| Until now it was not possible to determine | | | | and early fifteenth century, two glasses trunk |
| precisely when the Venetian glass industry had its | | | | cone and a long-neck bottle. |
| origins. One possible speculation linked its first | | | | The art received a boost during the centuries |
| manifestations to transfer into those islands of | | | | XII-XIV, from contacts with the East, particularly |
| the Venetians who had lived in Roman flourishing | | | | with Syria, Egypt and the territories of the |
| centers of the Adriatic coast, from Adria to | | | | Roman Empire, following the events of war and |
| Altino, and that there had learned the techniques | | | | trade. Certainly since the last decades of the |
| of Roman glassworking. 982 goes back to a | | | | thirteenth century until around the middle of the |
| document signed by a certain Domenico, as | | | | fourteenth, is well documented in Murano activity |
| attested by the notary, had practiced as "fiolario", | | | | enamelling Glass. |
| ie the production of blown glass cables, particularly | | | | Everyone now knows what was the reason that |
| bottles, in fact, called "fiole". | | | | made the island of Murano the island of glass: the |
| The only evidence of the archaic phase of | | | | threat of fire danger is not just, as most buildings |
| Venetian glass comes from fragments found in | | | | were wooden. And so in late 1200, by order of |
| 1961-62, along with the remains of a furnace, | | | | the Doge of Venice all glassware were |
| especially in the excavations carried out in the | | | | transferred to Murano: the penalty for those who |
| main square of Torcello and Murano glass | | | | disobeyed, death. It is easy to understand, in |
| fragments recovered from the subsoil (S. Donato) | | | | addition to security, the aim was to jealously |
| as well as in the waters of the lagoon. | | | | protect the secrets of an art that brought so |
| More recently, between 1992 and 1993, | | | | much wealth and prestige. So much so that those |
| excavations in Piazza Malamocco, a small town of | | | | who left the island to settle elsewhere were |
| Lido, brought to light, along with fragments of | | | | subject to heavy punishment, including death. |
| pottery dating certainly from the late fourteenth | | | | |