Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/670

Rh mice [-1 “F3110 652 Spain, possibly even in England. and it seems improbable that it should have been lost in that archipelago, where the traditions of ancient civilization nmst have been better preserve-.l than in almost any other place. In 523 Cassiodorus writes of the “ innumerosa navigia ” belonging t) Venice, and where trade is active there is always a pro- bability that manufactures will flourish. However this may be, the earliest positive evidence of the existence at Venice of a worker in glass would seem to be the mention of Petrus Flavianus, phiolarius, in the ducale of Vitale Falier in the year 1090. In 1221 twenty-nine persons are mentioned as f riolari (i.e., phiolari), and in the same century “mariegole ” or codes of trade regulations were drawn up (.l[on0_f/ruﬁa (fella l'elrarz'a l'ene2i(ma e .l[m'¢mese, p. 219). The manu- facture had then no doubt attained considerable proportions ; in 1263 the glass-workers exhibited decanters, scent-bottles, and the like; in 1279 they 1nade,among other things, weights and measures. In the latter part of this century the glass- houses were almost entirely transferred to Murano. From thenceforward the manufacture continued to grov in im- portance ; glass vessels were made in large quantities, as well as glass for windows. The earliest example which has as yet been described—a cup of blue glass, enamelled and gilt—is, however, not earlier than about 1440. A good many other examples have been preserved which may be assigned to the same century : the earlier of these bear a resemblance in form to the vessels of silver made in the west of Europe; in the later an imitation of classical forms becomes apparent. Enamel and gilding were freely used, in imitation no doubt of the much admired vessels brought from Damascus or Egypt. Many of the ornamental processes which we admire in Venetian glass were already in use or were invented in this century, as that of mille ﬁori, in which rods of various colours are joined by heat and so arranged as when cut transversely to form patterns resembling ﬂowers or coral- lines. Such sections were then placed side by side and united by a lining of heated glass applied to them; the joint mass was then reheated and worked into the desired form. The beautiful kind of glass known as vitro di trina or lace glass, was made by a variation of the same process; the rods or canes, being composed of opaque white threads surrounded by transparent glass, were placed side by side in a mould, and a bubble of glass blown into the midst so as to adhere to the canes; the whole was then reheated and fashioned in the same manner as any ordinary glass. So1ne- times two canes or cylinders were used, the lines of which ran in opposite directions, and a reticulated pattern was thus produced. An elaborate account of the process is given by M. Labarte (llistoire zfes Arts I nclustriels, iv. 575 sq.). Many of the examples of this process exhibit surprising skill and taste, and are among the most beautiful objects produced at the Venetian furnaces. Glass was made by the Romans in like manner, but no ancient example which has come down to us equals in correct execution some of those made at Venice. That peculiar kind of glass usually callel schmelz, an imperfect imitation of calcedony, was also made at Venice in the 15th century. Avanturiue glass, that in which numerous small particles of oxide of copper are diffused through a transparent yellowish or brownish mass, was not invented until about 1600. The peculiar merits of the Venetian manufacture are the elegance of form and the surprising lightness and thinness of the substance of the vessels prozluced. The glass on the other hand wants brilliancy, and is often tinged with yellow, or if, as is not uncommon, too much manganese (which n.-utralizes the yellow tinge imparted by the presence of iron) has been used, a faint purple. This slight coloration may not, however, appear a defect to eyes fatigued by the brilliancy of modern flint glass. The Venetian workmen perhaps somewhat abused their skill by giving G L A S S [ur::ro1:v. extravagant forms to vessels, making drinking glasses in the forms of ships, lions, birds, whales, and the like. Besides the making of vessels of all kinds the factories of .Iurano had fora long period almost an entire monopoly of two other branches of the art,—the making of mirrors and of beads. Attempts to make mirrors of glass were made as early as 1317 A.D., but even in the 16th century mirrors of steel were still in use. To make a really good mirror of glass two things are required,—-a plate free from bubbles and strize, and a method of applyinga film of metal with a uniform bright surface free from defects. The principle of applying metallic ﬁlms to glass seems to have been known to the liomans and even to the Egyptians, and is mentione.l by Alexander Neckam in the 12th century, but it would appear that it was not until the 10th century that the pro- cess of “silvering” mirrors by the use of an amalgam of tin and mercury had been perfected. During the 16th and 17th centuries Venice exported a prodigious quantity of mirrors, but France and England gradually acquired know- ledge and skill in the art, and in 1772 only one glass-house at Murano continued to make mirrors. The making of beads was probably practised at Venice from a very early period, but the earliest documentary evi- dence bearing on the subject does not appear to be of earlier date than the 14th century, when prohibitions were directed against those who made of glass such objects as were usually made of crystal or other hard stones. In the 16th century it had become a trade of great importance, and about 1764 twenty-two furnaces were employed in the production of beads. Towards the end of the same century from 000 to 1000 workmen were, it is stated, employed on one branch of the art, that of ornamenting beads by the help of the blow—pipe. A very great variety of patterns was produced; a tariff of the year 1800 contains an enumeration of 56:3 species and a vast number of sub-species. Beads to the value of £200,000 are still annually made in Venice (.l[ono_r/r(I_7z'a dellw Vetraria Wvzeziana e Jlurcmcse). The efforts made in France, Germany, and England, in the 17th and 18th centuries, to improve the manufacture of glass in those countries had a very injurious effect on the industry of Murano. The invention of ﬂint glass in England (about 1620?) brought in its train the practice of cutting glass, a method of ornamentation for which Venetian glass from its thinness was ill-adapted. One remarkable man, Giuseppe Briati, exerted himself, with much success, both in working in the old Venetian method and also in imitating the new fashions invented in Bohemia. He was especially successful in making vases and circular dishes of “ vitro di trina,” one of the latter in the Correr collection at Venice, believed to have been made in his glass-house, measures 55 centimetres (nearly 23 inches) in diameter. The vases made by him are as elegant in form as the best of the Cinquecento period, but may perhaps be distin- guished by the superior purity and brilliancy of the glass. ]Ie also made with great taste and skill large lustres and mirrors with frames of glass ornamented either in intaglio or with foliage of various colours. He obtained a know- ledge of the methods of working practised in Bohemia by disguising himself as a porter, and thus worked for three years in a Bohemian glass-house. In 1736 he obtained a patent at Venice to manufacture glass in the Bohemian manner. IIe died in 177:2. The fall of the republic was accompanied by interruption of trade and decay of manufacture, and in the last years of the 18th and beginning of the l9th century the glass-making of lIurano was at a very low ebb. In the year 1838 Signor Bussolin revived several of the ancient processes of glass—working, anrl this revival was carried on by C‘. Pietro Biguglia in 181.3, and by others, and later by Salviati, to whose successful efforts the modern renaissance of the glories