2000.htm>. Metropolitan Museum of Art Web Site, New York Copyright © 2000–2004 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jacoby, David. “Raw Materials for the Glass Industries of Venice and the Teraferma, About 1370 – 1460.” Journal of Glass Studies. Vol. 35. Corning, New York.1993. pg. 67,
Smith, Cyril Stanley, Martha Teach Gnudi (translated by). The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio: The Classic Sixteenth-Century Treatise on Metals and Metallurgy. Dover Publications, Inc. New York. 1990.
Theophilus On Divers Arts. Translated by John G. Hawthorne, Cyril Stanley Smith. Dover Publications, Inc., New York. 1979.
Toso, Gianfranco. Murano: a History of Glass. Arsenale Editrice. 2000.
Tyson, Rachel. Medieval Glass Vessels Found in England c AD 1200-1500. Council for British Archeology Report 121. 2000.