Overview

The second oldest of all manmade materials (after bronze) is glass, which for thousands of years has served important building, decorative, and utilitarian purposes. Because of its value, glass became a prized possession of the wealthy and powerful. By the 1600s the world's finest glasses were produced in Venice, Italy, whose leaders sought to protect their dominance by imposing a strict ban on the sharing of knowledge about glassmaking methods and techniques. In 1612 a Florentine priest and chemist, Antonio Neri (1576-1614) published a book, L'artra vetraria (The art of glass) that revealed the glassmaker's secrets. Making those secrets available to the public not only made possible the duplication of Venetian glassmaking, but also provided a...