Category Archives: Voynich Containers

Cards and Containers

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2 May 2020

Numerous containers have been posted on blogs and on the Voynich.ninja forum to try to find a match for the simple and lavish containers in the VMS small-plants section. Some have suggested the VMS containers are microscopes, or telescopes. To me they look like pigment tubes, reading tubes, needle tubes, and spice containers. I’ve collected thousands of images of containers but it’s difficult to find ones that are highly ornate that are similar to the VMS drawings that were created before 1460.

I’ve previously blogged about some of the history and designs of containers. This time I’d like to post some images that are found on playing cards and manuscript illustrations from the 14th to 16th centuries.

The Popular Pastime

Acorns are arranged in a treelike “virtues & vices” style in these 16th-century playing cards [© The Trustees of the British Museum, all rights reserved]

Playing cards were very popular in the 15th century despite some social stigmas attached to cards and gambling. Some intriguing imagery in tarot cards has already been noted by VMS researchers.

In addition to tarot designs, playing cards included religious imagery, fashions, zodiac themes, trees in the style of virtues and vices (see right), notable figures, and… fancy containers.

Below is an example of an uncut sheet of playing cards from the Lower Rhine, created about 1470. These lidded chalices were drawn in a variety of styles and some have interesting fluted or hexagonal bases. Some of the patterns spiral around the container, a pattern that would be difficult to fabricate in the 15th century, others have ornate textural overlaps:

Uncut playing cards from the lower Rhine, c. 1470.
A set of 8 uncut playing cards displaying highly ornate containers from the time, perhaps designs that were never executed, from the lower Rheinland from about 1470 [© The Trustees of the British Museum, all rights reserved]
The Burgundian Court chalice [Gryffindor, 2007, Wikimedia Commons]

The chalices in the above drawings appear to be mostly metal, but containers made with gemstones and glass did exist in the 15th century. Jasper was a popular material, but there were also some transparent chalices made from rock crystal or glass, like this elegant chalice from the Burgundian court (right), dating from about the 1450s or 1460s.

Most of the lidded chalices on playing cards probably didn’t exist in real life. They would have been too expensive for most people to afford, even the nobility. There are some luxury goblets from Spain, Italy, and Austria that have survived from the latter 1300s that are similar to the Burgundy Court chalice, but they are not numerous, and some of the more ornate designs exist only as manuscript illustrations.

There are a few examples of chalices and urns carved from ivory or which use an ostrich egg for the central container, but most of them are later than the 15th century. For those on leaner budgets, copper was sometimes substituted for gold and silver, but even these were out of financial reach for the average person.

Some of the most ornate metal chalices of the 1450s were created in Hungary, but most of them did not include glass. Ornate enameling was sometimes inserted in the spaces between raised designs.

German chalice, 15th century, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the left is a 15th-century German chalice similar to the Burgundian Court chalice (note the shape and position of the glass elements). Many of these luxury containers were studded with gemstones.

It’s possible that some of the fancier designs depicted on playing cards in the mid-15th century ended up in the collections of kings later in the 15th century or 16th century, when technology improved enough to fabricate more efficiently.

I sometimes wonder if some of the VMS containers were concept designs rather than actual containers. Some of them could have existed in the early 15th century but others would have been difficult or impossible to make, depending on how much glass was involved. There is at least one VMS container that looks like it might be transparent.

The Flemish painting below includes an ornate chalice very much like the Burgundian Court chalice. It’s a little smaller, and doesn’t have glass in the foot, but it’s the same general idea:

The moneylender and his wife by Quentin Massijs, c. 1500 [The Louvre, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

The chalice below is unusually ornate for its time. It is dated to the first half of the 13th century, created for a monastery near Freiburg im Breisgau, possibly for the celebration of Eucharist. Some of the Portuguese cibora from this time period are also highly ornate, but in a different style (more enamel and less filigree):

Chalice probably made for Eucharist for a monastery near Freiburg im Breisgau in the 13th century.
Highly ornate 13th-century chalice with religious imagery, possibly created for Eucharist [Source: The Met Museum]

Container Illuminations

It is easier to draw a chalice than to build one so we don’t always know whether the containers in manuscript illuminations were real or existed only in the imagination of the illustrator.

