Ancient Roman Glass | Early European History And Religion

ANCIENT GLASS MAKING

blowing glass

In an the home of a the Roman elite wine was drunk in glass chalices and perfumes and ointments were stored in glass containers. Some windows had stained glass. Modern glass blowing began in 50 B.C. with the Romans, but origins of glass making go back even further. Pliny the Elder attributed the discovery to Phoenician sailors who placed a sandy pot on some lumps of alkali embalming powder from their ship. This provided the three ingredients needed for glass making: heat, sand and lime. Although it is interesting story, it is far from true.

The oldest glass so far discovered is from site in Mesopotamia, dated to 3000 B.C., and glass in all likelihood was made before that. The ancient Egyptians produced fine pieces of glass. The eastern Mediterranean produced especially beautiful glass because the materials were of fine quality.

Around the 6th century B.C. the “core glass method” of glass making from Mesopotamia and Egypt was revived under the influence of Greek ceramics makers in Phoenicia in the eastern Mediterranean and then was widely traded by Phoenician merchants. During the Hellenistic period, high quality pieces were created using a variety of techniques, including the cast glass and mosaic glass.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Core-formed and cast glass vessels were first produced in Egypt and Mesopotamia as early as the fifteenth century B.C., but only began to be imported and, to a lesser extent, made on the Italian peninsula in the mid-first millennium B.C. Glassblowing developed in the Syro-Palestinian region in the early first century B.C. and is thought to have come to Rome with craftsmen and slaves after the area's annexation to the Roman world in 64 B.C. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

Roman Glass Making

The Romans made drinking cups, vases, bowls, storage jars, decorative items and other object in a variety of shapes and colors. using blown glass. The Roman, wrote Seneca, read "all the books in Rome" by peering at them through a glass globe. The Romans made sheet glass but never perfected the process partly because windows weren't considered necessary in the relatively warm Mediterranean climate.

The Romans made a number of advancements, the most notable of which was mold-blown glass, a technique still used today. Developed in the eastern Mediterranean in the 1st century B.C., this new technique allowed glass to be made transparent and in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. It also allowed glass to be mass produced, making glass something that ordinary people could afford as well as the rich. The use of mold-blown glass spread throughout the Roman empire and was influenced by different cultures and arts.

Roman glass amphora With the core-form mold-blown technique, globs of glass are heated in a furnace until they become glowing orange orbs. Glass threads are wound around a core with a handling piece of metal. Craftsmen then roll, blow and spin the glass to get the shapes they want.

With the casting technique, a mold is formed with a model. The mold is filled with crushed or powdered glass and heated. After cooling down, the plank is removed from the mold, and the interior cavity is drilled and exterior is well cut. With the mosaic glass technique, rods of glass are fused, drawn and cut into canes. These canes are arranged in a mold and heated to make a vessel.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “At the height of its popularity and usefulness in Rome, glass was present in nearly every aspect of daily life—from a lady's morning toilette to a merchant's afternoon business dealings to the evening cena, or dinner. Glass alabastra, unguentaria, and other small bottles and boxes held the various oils, perfumes, and cosmetics used by nearly every member of Roman society. Pyxides often contained jewelry with glass elements such as beads, cameos, and intaglios, made to imitate semi-precious stone like carnelian, emerald, rock crystal, sapphire, garnet, sardonyx, and amethyst. Merchants and traders routinely packed, shipped, and sold all manner of foodstuffs and other goods across the Mediterranean in glass bottles and jars of all shapes and sizes, supplying Rome with a great variety of exotic materials from far-off parts of the empire. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“Other applications of glass included multicolored tesserae used in elaborate floor and wall mosaics, and mirrors containing colorless glass with wax, plaster, or metal backing that provided a reflective surface. Glass windowpanes were first made in the early imperial period, and used most prominently in the public baths to prevent drafts. Because window glass in Rome was intended to provide insulation and security, rather than illumination or as a way of viewing the world outside, little, if any, attention was paid to making it perfectly transparent or of even thickness. Window glass could be either cast or blown. Cast panes were poured and rolled over flat, usually wooden molds laden with a layer of sand, and then ground or polished on one side. Blown panes were created by cutting and flattening a long cylinder of blown glass.”

