Because of the risk of fire, all the glassmakers in Venice were moved to Murano in the thirteenth century. Venice guarded its supremacy in glass jealously, through a stick and carrot combination. The glassmakers were paid well, and allowed autonomy on their new home of Murano. Also, if the child of a glassmaker married into one of Venice's ruling families (as listed in the Golden Book, remember?) their children could be entered in the book as well. As for the stick, the glassmakers were forbidden to leave Murano, because the rest of Europe was constantly trying to bribe them to leave and teach them the secrets of the trade. Venice maintained a team of assassins, who hunted down any glassmaker who foolishly agreed to set up shop elsewhere. They took glassmaking very seriously back then.



Nowadays, most of the glass sold in Murano is tourist schlock, largely imported from Asia. But the remaining studios like Venini and Salviati are still known as the world's best glassmakers. We bought a couple of pieces from Venini, which was fairly stupid because we then had to carry the heavy glass with us for the rest of the day.