This Viennese painting of the presentation of Jesus to the Three Wise Men (below) probably depicts containers that were a little more ornate than most of the containers one would find in real life in the 1460s:

The presentation of Jsus to the Three Wise Men by Leonhard Brixen, . 1460 Vienna

Fancy chalices are often included in illustrations of the Eucharist or Three Wise Men.

On the right are two angels holding a chalice that has been enlarged to indicate its importance. The exaggerated size makes it possible for us to see the detailing on the foot (BL Royal 2B XIII).

Luxury lidded chalices were often drawn with a wide middle and narrow, fancy finials. In the example below are two fancy chalices and a more utilitarian container on the right, similar to an arbarello:

Examples of offerings in fancy chalices in a medieval religious drawing
Three chalices in two different designs in the Holkham Bible, southeast England, c. 1330s [BL Additional 47682]

Here are three chalices from a Dutch Book of Hours. One is open to show the contents:

Three Wise Men presenting gifts in fancy containers to the baby Jesus [Source: BL Add 50005, ca. 1410s]

A very fancy spice tower or monstrance is included as an offering in a scene with VMS-style clothing (note the baggy sleeves):

A large spice tower or monstrance is captioned as a “very great offering” in this illustration from Augsburg, Germany, c. 1400 to c. 1425 [Vatican Pal.lat.1806]

This French manuscript includes some highly ornate containers being offered by the Three Wise Men. They are drawn as metal containers, but the one on the right is designed like a Christian monstrance. A monstrance would sometimes have glass in the windows:

Fancy containers carried by the Three Wise Men at the presentation of Jesus
The Three Wise Men presenting gifts in highly ornate containers. Two are chalice-shaped, the third is similar to a Jewish spice house, a style that was often used in Christian tradition as a monstrance. [Ms Arsenal 1175]

Here is an example of a reliquary shaped like a spice house in a Rhenish copy of Tacuinum sanitatis. The central portion is glass so the relic can be seen:

Singing hymns by the reliquary. [Source: Tacuinum Sanitatis, c. 1440s to c. 1470s, BNF Latin 9333]

An elegant set of tableware in a French manuscript:

Hebrew codexes often have very beautiful ornate container designs. These illustrations are in a manuscript that includes both Sephardic and Ashkenazic scripts:

Ornate designs in a c. 1429 to c. 1460 Hebrew manuscript from France and Italy [BL Additional 14759]

This illustrates a shop in Norwich, England, with a variety of pitchers, plates, and lidded chalices:

The following illustration from Genoa, Italy, includes fancy containers in a banking quarter, presumably items that have been pawned. Note the Ghibelline merlons across the top of the building. On the table are coins, with the owner, accountant, or clerk marking a register on the left. The hand gestures probably indicate a barter transaction for deciding the value of the items in the man’s hand.

In the background are a large lidded chalice and an ornate metal pitcher, probably studded with gemstones. The illustration is not strictly literal. It depicts the vice of avarice:

Transaction in a pawnshop illustrating the vice of avarice, c. 1330s Genoa [BL Add MS 27695]

Chalices are not always associated with religious imagery, pawnshops or metal shops. Sometimes they are included in travelogues and novels. This is from the Romance of Alexander, from c. 1400, with participants in a feast being served food and drink from fancy containers:

A feast table with ornate containers in the Romance of Alexander [© Bodleian Library, MS Bodl 264]

This elaborate lidded container is from a medieval book of medicine:

Fancy lidded chalice in a 12th-century manuscript of medieval medicine [Source: BSB CLM 13002]

Are There Glass Containers?

The VMS containers don’t appear to be studded with gems, and they probably don’t have filigree. They range from simple tubes that could be wood, metal, or leather, to cibora-like containers that are possibly metal. The fancy container on f89r might be partially or wholly made of glass. Regardless of whether the containers are real or conceptual, they aren’t necessarily all made of the same materials.

As mentioned in the previous blog, by the year 1500 containers similar to the VMS “fancy” container were being crafted in various parts of Bohemia, with northern Bohemian craftsmen having close ties to those in Italy.

The lidded examples below are from the Veneto. They are not quite the same shape as the VMS container, but they do have some traits in common, especially the finial and rounded foot:

Lidded cup, Venice, c. 1500 [Courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna]

The Simpler Containers

In the Middle Ages, simple tubes were often crafted of leather or wood. Sometimes they were carved from bone. More ornate ones were usually made of copper, tin, silver, gold, or exotic materials like ostrich egg or ivory. Decorative curved glass was not common before the 1470s.