Development of Roman Glass

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “ By the time of the Roman Republic (509–27 B.C.), such vessels, used as tableware or as containers for expensive oils, perfumes, and medicines, were common in Etruria (modern Tuscany) and Magna Graecia (areas of southern Italy including modern Campania, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily). However, there is very little evidence for similar glass objects in central Italian and Roman contexts until the mid-first century B.C. The reasons for this are unclear, but it suggests that the Roman glass industry sprang from almost nothing and developed to full maturity over a couple of generations during the first half of the first century A.D. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

glass jug

“Doubtless Rome's emergence as the dominant political, military, and economic power in the Mediterranean world was a major factor in attracting skilled craftsmen to set up workshops in the city, but equally important was the fact that the establishment of the Roman industry roughly coincided with the invention of glassblowing. This invention revolutionized ancient glass production, putting it on a par with the other major industries, such as that of pottery and metalwares. Likewise, glassblowing allowed craftsmen to make a much greater variety of shapes than before. Combined with the inherent attractiveness of glass—it is nonporous, translucent (if not transparent), and odorless—this adaptability encouraged people to change their tastes and habits, so that, for example, glass drinking cups rapidly supplanted pottery equivalents. In fact, the production of certain types of native Italian clay cups, bowls, and beakers declined through the Augustan period, and by the mid-first century A.D. had ceased altogether. \^/

“However, although blown glass came to dominate Roman glass production, it did not altogether supplant cast glass. Especially in the first half of the first century A.D., much Roman glass was made by casting, and the forms and decoration of early Roman cast vessels demonstrate a strong Hellenistic influence. The Roman glass industry owed a great deal to eastern Mediterranean glassmakers, who first developed the skills and techniques that made glass so popular that it can be found on every archaeological site, not only throughout the Roman empire but also in lands far beyond its frontiers. \^/

Cast Glass Versus Blown Glass in Ancient Rome

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Although the core-formed industry dominated glass manufacture in the Greek world, casting techniques also played an important role in the development of glass in the ninth to fourth centuries B.C. Cast glass was produced in two basic ways—through the lost-wax method and with various open and plunger molds. The most common method used by Roman glassmakers for most of the open-form cups and bowls in the first century B.C. was the Hellenistic technique of sagging glass over a convex "former" mold. However, various casting and cutting methods were continuously utilized as style and popular preference demanded. The Romans also adopted and adapted various color and design schemes from the Hellenistic glass traditions, applying such designs as network glass and gold-band glass to novel shapes and forms. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“Distinctly Roman innovations in fabric styles and colors include marbled mosaic glass, short-strip mosaic glass, and the crisp, lathe-cut profiles of a new breed of fine as monochrome and colorless tablewares of the early empire, introduced around 20 A.D. This class of glassware became one of the most prized styles because it closely resembled luxury items such as the highly valued rock crystal objects, Augustan Arretine ceramics, and bronze and silver tablewares so favored by the aristocratic and prosperous classes of Roman society. In fact, these fine wares were the only glass objects continually formed via casting, even up to the as Late Flavian, Trajanic, and Hadrianic periods (96–138 A.D.), after glassblowing superceded casting as the dominant method of glassware manufacture in the early first century A.D. \^/

“Glassblowing developed in the Syro-Palestinian region in the early first century B.C. and is thought to have come to Rome with craftsmen and slaves after the area's annexation to the Roman world in 64 B.C. The new technology revolutionized the Italian glass industry, stimulating an enormous increase in the range of shapes and designs that glassworkers could produce. A glassworker's creativity was no longer bound by the technical restrictions of the laborious casting process, as blowing allowed for previously unparalleled versatility and speed of manufacture. These advantages spurred a rapid evolution of style and form, and experimentation with the new technique led craftsmen to create novel and unique shapes; examples exist of flasks and bottles shaped like foot sandals, wine barrels, fruits, and even helmets and animals. Some combined blowing with glass-casting and pottery-molding technologies to create the so-called mold-blowing process. Further innovations and stylistic changes saw the continued use of casting and free-blowing to create a variety of open and closed forms that could then be engraved or facet-cut in any number of patterns and designs.” \^/

Romans Used to Recycled Glass

ribbed mosaic glass bowl

Romans often collected broken glass vessels and added the glass to batches of molten raw materials. A study by Caroline Jackson of the University of Sheffield said the practice in Britain increased in the third and fourth centuries. When blowing techniques replaced the laborious and expensive process of casting and hot forming, there was great demand for glass objects as well as the materials nedded to make them. At this itinerant glassmakers moved to where there was demand for their products and glass objects were accessible to almost everyone. [Source: Rome and Art, November 7, 2016]

The large number of objects — cups, jars, little bottles, mirrors, glass — and their fragility encouraged the start of another business — glass recyclers. These "ambulators" roamed the city trying to get to the broken glass and their activities are witnessed and described by Statius ( A.D. 40-96), "comminutis permutant vitreis gregale sulpur ", and by Martial, "Transtiberinus ambulator, qui pallentia sulpurata permutat vitrei". The broken glass were bought and paid for with raw sulfur.

