Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice: The Fragile Craft

by McCray,W. Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780754600503
• ISBN10: 0754600505
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-02-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The transformation of the Venetian glass industry during the Renaissance was not only a technical phenomenon, but also a social one. In this volume, Patrick McCray examines the demand, production and distribution of glass and glassmaking technology during this period and evaluates several key topics, including the nature of Renaissance demand for certain luxury goods, the interaction between industry and government in the Renaissance, and technological change as a social process. McCray places in its broader economic and cultural context a craft and industry that has been traditionally viewed primarily through the surviving artefacts held in museum collections.McCray explores the social and economic context of glassmaking in Venice, from the guild and state level down to the workings of the individual glass house. He tracks the dissemination of Venetian-style glassmaking throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and its effects on Venice's glass industry. Integrating evidence from a wide variety of sources - written documents such as shop records and recipe books, pictorial representations of glass and glassmaking, and the careful physical and chemical analysis of glass pieces that have survived to the present - he examines the relation between consumer demand and technological change. In the process, he traces the organizational changes that signified a transition from an older and more traditional manner of 'artisan' manufacture to a modern, 'factory-style' manner of production.

Author Biography

W. Patrick McCray is a Research Associate in the Program on Culture, Science, Technology and Society at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	vii
Tables	viii
Preface	ix
Maps	x
Introduction	1	(14)
Glass, Ceramics, and Society	1	(2)
The Nature and Limitations of Available Sources of Information	3	(5)
Technological Change and the Role of Consumer Demand	8	(5)
The Plan of this Book	13	(2)
``Masters of the Gold of Christendom'': Renaissance Venice, the World Economy, and Luxury Goods	15	(18)
Introduction	15	(1)
Venice in the Renaissance World Economy	16	(6)
Artisans, Guilds, and the Venetian State	22	(3)
The Economic Geography of Venice and Murano	25	(1)
Capitalism, Consumerism, and Conspicuous Consumption	26	(3)
Luxury Goods in the Renaissance Culture and Economy	29	(3)
A Note on the Venetian Monetary System	32	(1)
Master Aldrevandin's World: Glassmaking in Pre-Renaissance Venice	33	(33)
Introduction	33	(1)
Glassmaking in the Past	34	(4)
Early Glassmaking Traditions in the Veneto	38	(3)
Glassmaking in Medieval Venice	41	(8)
The Glassmakers of Medieval Venice and their Products	49	(4)
The Technology of Glass Production in Pre-Renaissance Venice	53	(4)
Questions of Origins and Influence	57	(4)
The Renaissance Venetian Glass Industry--a Self-Catalysed Phenomenon	61	(5)
Demystifying the Demand for Renaissance Glass	66	(30)
Introduction	66	(1)
Why Glass?	67	(7)
The Functions of Renaissance Glass	74	(12)
Desire Defined: Two Favoured Qualities of Renaissance Venetian Glass	86	(8)
Conclusion	94	(2)
Desire Fulfilled: The Technology of Glassmaking in Renaissance Venice	96	(45)
The Introduction and Innovation of New Luxury Glasses	97	(3)
Luxury Glassmaking Technology in Renaissance Venice	100	(14)
The Final Product	114	(12)
The Social Organization of Venetian Glassmaking	126	(6)
Venetian Glassmaking and the Renaissance Economy	132	(4)
Venetian Glassmaking in Context: Some Concluding Remarks	136	(5)
Consumers and Competitors: The Distribution of Glass and Glassmaking Knowledge	141	(23)
Introduction	141	(1)
The Distribution of Glass	142	(7)
Technology Transfer and Renaissance Glassmaking	149	(15)
Epilogue: The Innovations of Renaissance Venetian Glass	164	(8)
Notes	172	(37)
Bibliography	209	(20)
Index	229