One container that differs substantially from the previous drawings is this leather scroll case. It’s like a larger version of a quill-pen case. Some were plain, others beautifully tooled like this one:

Scroll tube for carrying rolled messages [Courtesy of the State Hermitage Museum, Italy, 15th century]

Roman scroll cases were sometimes made of bronze. Some of the middle eastern scroll cases were finely detailed metal. Not all scroll cases were a full tube. Some were simple caps, to protect the ends of the scroll.

Needle cases were similar to scroll cases, but smaller.

Swivel guns were bigger (15th c German, courtesy of Lennart Viebahn):

Seige guns were much bigger. These Turkish guns were built sometime around the late 1450s:

The siege guns actually look more like some of the “pipe” segments in the VMS pool drawings, but the naval swivel guns are vaguely like the VMS containers.

Voynich Manuscript plain containers
A selection of plainer containers in the small-plants section of the Voynich Manuscript. [Source: Beinecke 408, ca. 1404 to ca. 1438, Yale Rare Books & Manuscripts Library]

It’s difficult to tell if the VMS containers are tiered or telescoping. Tiered containers were not uncommon. And lensless sighting tubes were sometimes telescoping.

Sometimes a wooden layer was wrapped within leather or other materials and the ridge aligned with a cap. Containers were used for many purposes, so there were numerous variations in design.

There is a suggestion of a depression in the tops of some of the simpler containers.

Some of the simpler VMS containers look like they might be pigment tubes, scroll tubes, needle tubes, spice containers, or possibly even reading tubes. Some researchers have suggested weapons barrels for ones with reasonably straight shafts.

Summary

Maybe the VMS containers are documentary drawings, maybe they are designs or projections for something that would be difficult to craft until a decade or two later.

What I learned from looking at manuscript drawings is that many of the containers were reasonably accurate, but some were embellished beyond what was technologically feasible. I’m not sure which one applies to the VMS (especially since the VMS containers vary from simple to complex). The designs might be chosen to express a classification system for the plants, but given the practical nature of many of the tubes, perhaps they really existed.

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright 2 May 2020 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved

Family Affairs

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24 March 2020

I’ve mentioned a few times that maybe the Voynich Manuscript was a family project. This seems possible because medieval fathers sometimes created books of wisdom to hand down to their sons. One medieval family codex might be of particular interest to Voynich researchers because of visual similarities to the rosettes folio.

A Book Disembodied

Detail of moth and flowers in the Cocharelli Codex.

The Cocharelli family previously of Provençe and Acre settled in Genoa and created a beautiful 14th-century codex for their children. Parts of it are based on stories told by the compiler’s grandfather. It was produced around the 1320s or 1330s, but has a murky history. At some point it was cut into pieces.

S. Nicolini (University of Bologna) reports that the cuttings appeared inside a 15th-century missal in the 19th century and were sold as part of an anonymous book collection.

Clippings have turned up in several different countries: England, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Some of the content is allegorical, being a treatise on the vices, but there are also historical events, and the folios are enlivened by naturalistic images of flora and fauna that would appeal to any age group. The drawings are surprisingly detailed considering the small size of the codex (approx. 160 x 99mm):

Moths and wasp or fly decorating the base of the folio of the Cocharelli Codex Prologue.
Naturalistic images of moths and insect embellish the base of the Prologue [BL Egerton MS 3127]

I have collected links to the fragments so they can be accessed from one place:

  • BL Additional 27695 – 15 fragments, including prologue, heaven and hell, vices of Envy, Avarice, and Gluttony, Adam and Eve, and notably the sack of Tripoli and death of Philip IV of France
  • BL Additional 28841 – exotic animals, marine life, insects, rodents, along with verse about the history of Sicily
  • BL Egerton 3127 – 4 fragments (2 leaves) of history and natural history
  • BL Egerton 3781 – 2 fragments of a courtly garden scene
  • Museum of Art Cleveland, Ms. n. 1953.152 – leaf of Accidia and her court
  • Museo del Bargello, Ms. inv. 2065 – Siege of Acre
  • Fragment sold as part of Eine Wiener Sammlung, Berlin (12 May 1930)

The illuminators are currently identified as the Master of the Cocharelli Codex (active in Genoa, c. 1330) and the Monk of Hyères (disputed). The sequence of the illustrations is considered by researchers to be different from the original order.

