Up: Glassmaking
Flat Glass: 12 of 66
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beginning when Roman civilization was overwhelmed by the northern
barbarians. Glass was largely used by the Romans in pavements and in thin
plates as a coating for walls. It was used to some extent in windows,
but mica, alabaster and shells were more widely employed.
Such glass as was used for windows was very
thick and was available only in small pieces. The ruins of
Pompeii reveal that glass half an inch thick was used in
the windows of the famous baths. Other traces of Roman glass have been
found in Roman ruins at London. Most of the pieces had evidently
been made by casting, and the discovery of sheet glass at
Silchester shows that this process of making glass
was known at that time.
When Justinian built the
church of St. Sophia at Constantinople in the
fifth century, there were provided great window openings filled with
pierced marble screens or frames fitted with small pieces of semi-opaque
flat glass, probably produced by casting.
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