Ancient Egypt and Venice

The origin of the fascinating Glass Making Art is ancient and it its first evidences date back to the XVII Egyptian dinasty when such tecniques as filtering into moulds, merging "terraccotta" objects into melted glass, using different colours as blue, yellow and orange poured into molds for decorative purposes were already used. It was when Rome conquered Egypt that the very best glass experts were led to Italy. Documents sealing the donation of Saint George’ Church in Venezia to Benedictine monks contains an explicit reference to a man called "Domenico Fiolario" and the word fiolario comes from fiola, i.e. a glass recipient, which was the Venetian term used to label glass masters.

AMURIANUM gets birth: the island of Murano

It was only by the late 1200s that glass making became an organized activity and in 1291, trying to to avoid the risk of fire spreading onto the wooden structures of Venice, the city governement required to move all furnaces used for glassmaking from Venice to the isle of Murano. It was in this "luxury ghetto" that the art of Murano glass making reached its finest levels.
Venetian glass reached its popularity peak in the 15th century, in this period master Angelo Barovier was first able to produce the clearest glass - similar to crystal - his tecnique led such improvements in glass production as to create much ligther glass objects, i.e.,  the so-called "a reticello"; "all’avventurina"; "a ghiaccio"; "a millefiori" glasses (see glossary for explanations) which were later imitated all over the world.

The "verieri masters": a social class and its privileges

Venice tried to protect its glass masters in many ways like, for example, establishing the Glassmakers Guild with the purpose of safeguarding the secrets of the trade and ensuring the glass industry profitability. In line with these objectives, there were also laws trying to avoid glass masters emigration as well as technology exportation and forbidding any glass making activities to those who were not Guild members. In 1605 the "Golden Book" – containing the names of those belonging to the "Murano magnificent community" – was published, since that moment glass masters got a privileged social status and their daughters were allowed to marry into the wealthiest and noblest of Venetian families.
Murano glass works are unique pieces of art in which any component contributes to the final beauty.