Multicultural Influences

Parts of the manuscript are in a more eastern style and there are several black people in African dress in the main illustrations and in the borders, as well as a person in the center of a feast who looks Asian:

Feast in Cocharelli codex ina more eastern style, Additional MS 27695

It makes you wonder if the grandfather who related these stories was a seafarer who traveled widely. There are documents that support the presence of Pellegrino Cocharelli at some of the locations mentioned in the codex (C. Concina, 2016).

One of the Egerton 3781 fragments includes this image of a garden fountain, and if you look closely, you will notice to the right, there is a building with arches and Ghibelline merlons. Genoa was well within the purview of the Holy Roman Empire in the early 14th century (the HRE included Rome and much of Burgundy/Provençe at the time):

Cocharelli Family Codex courtly scene around a garden fountain.

In this illustration on the page with text about the vice of Luxuria (lust), we see a maiden feeding a bird next to an architectural birdhouse that has Ghibelline merlons between the three towers:

Ghibelline merlons were one way in which Italians, especially those in an east/west belt where Italy spread out into the wider geographical region of Lombardy and Bohemia, signaled their allegiance to the HRE (in opposition to the pope). This political implication continued until about the mid-15th century after which the merlons gradually became more decorative than political (and thereafter spread to other areas).

In the following battle scene from BL Additional 27695, there are square battlements on all the walls and towers except for the central tower, which has swallowtail Ghibelline merlons at the top. Since this represents the sack of Tripoli (Lebanon), it seems probable that the Ghibelline merlons are symbolic rather than literal, but installations of the Knights Templar sometimes had Ghibelline merlons, so perhaps they existed to a limited extent outside of northern Italy before the late 15th century.

In the waters of this elaborate illumination, there are four galleys from Genoa, in addition to others from Pisa and the Veneto:

In the 13th and 14th centuries, there were considerable tensions between the papacy and various kings and emperors in the late Middle Ages. Philip IV of France (1268–1314) aggressively challenged the power of the pope and the increasingly powerful Knights Templar. He gave important positions to his family members and even attempted to install a relative as Holy Roman Emperor to enlarge the kingdom of France.

The Cocharelli family recorded the arrest and torture of the Templars by Philip IV for a variety of charges, such as heresy, black magic, and financial corruption. In 1310 and 1314, King Philip had many of them burned at the stake. But his dreams of a large consolidated empire withered a few months later when he suffered a stroke while hunting in northern France. He died soon after.

Swallowtail Merlons in the Voynich Manuscript

In the Cocharelli illustration below, the roundup of the Templars is shown in the top half of the folio. The walled city has Ghibelline merlons on the front of the complex, but not the back. This is similar to the small drawing of a walled city or castle in the upper right section of the VMS rosettes folio.

The walled garden at the bottom of the Cocharelli folio, depicting game animals and the death of Philip IV, is completely surrounded by a long wall with Ghibelline merlons. In the VMS, there is also a long wall on one of the sections connecting two rosettes, but I wouldn’t describe this as a garden wall, it looks more like a long city or castle wall:

Since the events surrounding King Pillip in the Cocharelli codex took place in France, it is not likely that the merlons in these illustrations are literal, but since Philip IV was ardently against the power of the papacy and open to allegiances with the HRE, and the illustrators were Italian, it may have been their way of diagraming his political leanings:

Execution of the Templars and Death of Philip IV of France
Storybook style illustration recording the rounding up and persecution of the Knights Templar by Philip IV of France at the top, and the subsequent death of King Philip from a stroke while he was hunting in northern France. [Source: BL Additional MS 27695 folio 6v]
Detail of the walled city and roundup of the Knights Templar. Note the Ghibelline merlons are mostly at the front.
Closeup of the walled garden stocked with game, representing the death of Philip IV from a stroke that occurred during a hunt in northern France in 1314 not long after he had dispensed with the Templars.

