The History of Glass: A Journey Through the History of Murano Glass (Italian Edition)

Glass is the material that comes closest to water: water cannot be shaped, but glass can — though only in the moment when it passes from an incandescent liquid into a solid.”

Hidden among the canals of the Venetian lagoon, the island of Murano preserves a secret as ancient as the earth itself: the transformation of sand into solidified light through fire. This book is not merely a chronicle of shapes and decorations, but a profound journey into the ambiguous nature of an “amorphous” material, suspended between the fluidity of liquid and the resistance of solid matter.

From the refinements of ancient Egypt, to the legendary origins of the Phoenician sailors, and the technical revolution of Roman glassblowing, the author retraces the evolution of a material that has become mirror, lens, and pure art. Across the centuries, readers will discover how master glassmakers learned to “listen” to glass, mastering extreme temperatures and alchemical secrets to create masterpieces such as crystal glass, lattimo, sparkling aventurine, and monumental chandeliers that illuminated the courts of Europe.

From the challenges of industrial espionage in the seventeenth century to today’s technological frontiers — where glass becomes a guardian of environmental safety — Simone Mian leads us on a journey into an excellence that defies time. This is a tribute to a thousand-year-old tradition that, through crises and rebirths, continues to enchant the world with its powerful vulnerability.

An essential work for understanding how matter becomes poetry, and craftsmanship becomes universal identity.