Early Medieval Glass from Brescia, Cividale and Salerno, Italy: Composition and Affinities

Two small groups of glass vessels, embedded in stucco work in the churches of Santa Maria, Cividale and San Salvatore, Brescia have been analysed for major components using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry in the scanning electron microscope. A glass tile with encased gold leaf from the palatine chapel of Duke Arichis II at Salerno has also been analysed. These samples are all dated between the middle of the eighth to the early ninth centuries. The glasses are of the low magnesia or natron type and the majority form a distinctive compositional group, which is similar to contemporary glass from the monasteries at San Vincenzo al Volturno and Farfa. Most of these glasses do not match the products of the major Near Eastern producers in the mid- to late first millennium AD. They have characteristics which indicate that they contain significant amounts of old recycled Roman glass but do not match Roman glass in all respects. There is a possibility that they represent a mixture of glasses from a variety of sources, brought together due to the recycling of cullet (old broken vessels)