The VMS is also known for its elaborate containers in the small-plants section and the container-like “towers” on the rosettes folio. There are also some interesting containers on Cocharelli folio f7v in a fragment that has been completely cut away from the text:

In contrast, the illustration of the Siege of Acre (Museo del Bargello), in which the Crusaders lost Acre, a city on the Levantine coast, Ghibelline merlons are not included except on a single portal in the lower center part of the city:

(Note, there is some dispute about this being Acre. Some scholars say Genoa, but the textual evidence seems to lean toward Acre.)

In a discussion of the possible ordering of the original Cocharelli codex folios, Concina mentions some of the political turmoil associated with the Guelfs and the Ghibellines:

In the summer of 1308 Opizzino Spinola of Lucoli proclaimed himself the only captain of Genoa by deposing and imprisoning Bernabò Doria, who was his co-ruler in the traditional diarchy established for the government of the city. Following this coup d’état, many leaders of the Ghibelline families of the Doria (including Corrado and his son Pietro) and Spinola of San Luca, as well as of the Guelf families of the Grimaldi and Fieschi, were forced to flee the city. In June 1309 those families exiled set aside their old differences and joined forces to defeat Opizzino and his army at Sestri Ponente, forcing him to take shelter in the castle of Gavi. On the same day, the Guelf and Ghibelline exiles entered Genoa, apparently without great losses….

In addition, if we consider historical references, we can glimpse a family [the Cocharellis] gravitating towards the Ghibelline party, the Doria and the Aragoneses.

—Chiara Concina (University of Verona)

Summary

As mentioned previously, the Ghibelline merlons in these drawings may be symbolic rather than literal. It’s hard to find evidence of this style of merlon outside of northern Italy/Lombardy/Bohemia before the latter 15th century and the Cocharelli drawings are from the 14th century when their geographical distribution was quite limited. But, considering that Philip IV of France was one of the more ardent opponents of the pope and friendlier than some French monarchs to the Holy Roman Empire (he was hoping to expand into that region as well, via family alliances), the Ghibelline merlon reflects his political leanings via a symbol that was familiar to Italian artists.

Here is a drawing of Padua, with a long wall and numerous towers topped by Ghibelline merlons, by Felice Celeste Zanchi c. 1300:

Padua with Ghibelline merlons, c. 1300 by Felice Zanchi.

But are they real or symbolic? A 15th century drawing of Padua shows square merlons, so perhaps Zanchi added some from his imagination.

At times there is only a glimpse of the merlons, as in this illustration in BNF Latin 9333 (c. 1410s):

Sometimes the merlons are more clearly indicated, as in this earlier example of Tacuinum Sanitatis (Casanatense, 14th century):

So what about the merlons in the VMS rosettes folio. Are they literal or symbolic?

It is interesting that the walled city or castle at the top of the VMS folio was drawn with more Ghibelline merlons on the front than there on the back (similar to the Cocharelli depiction).

Is this how compounds were usually built? Or do the drawings in the two different codices have a common inspiration? Is the VMS merlon sending a political message? Is it a reference to a specific event? Or is it an actual place, a landmark to help a traveler find his way?

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright March 2020 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved

Through a Glass Lightly

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The container on f89r of the Voynich manuscript has always struck me as an attempt to draw transparency. The bulbous part near the top (below the finial), and the narrow stem, seem to be encased in an outer layer. It would be difficult to create patterns like this out of crystalline stone, but fused glasses sometimes look like this.

I don’t want to get too tied to the idea of glass, but if it is glass, could such a container be fabricated in the 15th century?

f89r container

Antique Glass

I’m familiar with Murano glass and Bohemian glass in general, I have antique glass in my personal collection. I saw some exquisite etched glass while traveling through Hungary. Italian glass is well-known and has been actively traded through Venice for hundreds of years, but was glass technology sufficiently advanced in the 15th century to create vessels as fabulous as the one in the VMS?

I don’t have enough free time to research and answer this intriguing question, but I gathered a few pictures of amphoriska that demonstrate that glass-making in Greece, the Levant, and the Roman Empire, were quite sophisticated in earlier times. Most of the following artifacts were created 2,600 to 1,500 years ago.

