A comprehensive survey traces the artistic development of glass from ancient Egyptian and Syrian origins through Greek and Roman moulded, cast, and blown techniques. It examines Early Christian and Byzantine production, medieval Eastern and Western traditions, and examples recovered from Anglo-Saxon and Frankish tombs. The work discusses medieval treatises, the rise of Venetian enamelled glass and other Renaissance centres in France, Spain, the Low Countries, and Germany, and later Dutch, English, and Asian glass of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Technical analyses, catalogued illustrations, and museum exemplars are employed to explain methods, decoration, enamelling, national styles, and contemporary developments.