The small artisans sought recycled glasses because production required a lower melting temperature, translating to considerable saving of fuel. Loads of broken glass have been found on Roman-era shipwrecks such as Grado (second century A.D.) and Serçe Limani, on the southern coast of Turkey. In Rome there were workshops for glass processing as evidenced by a glass furnace found in the Crypta Balbi in the middle of Campus Martius. The practice of recycling the glass was so widespread that archaeologists regard it one of the reasons for the limited number of recoveries of glass objects, Many of the ones that exist today come mostly from grave goods or from Pompeii and Herculaneum where people fled without collecting their glass possessions.

Roman Glass Masterpieces

The highest price ever paid for glass is $1,175,200 for a Roman glass-cup from A.D. 300, measuring seven inches in diameter and four inches in height, sold at Sotheby's in London in June 1979.

One of the most beautiful pieces of Roman art form is the Portland Vase, a near-black cobalt blue vase that is 9¾ inches tall and 7 inches in diameter. Made from glass, but originally thought to have been carved from stone, it was made by Roman craftsmen around 25 B.C., and featured lovely details reliefs made from milky-white glass. The urn is covered with figures but no one is sure who they are. It was found in a A.D. 3rd century tumulus outside of Rome.

Describing the making of a Portland vase, Israel Shenkel wrote in Smithsonian magazine: "A gifted artisan may have first dipped a partially blown globe of the blue glass into a crucible containing the molten white mass, or he may have formed a "bowl" of white glass and while it was still malleable blown the blue vase into it. When the layers contracted in cooling, the coefficients of contraction had to be compatible, otherwise the parts would separate or crack."

"Then working from a draining, or a wax or plaster model. a cameo cutter probably incised outlines on the white glass, removed the material around the outlines, and molded details of figures and objects. He most likely used a variety of tools — cutting wheels, chisels, engravers, polishing wheels polishing stones." Some believe the urn was made by Dioskourides, a gem cutter who worked under Julius Caesar and Augustus.

Roman Cameo Glass

cameo glass image of Augustus

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Some of the finest examples of ancient Roman glass are represented in cameo glass, a style of glassware that saw only two brief periods of popularity. The majority of vessels and fragments have been dated to the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods, from 27 B.C. to 68 A.D., when the Romans made a variety of vessels, large wall plaques, and small jewelry items in cameo glass. While there was a brief revival in the fourth century A.D., examples from the later Roman period are extremely rare. In the West, cameo glass was not produced again until the eighteenth century, inspired by the discovery of ancient masterpieces such as the Portland Vase, but in the East, Islamic cameo glass vessels were produced in the ninth and tenth centuries. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The popularity of cameo glass in early imperial times was clearly inspired by the gems and vessels carved out of sardonyx that were highly prized in the royal courts of the Hellenistic East. A highly skilled craftsman could cut down layers of overlay glass to such a degree that the background color would come through successfully duplicating the effects of sardonyx and other naturally veined stones. However, glass had a distinct advantage over semi-precious stones because craftsmen were not constrained by the random patterns of the veins of natural stone but could create layers wherever they needed for their intended subject. \^/

“It remains uncertain exactly how Roman glassworkers created large cameo vessels, though modern experimentation has suggested two possible methods of manufacture: "casing" and "flashing." Casing involves placing a globular blank of the background color into a hollow, outer blank of the overlay color, allowing the two to fuse and then blowing them together to form the final shape of the vessel. Flashing, on the other hand, requires that the inner, background blank be shaped to the desired size and form and then dipped into a vat of molten glass of the overlay color, much like a chef would dip a strawberry into melted chocolate. \^/

“The preferred color scheme for cameo glass was an opaque white layer over a dark translucent blue background, though other color combinations were used and, on very rare occasions, multiple layers were applied to give a stunning polychrome effect. Perhaps the most famous Roman cameo glass vessel is the Portland Vase, now in the British Museum, which is rightly considered one of the crowning achievements of the entire Roman glass industry. Roman cameo glass was difficult to produce; the creation of a multilayered matrix presented considerable technical challenges, and the carving of the finished glass required a great deal of skill. The process was therefore intricate, costly, and time-consuming, and it has proved extremely challenging for modern glass craftsmen to reproduce. \^/

“Although it owes much to Hellenistic gem and cameo cutting traditions, cameo glass may be seen as a purely Roman innovation. Indeed, the revitalized artistic culture of Augustus' Golden Age fostered such creative ventures, and an exquisite vessel of cameo glass would have found a ready market among the imperial family and the elite senatorial families at Rome. \^/