We can see from the examples, that glassmakers knew how to create translucent, feathered glass in multiple colors approximately 2,500 years ago, and that iridescence and the use of sliced canes (the ancient equivalent of millefiori) had also been achieved by the Roman era. Molded and patterned surface textures (both added and intrinsic) were also part of the glassmaker’s repertoire (click to see larger):

The detail in these little amphorae is extraordinary, considering they were only about 3″ high. Note that the detail in the carved rock crystal (bottom-right) was also remarkable—equal to that of many blown-glass vessels.

Signed pieces from the early Roman era also demonstrate a high level of skill in creating molded pieces, some of which compare favorably to glass housewares from the 1940s.


Layered Glass

But what about cased glass, one of the techniques that might result in a container similar to the VMS drawing? Cased glass is glass that is fused so one color shows through another (e.g., transparent glass over colored glass) and is sometimes cut to further reveal the underlying layer. It’s more difficult than fusing multiple colors within the same layer.

Blue Vase, Pompeii
The Blue Vase with cameo technique from Pompeii, Photo courtesy of m.violante, Wikipedia

Bohemian glass from the last couple of centuries is well-known for this technique (Egermann and Moser pioneered some of the modern methods). Beads made from slices of caned glass (sometimes called “eye” glass) go back to the ancients but I was not able to find ancient artifacts that had a layer of translucent glass fused on top of colored glass in a curved vessel.

The closest I was able to find was “cameo glass” like the magnificent Blue Vase from Pompeii (right), held in the Naples museum (a museum that was “on strike” when I attempted to visit it years ago), but it does not have the same effect as cased glass in which translucent over colored is used instead of the other way around. Still, it does demonstrate the great level of sophistication achieved in ancient times. Some of these techniques disappeared for a few centuries during the Middle Ages.

Medieval Glass

Progress does not occur in a straight line and knowledge is sometimes lost. Millions died in famines, plagues, and wars, and their skills and trade secrets died with them. The techniques illustrated by the ancient amphoras can all be found in Europe in the 16th century, and a century later many new techniques were developed to reproduce ancient styles. But how much was known in the 15th and 14th centuries?

c. 1300 patterned glass courtesy of The Met

It was quite common for medieval glassmakers to add blobs of transparent or translucent glass as decorative additions. Engraved glass was not uncommon either. Glass enameling and a medieval form of “carnival” glass existed by the 15th century. Metal and glass were frequently combined, but it’s a struggle to find vessels in which a layer of translucent glass was fused on top of a colored layer.

If the VMS container is glass (or possibly glass with a metal base), it might not be cased glass. It might be translucent glass with an embedded pattern of colored glasses. The pattern does not look feathered, and appears too even and regular to be caned glass, so it is not an example of the most common styles, but if the vessel is partly imaginary, or a design for something that was not practical to fabricate, then the imagination of the illustrator may have embellished it.

Maybe it’s not glass at all. Maybe it’s one vessel behind another, or two different ideas for the same vessel. Or maybe it’s like a Russian doll, one vessel inside another, but drawn to show both.

I’m hoping that it’s at least partly glass, I like glass, but I’d better not hold my breath. VMS research has a way of stretching out longer than one expects.

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright 2019 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved

Postscript Feb 22, 2019:

I didn’t post this image in the above article because it’s a rights-managed Getty image, and blog readers often don’t click on external links, but I wish I had because it illustrates similarities to the VMS containers that are strongly associated with the 15th century.

It’s a goblet made in Murano with a finial similar to the VMS container (which could be glass or metal). This kind of finial is not difficult to make in glass and is also common to Egyptian glass, so it’s not the primary reason I chose this example. What I suggest you pay attention to is the regular pattern of raised, applied enamel dots, a style and fabrication technique that was not typical of ancient glass:

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/light-blue-goblet-decorated-with-polychrome-high-res-stock-photography/159620064

Now hold that dot style in your mind and imagine it applied to a raised, translucent pattern, as in these Murano vessels (in the Museo del Vetro). Clear glass was a significant innovation of the early 1400s and from that point on was often combined with colored elements:

Scale motifs are found in almost all cultures, they are not exclusive to glass or to Murano, so I try not to get too excited when I see them, but every time I come across them, I am reminded of the many scaly patterns in various sections of the VMS.

Postscript Feb. 24, 2019:

I thought it might be helpful to include a few examples that illustrate regional differences in enameled glass motifs from about the late 1200s to the late 1400s:

13th to 15 century enameled glass patterns