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One of the most striking metaphors of medieval and later religious literature is that comparing the Virgin Mary to the glass of a window through which light is shining.As the glass remains perfect and unscathed when light passes through it, we are told, so Mary's virginity remains perfect and unscathed when she conceived and gave birth to her son Jesus.This image has been discussed on various occasions for poetry and devotional writing in Latin, French, German, and Spanish.But there is still room for a survey that would include some of the vemaculars of the British Isles (English, Welsh, and Irish), and take account of recent research on the early medieval Latin origins of the image.What appears below is part of a longer study written with three particular objectives.1. To review the origins of this theme and establish whether it is in fact patristic (as some have claimed) or of later date.2. To analyse the ways the theme is used in various languages.Most of the English examples below, for example, refer to Christ's Nativity though these have regularly and erroneously been described by their editors as references to the Amunciation.Al1 the laiown Welsh examples, on the other hand, refer to the Amunciation.The image also occurs in the context of the Resurrection, where it makes a direct comparison between the way Christ rose from the dead and the way he was born.3. To show that the metaphor has been used in the religious art and literature of Westem Europe more widely than has been appreciated.On the last it should be said at once that the material presented in this article is far from complete, and that is hoped what appears here will lead to the identification of further examples, not only in the language mentioned below (Greek, Latin, French, Provencal, Spanish, Italian, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Welsh and Irish), but in, for example, Portuguese, Catalan, Icelandic, Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Serbo-Croat.Any scholar with access to the appropriate libraries could add to what appears here.'1.-Julio Rodriguez-Puertolas, Fray Ifigo de Mendoza y sus Coplas de V h Christi (Madrid.1968).533-36, gives a detailed sumrnary of Spanish material.Cf. also Anselm Salzer, Die Sinnbilder und Beiworte Mariens in der deutschen Literatur und lateinischen Hymnenpwsie des Mittelalters (
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