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Murano Glass: Hailing from Italy’s Legendary Fiery Furnaces

When people visit Italy, one of the marvels they discover is that a little island called Murano still uses the same furnaces for blowing glass that Venetians have been using for hundreds of years, new technology can be found only in minute details.

THE ISLAND BECOMES A GLASSBLOWING HUB IN 1291

It goes back to 1291, when a huge glassmaking industry was established in Murano. Prior to this time, glass working had started to take off in Venice, and Italian officials decided to move the glass industry to the island of Murano - both to prevent city fires that had been causing problems and to keep their wonderful glassmaking techniques a secret from the rest of the world.

Glass blowing arrived in the Roman Empire somewhere during the reign of Augustus (27 B.C.-A.D. 14), when glassmakers established themselves in Italy. Though they started out molding, rather than blowing glass at this time, a document called “Fiolario,” which dates back to the first millennium, shows glassblowing may have started in Italy at that time by the author, a Benedict monk by the name of Domenico, who glass phials for home use. The theory gathered from the document is that glassblowing was the technique used to make the phials.

This technique was passed down and refined, and Murano became a glass hub, probably because Venetians had contact with traders from the Orient, Syria, Egypt, and other places that already had a tradition in glass blowing. They mastered glass-making techniques and still, to this day, produce some of the highest quality glass items around.

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