lettherebelight.pdf

Let There Be Light!

Or, How do You See in the Dark Age

it is a little dated where the archaeological

evidence is concerned. I have supplemented

Robins’ information with more recent

archaeological finds.

candlelight (Holmes 1952). Period documents

and church records also describe or hint at

various sizes. A chandoile was a small tallow

candle and a cierge was a large wax candle

(Holmes 1952). The candles that I have been

able to find in manuscripts, although they vary

in height, seem to be depicted very similarly,

that is a long cone with an almost constant

taper (see Fig. 1 ). Only once have I seen a

depiction of candles that were half way melted.

(By: Keith R. Doms, Garth of Wessex

as posted in the Winter ‘99 Plague)

There are six types of lighting devices that I

will discuss here. They are; candles, torches,

splinters and rush lights, lamps, lanterns, and

fire baskets. Candles were made most

commonly with tallow and less commonly with

beeswax. Torches were made from one or more

pieces of resinous woods or treated lengths of

rope. Splinters, narrow splits of wood, were

commonly made of Boxwood, Birch, and Pine.

Rushlights were stripped and treated pieces of

soft rush. Lamps were made of glass, ceramic,

metal, or stone. Lamps commonly burned a

variety of oils but could also house candles.

Sea birds such as the Great Awk and Stormy

Petrel were used around the Shetlands and

Hebrides, contain much fat and were used like

a lamp by simply inserting a wick of dried

moss down the throat of dead specimen and lit.

Which of these lamps were used, and where,

obviously depended on availability of proper

resources, wealth of the individual, occasion,

and in some cases religious doctrine.

Man has always had some difficulty trying to

get by after the sun goes down. Not being

equipped with eyes that work well in low

levels of light, man has continually sought

better or efficient ways to combat the darkness.

Until this century fire has been the dominant

form of artificial lighting, only the way the

flame is fed contained and maintained has

varied tremendously depending on materials

available, technology, and ingenuity. This

paper will deal with lighting techniques used

during the middle ages in Europe. You will

note a strong northern European bias that does

not necessarily reflect a personal bias, but

rather the limited nature of relevant material on

this subject that I have been able to find. Most

sources that discuss life in Europe in the

Middle Ages only casually mention lighting

techniques of this time staying with the well

worn quartet of candles, lamps, touches, and

central or large fire places. Little or no

elaboration is usually given. There is however

a good amount of variation by region and time.

I will endeavor to shed some light on the

particulars of lighting devices, where they were

used and when they were used. Much of this

material comes from F.W. Robins’ book, The

Story of the Lamp . This book is very thorough

and discusses lighting devices from around the

world and through time. Being printed in 1939,

During the Middle Ages, tallow was the most

common material from which candles were

made. These candles are described as being

smoky and pungent (Gies 1969). The most

common method of manufacture was to make a

braided rush wick which was repeatedly dipped

and then cooled in liquid animal fat until it

reached an appropriate size. They were then

hung up to harden and whiten. The rush wicks

began to be replaced by braided cotton wicks

in the 15th Century as these wicks burned

brighter and with out sputtering. Hanawalt

states that, “A pound of hard fat for candles

was four times as dear as meat, and beeswax

the only alternative, was a prized possession.”

(Hanawalt 1986). The candles could also be

passed through a cylinder or ring to shape

them. Candles could also be sand-cast. Sand,

reportedly was sometimes added to the tallow

in order to keep the heat down. Beeswax could

be added make the candle less messy.

Of the six types of lighting devices covered

here, we are most familiar with the candle.

Candles were made from tallow, wax, or an

unlawful combination of both. Regardless of

what material was used candles were expensive

and regulations were passed to control their

production and use. Holmes notes that it was

forbidden for most occupations except those

that needed them forbade work to be done by

Candles of beeswax were a luxury item until

this century. Beeswax candles were also made

by the dipping process along with pouring

molten wax down the wick to produce the long

thin candles known as tapers. Many of the

beeswax candles were used in church

ceremony; in fact church doctrine demanded

that only wax candles be used for various

occasions and places. Whether a candle was

made of tallow or wax was important enough

to have caused separate guilds to be

established, the Waxchandlers and the

Tallowchandlers, for making the different

candles. In London a

Waxchandler could have his

entire supply of wax and

candles confiscated if he were

caught adulterating wax

candles with tallow. Candles

are depicted in various sizes

in medieval manuscripts.

Because of their nature, few

candles survive from earlier

periods. Two of the earliest

surviving candles come from

Sutton Hoo, circa 625-8 AD,

and Broomfield, Essex. These

candles are unlike any

depiction or description I am

aware of (see Fig. 1a & b ).

