File:Glass (1907) (14597671668).jpg

Identifier: glass00dill (find matches)
Title: Glass
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Dillon, Edward, d. 1914
Subjects: Glass Glassware
Publisher: London, Methuen and Co. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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one of theearliest forms of the tradition of the Holy Graal. (I follow here the account givenby the late Mr. Thomas Arnold in an article by him in the Encydopadia Britan-7iica.) According to this tradition, Joseph of Arimathea, at the time of theCrucifixion, proceeded first to the upper room where the Last Supper had beencelebrated and found there the shallow bowl that had held the Paschal Lamb.Taking this vessel with him, and returning to the scene of the Crucifixion, hereceived in it drops of blood from the side of our Lord. The double service ofthe bowl is the essence of this tradition. Mr. Arnold, apropos of the traditionaryconnection of the Holy Graal with Glastonbury, quotes from Malraesbury a state-ment that in his day an altar called sapphirus, which had been brought fromPalestine to St. Davids, had been re-discovered. This may well have been a slabof glass similar to that still preserved at Reichenau. I have been unable to findany further reference to this sapphirus altar.98
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UA I BYZANTINE GLASS It was carried off to Paris during the revolutionary war,and then discovered to be not an emerald, as had beenalways maintained, but a piece of admirably tinted glass,containing, however, a few air-bubbles. The bowl wasbroken before its return to Genoa, and the pieces are nowunited by a filigree mounting of gold. It is claimed for the famous treasures preserved inthe royal basilica at Monza, that they date from the timeof Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards (589-625 a.d.).Among them is a cup of a deep blue material which isstated to be a sapphire. It is almost three inches indiameter, and Mr. Nesbitt, who examined it, failed todiscover any air-bubbles. If, however, as is probable,this cup is of glass, it gives evidence of the technical skillof the craftsman who made it. In the same treasury area number of little flasks in which were preserved the oilexuding from the bodies of martyrs—whether these flaskscame originally from Rome or from Palestine, I am un-able to

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