Roman Luxury Glass

Lycurgus color-changing cup

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The Roman glass industry drew heavily on the skills and techniques that were used in other contemporary crafts such as metalworking, gem cutting, and pottery production. The styles and shapes of much early Roman glass were influenced by the luxury silver and gold tableware amassed by the upper strata of Roman society in the late Republican and early imperial periods, and the fine monochrome and colorless cast tablewares introduced in the early decades of the first century A.D. imitate the crisp, lathe-cut profiles of their metal counterparts. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The style has been described as "aggressively Roman in character" mainly because it lacks any close stylistic ties to the Hellenistic cast glass of the late second and first centuries B.C. Demand for cast tableware continued through the second and third centuries A.D., and even into the fourth century, and craftsmen kept alive the casting tradition to fashion these high-quality and elegant objects with remarkable skill and ingenuity. Facet-cut, carved, and incised decorations could transform a simple, colorless plate, bowl, or vase into a masterwork of artistic vision. But engraving and cutting glass was not limited to cast objects alone. There are many examples of both cast and blown glass bottles, plates, bowls, and vases with cut decoration in the Metropolitan Museum's collection, and some examples are featured here. \^/

“Glass cutting was a natural progression from the tradition of gem engravers, who used two basic techniques: intaglio cutting (cutting into the material) and relief cutting (carving out a design in relief). Both methods were exploited by craftsmen working with glass; the latter was used principally and more infrequently to make cameo glass, while the former was widely used both to make simple wheel-cut decorations, mostly linear and abstract, and to carve more complex figural scenes and inscriptions. By the Flavian period (69–96 A.D.), the Romans had begun to produce the first colorless glasses with engraved patterns, figures, and scenes, and this new style required the combined skills of more than one craftsman. \^/

“A glass cutter (diatretarius) versed in the use of lathes and drills and who perhaps brought his expertise from a career as a gem cutter, would cut and decorate a vessel initially cast or blown by an experienced glassworker (vitrearius). While the technique for cutting glass was a technologically simple one, a high level of workmanship, patience, and time was required to create an engraved vessel of the detail and quality evident in these examples. This also speaks to the increased value and cost of these items. Therefore, even when the invention of glassblowing had transformed glass into a cheap and ubiquitous household object, its potential as a highly prized luxury item did not decrease. \^/

Roman Gold–Band and Mosaic-Network Glass

golden glass portrait of two young men

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Among the first glasswares to appear in significant numbers on Roman sites in Italy are the immediately recognizable and brilliantly colored mosaic glass bowls, dishes, and cups of the late first century B.C. The manufacturing processes for these objects came to Italy with Hellenistic craftsmen from the eastern Mediterranean, and these objects retain stylistic similarities with their Hellenistic counterparts. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“Mosaic glass objects were manufactured using a laborious and time-consuming technique. Multicolored canes of mosaic glass were created, then stretched to shrink the patterns and either cut across into small, circular pieces or lengthwise into strips. These were placed together to form a flat circle, heated until they fused, and the resulting disk was then sagged over or into a mold to give the object its shape. Almost all cast objects required polishing on their edges and interiors to smooth the imperfections caused by the manufacturing process; the exteriors usually did not require further polishing because the heat of the annealing furnace would create a shiny, "fire polished" surface. Despite the labor-intensive nature of the process, cast mosaic bowls were extremely popular and foreshadowed the appeal that blown glass was to have in Roman society.

“One of the more prominent Roman adaptations of Hellenistic styles of glassware was the transferred use of gold-band glass on shapes and forms previously unknown to the medium. This type of glass is characterized by a strip of gold glass comprised of a layer of gold leaf sandwiched between two layers of colorless glass. Typical color schemes also include green, blue, and purple glasses, usually laid side by side and marbled into an onyx pattern before being cast or blown into shape.

“While in the Hellenistic period the use of gold-band glass was mostly restricted to the creation of alabastra, the Romans adapted the medium for the creation of a variety of other shapes. Luxury items in gold-band glass include lidded pyxides, globular and carinated bottles, and other more exotic shapes such as saucepans and skyphoi (two-handled cups) of various sizes. The prosperous upper classes of Augustan Rome appreciated this glass for its stylistic value and apparent opulence, and the examples shown here illustrate the elegant effects gold glass can bring to these forms.” \^/