Here, two hemispheres of

beeswax are held in iron

bowls on iron stands that fork

into 3 or 4 legs. Both tallow

and beeswax candles

continued to be manufactured into this century

with both being eclipsed by the invention of

paraffin in 1850.

grouped into two general types; pricket, those

that hold the candle in place by the means of a

spike embedded in or molded to the top, and

socketed, those that have a cup at the top to

receive a candle of the right size. Although

both pricket and socketed candlesticks were

used by the Romans, socketed candlesticks

seem to have been abandoned in Europe after

the fall of Rome. Pricket style candlesticks

pricket and the socket type were manufactured

from wood, various metals, and ceramics, The

decoration on the candlesticks being

determined by cost, region, and function (see

Fig 1 ). In Tres Riches Hours (1413-16), tall

candlesticks with tall candles are standing on

the floor surrounding the coffin of Raymond

Diocres. A French and a Spanish manuscript,

both from the thirteenth century, depict

candlesticks in a similar

fashion, with a flange at

the top to catch dripping

wax, a shaft with a

central knob, and a

footed base ( Fig. 1c & d ).

These illustrations

compare favorably with

a 13th century

candlestick in the

Metropolitan Museum of

Art ( Fig. le ). The Adkins

(1982) show a very

simple “traveling”

pricked candlestick with

three folding legs from

England ( Fig. 1g ). Some

candlesticks were

representations of beasts

such as dragons and

stags with the pricket on

their backs ( Fig. 1h ).

Many of the early socketed candlesticks had a

slot or a hole in the socket to facilitate the

removal of candles. Chandeliers for candles

were common in churches usually consisting of

an iron band, sometimes with pierced

decoration, surmounted with a row of prickets.

become the dominant form and flourish into

the sixteenth century. They are still used in

some ecclesiastical settings. Socketed

candlesticks were reintroduced into Europe

from the Near East during the thirteenth and

fourteenth Centuries. Candlesticks of both the

Not only did candles vary in shape and size, so

also did the candlestick. Candlesticks can be

By the later Middle Ages, more ornate

chandeliers with multiple arms with sockets

occur. Though simpler varieties also are found.

A chandelier consisting of simple cross-timbers

with shallow metal bowls at each terminus

holding stout candles is depicted in Livre des

Tournois (146065). It is apparent that

candlesticks, from the few sources that are

available, occur in great variety and for all

occasions.

from 1515.

Every day

torches are

thought to been

made of resinous

wood. In Italy until

this century, torches

were fabricated from

saplings that were beaten

into fibrous state and then

impregnated with fat. In the

18th century Scotland, men

would stand behind seated guests

and hold a burning splinter of bog

pine that naturally has a high

concentration of turpentine.

An English recipe for a torch

from 1935 consists of rope

treated with Stockholm tar, though

resin, tal low, and beeswax, alone or

mixed could also be used. It is quite

apparent that torches could be made in

a variety of ways by using what was

locally available. In England and

Northern France, there was little in the

way of resinous woods that were

available in Scotland, Ireland,

Germany, and the Mediterranean. Bass

fiber rope would have been used in

Europe until the introduction of hemp

rope during the 13th century. I believe

that a torch could easily been made by

tying some complex knot like a turks

head on top of a wood handle and then

impregnate it tallow, resin, or wax.

longest used forms of lighting devices in

Europe were the splinter and rush light. Used

into the early part of this century in rural areas,

these contrivances were the common man’s

candle. The splinter was a thin piece of

resinous wood, that could be coated with

tallow, that was held between two rocks,

wedged into a crux of a stick or metal spines,

or held in a simple metal clamp ( Fig. 3a & b )

so that the burning end pointed down at an

angle. A metal plate was often placed under the

splinter so as to reduce the chance of fire.

Splinters were in common use in Eastern

Europe, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the

Mediterranean. England, lacking resinous

In the popular mind, the torch is the preferred

form of lighting during the Middle Ages.

Unfortunately this is probably far from the

truth. One of the biggest problems in

describing a medieval torch is that none have

appeared to have survived. The few

descriptions of torches that Robins discusses

are either early Creek or from the 18th and

early 19th century. But given the conservative

nature of folk technology, these examples

probably give a rather good example of what

was possible in the Middle Ages. Creek torches

were bundles of sticks, indubitably of a highly

resinous wood. In one account from a medieval

English churchwarden’s account describes “A

torch of rosin weighing 11 lbs.”. Torches of

this period are thought to be twisted wax or a

course candle made of mixture of resin and

wax. The earliest depiction I have found of a

torch comes from a bas-relief on the tomb of

Pierre de Gougis (1440) in Paris. Identical

torches are drawn in King Rene of Anjou’s

Livre des Tournois, 1460-65. This depiction

appears to be of several long candles grouped

around a central wooden shaft ( Fig. 2 ). A

similar depiction occurs in a Flemish book

Two of the earliest, most common, and

trees, developed

the rushlight. Here

a common soft

rush is cut, soaked,

stripped, dried, and

then dipped in fat

or grease and then

dried again. As

with splinters, the

rush light was

usually held in a

small clamp or

split device

( Fig. 3c & d ) but

unlike splinters the

rushlight was held at an upward angle and lit at

the top end. Some rushlight holders are

multipurpose having a candleholder attached to

the arm of the clamp, To give an example of

the rushlight’s capability a rush two and a

quarter long would burn for fifty-seven

minutes. The splinter and rushlight were easy

to produce which indubitably led to wide

spread use among the common folk of Europe.

Stone lamps

are

indubitably

the oldest

form of lamp

throughout

Europe,

dating to the

Neolithic, but

were steadily

replaced by

other lighter

and more

easily shaped

materials.

None the less, stone lamps remained in

common use in ecclesiastical establishments,

rural, and northern regions. Which type of

stone was used of course depended on either

trade or more commonly what was locally

available. The exact shape of the stone lamp is

highly variable. A boat

shaped lamp from the

Shetlands, a shallow

oval plate from Viking

England, cylindrical

slightly carved

pedestals from

Medieval England

Scandinavia, and

square stone blocks

with anywhere from

one to thirty small 1”

to 3” diameter

depressions recovered

from various medieval

churches in England,

are just some of the shapes that can occur

( Fig. 4 ). The square stone lamps from England

are known as cresset stones or lamps. Cresset

means a light mounted on top of a pole, though

it is quite clear that many lamps that are called

cressets were not so mounted. They commonly

have a small hole at the bottom of the reservoir

for the placement of a post of some kind that

will hold the wick. Though examples are

known which have a narrow channel that runs

down from the upper edge of the cresset lamp

to the bottom of the reservoir for the purpose

of holding a sunken wick.

There appear to be at least four different types

of ceramic lamps. From middle to late Anglo-

Saxon England there are simple thrown lamps

about three inches high and three inches wide

at top with a tapering middle and a slightly

flaring base ( Fig. 5a ). One example from South

Hampton was determined to have fish oil

residues in it. A second type, from Sweden, and

Lamps are probably the most varied lighting

device found during the Middle Ages

( Figs, 4 , 5 , 6 ). Stone, ceramic, iron, brass,

silver, and glass were all used. Single or

multiple lamp combinations were used. Most

lamps from medieval Europe were of simple

construction with an open reservoir and had

either a floating, supported, or sunken wick.

The fuel used depended on location, whale and

fish oil along the coasts, fat or grease inland,

and olive oil around the Mediterranean.

presumably other

Scandinavian countries, is

shaped like a footed funnel,

they range around six inches

in diameter at the top and four

inches in height. These lamps

differ from the Anglo-Saxon

lamps in that their bowl is

much more flared and usually

have the inside of their bowls

decorated with concentric

lines, narrower stems, and

deep indentations on the

bottom of their feet so that

they could be mounted on

staves which in turn could be

stuck in the ground or the dirt

floor ( Fig. 5b ). These lamps

do qualify as being true

cresset lamps. Neither Angle

or Scandinavian pottery

lamps have evidence of a

support post, so they were probably utilizing a

floating or a sunken wick. The third type from

the Mediterranean, is a small bowl with a

pinched rim giving them a simple spout. These

open bowl lamps date back before the Roman

Empire and were in use through the 19th

century. A fourth type of clay lamp, though

some examples of metal and some of wood are

known, is the open stand lamp ( Fig. 5c ). This

type of lamp consists of a small open spouted

bowl surmounting a shaft that usually

terminates in a dished foot. Looking very much

like a candlestick, these lamps would

sometimes have handles. The open stand lamp

was common in both Northern and Eastern

Europe. There are other forms

of pottery lamps known

( Fig. 5d & e ), but I cannot

determine how common they

are or the extent of their

distribution.

The Crusie type lamp is found through out

Europe with the exception of England,

probably because of the popularity of rush

lights. The open pan lamp is the other common

variety of metal lamp. Here a shallow pan has

its corners pinched in to form simple spouts. A

square pan with four spouts is the most

common while hexagonal pans with six spouts

are also known. These lamps are usually

suspended and have large hoods testifying to

the smoky nature of the fuel used, These lamps

are common in the Low Countries and

commonly made of brass. Robins speculates

that the bronze hanging bowls from England

and Ireland may have been hanging lamps. If

A variety of metals were used

to make lamps in the Middle

Ages. The material

indubitably depended on the

clientele. Unfortunately few

examples survive due to the

ease that some metals corrode

and the recyclable nature of

metal, especially more

precious metals. The earliest

iron lamp that I have found

comes from the Oseberg boat

burial (c. 800 - 50 AD) and a

few Viking Age Norwegian

burials. This Lamp consists of

a simple bowl with a flaring rim riveted to a

twisted wrought iron stem. The bowl is about

20 cm. wide and the full height of bowl and

stem is 86 cm. (Roesdahl and Wilson 1992).

The most common type of metal lamp appears

to be the Crusie Lamp ( Fig. 6 ). This lamp

usually consists of four parts; a back rib; a drip

catching pan or bowl, this part is sometimes

left off; a shallow bowl, commonly pear

shaped, to hold the oil or fat; and a spiked hook

which could be used to either hang or fasten

the crusie to a convenient beam or wall. The

reservoir of the crusie lamps were adjustable so

that they could be tilted downward when the

oil ran low so that the wick would not run dry.

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