Roman Mold–Blown Glass

molded glass cup

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The invention of glassblowing led to an enormous increase in the range of shapes and designs that glassworkers could produce, and the mold-blowing process soon developed as an offshoot of free-blowing. A craftsman created a mold of a durable material, usually baked clay and sometimes wood or metal. The mold comprised at least two parts, so that it could be opened and the finished product inside removed safely. Although the mold could be a simple undecorated square or round form, many were in fact quite intricately shaped and decorated. The designs were usually carved into the mold in negative, so that on the glass they appeared in relief. [Source: Rosemarie Trentinella, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“Next, the glassblower—who may not have been the same person as the mold maker—would blow a gob of hot glass into the mold and inflate it to adopt the shape and pattern carved therein. He would then remove the vessel from the mold and continue to work the glass while still hot and malleable, forming the rim and adding handles when necessary. Meanwhile, the mold could be reassembled for reuse. A variation on this process, called "pattern molding," used "dip molds." In this process, the gob of hot glass was first partly inflated into the mold to adopt its carved pattern, and then removed from the mold and free-blown into its final shape. Pattern-molded vessels developed in the eastern Mediterranean, and are usually dated to the fourth century A.D. \^/

“While a mold could be used multiple times, it had a finite life span and could be utilized only until the decoration deteriorated or it broke and was discarded. The glassmaker could obtain a new mold in two ways: either a completely new mold would be made or a copy of the first mold would be taken from one of the existing glass vessels. Therefore, multiple copies and variations of mold series were produced, as mold makers would often create second-, third-, and even fourth-generation duplicates as the need arose, and these can be traced in surviving examples. Because clay and glass both shrink upon firing and annealing, vessels made in a later-generation mold tend to be smaller in size than their prototypes. Slight modifications in design caused by recasting or recarving can also be discerned, indicating the reuse and copying of molds. \^/

“Roman mold-blown glass vessels are particularly attractive because of the elaborate shapes and designs that could be created, and several examples are illustrated here. The makers catered to a wide variety of tastes and some of their products, such as the popular sports cups, may even be regarded as souvenir pieces. However, mold-blowing also allowed for the mass production of plain, utilitarian wares. These storage jars were of uniform size, shape, and volume, greatly benefiting merchants and consumers of foodstuffs and other goods routinely marketed in glass containers. \^/

Roman Cage Cup Found with Ambergis

Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: When archaeologists excavating a large third- to fifth-century A.D. cemetery in the ancient Roman city of Augustodunum (modern Autun, France) they found an extremely rare and incalculably valuable Roman glass vessel in the stone sarcophagus of one of the city’s wealthiest citizens, they were stunned by its remarkable state of preservation. Though the cup was discovered in many pieces, its fragments were well enough preserved to easily make out its decorative patterns and to read its inscription, “VIVAS FELICITER,” or “Live happily.” Only 10 examples of this type of vessel, known as a cage cup, have survived from antiquity. [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology Magazine, November/December 2022]

The cage cup was made of carved blown glass and is 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) tall and 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) wide. After the cup’s fragments were unearthed, they were sent to Germany for restoration, a multiyear process that has revealed new details about this extraordinary artifact. It is clear that while the artist who carved the cup from a block of glass was extremely skilled, they nevertheless made a mistake that required them to add the letter “C” in the inscription later using a remelted piece of glass.

cage cup described above

Conservators also sampled the interior of the cup and found that it had once contained oils, plants, flowers, and ambergris, a rare waxy substance from the stomach contents of sperm whales. Ambergris, also called “sea truffle” or “whale vomit,” served in antiquity as a base for perfume, food, and medicine. The Augustodunum cage cup provides the earliest archaeological evidence for use of this highly prized material.

Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: Cage cups have intricate three-dimensional openwork designs in deep relief, usually geometric and much less frequently figural. “Cage cups are incredibly rare,” says ancient glass expert Carolyn Needell of the Chrysler Museum. “You almost never see them, and never in the ground.” In fact, the vessel found at Augustodunum is among the 10 best-preserved examples of Roman cage glass and the first complete vessel found in Gaul.[Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology Magazine, November/December 2021]

The cage cup from Augustodunum represents the pinnacle of Roman glassmaking. “What makes this cup extraordinary is the manufacturing technique,” says Tisserand. “It was probably carved from a single block of blown glass using techniques similar to those used by goldsmiths.” In fact, says Needell, cage cups are so difficult to make that scholars still debate how Roman glassmakers accomplished it. The Augustodunum cup must have been extraordinarily valuable. By way of comparison, says Tisserand, one of the last cage cups discovered was unearthed at the city of Taranes in what is now the Republic of North Macedonia in the 1970s. That cup was found along with a gold fibula, or clasp, inscribed with the name of the emperor Maximian (r. A.D. 286–305), an indication of its tremendous value. The inscription on the Augustodunum cage cup reads vivas feliciter, or “live happily.” The vessel is currently being restored at the Romano-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, Germany.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated November 2024