Sisters of Glass (11 page)

conciatore
—a person who prepares a batch.

convent
—traditionally, a place where a girl is sent to take up devotions in the Catholic Church and become a nun. However, in the 1400s, the skyrocketing cost of dowries meant that many of the city’s noblest families were obliged to place their teenage daughters, regardless of the girls’ wishes, in convents. Few of these girls felt a spiritual calling. The nunneries were run like luxury boutique hotels. Novices were given duplicate keys so they could come and go as they pleased from their palatial apartments, which were filled with artwork and overlooked the Grand Canal. Wearing the most fashionable, low-cut dresses, they would entertain male visitors with wine-fueled banquets, then invite their beaux to spend the night in their rooms. They took romantic gondola rides with admirers to private picnics on the islands of the Venice Lagoon and went on poetic moonlit walks in the secluded gardens. The most passionate eloped, presumably with men who were not obsessed with dowries. The mature-age abbesses rode the city in opulent carriages with their pet dogs and oversaw their girls’ activities with a maternal eye. If a nun fell pregnant, she would simply give birth in the privacy of the convent and then pass the child off as an orphan abandoned on the doorstep.

Corpus Christi
—a Western Catholic feast that honors the Eucharist (the sacrament in which a wafer is eaten during Mass, having become the body of Christ through transubstantiation) and dates back to the thirteenth century. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, the date of which changes each calendar year.

Council of Ten
—one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice from 1310 to 1797. Sometimes known simply as the Ten, the council was formally tasked with maintaining the security of the republic and preserving the government from overthrow or corruption, though its actions were often secretive. The council’s small size and rapid ability to make decisions led to its increasing power, and by 1457 the Ten was enjoying almost unlimited authority over all governmental affairs. In particular, it oversaw Venice’s diplomatic and intelligence services, managed its military affairs, and handled legal matters and enforcement, including sumptuary laws. The council also attempted, though largely ineffectively, to combat vice.

courtesan
—the word originally comes from “courtier,” which means “someone who attends a monarch or other powerful official at court.” In the Renaissance,
cortigiana
came to mean “the ruler’s mistress,” and then to mean “a well-educated and independent woman of free morals, a trained artisan of dance and singing, who associated with wealthy, upper-class men who provided luxuries and status in exchange for companionship.”

cristallo
—a totally clear glass, like rock crystal. Cristallo is thought to have been invented around 1450, with Angelo Barovier often credited as its inventor.

crucible
—the cauldron that holds the glass inside the furnace.

cullet
—the hot, molten state of glass when it is being formed in the furnace. Also, the pieces of glassware that have chips that can be broken down and used instead of batch to make glass.

dancing master
—the person who led the bride on a procession through the streets and taught various group dances to those in attendance. He also acted as a sort of unofficial modern-day wedding coordinator.

doge
—the head of the government in fifteenth-century Venice.

dowry
—the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage.

Ducal Palace
—the palazzo on San Marco Piazza where the Doge lived and where the political institutions of the Republic of Venice were housed until the Napoleonic era.

ducat
—the most valuable Italian currency during the fifteenth century. It was a small gold coin with the Doge’s picture on it.

enameler
—one who practices the glass art of enameling. Enamel is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually at between 1380 and 1560 degrees Fahrenheit, until the powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating on metal, glass, or ceramic. Frit is also often used in enameling. The fired enameled ware is a fully laminated composite of glass and metal.

fornica
—Italian for “furnace,” the location where glassblowing takes place. This oven holds liquid glass and is usually heated to about 2000 to 2200 degrees Fahrenheit.

frit
—the hard substance the glass becomes as it is formed. Also, tiny chips of glass that can be used in the coloring process.

gaffer
—a glassblower.

gilder
—someone who performs gilding, a decorative technique wherein gold leaf or silver is applied to surfaces such as wood, metal, or stone.

gondola
—a traditional, flat-bottomed rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. For centuries, gondolas were the chief means of transportation and the most common watercraft within Venice.

jacks
—large tongs that are used to create scores in the neck of a piece of glass. It is often the main tool used by glassblowers.

lip
—the top edge of the piece of glass.

maestro
—an Italian glass master.

manganese
—a metal that helps keep the glass clear and pure. Known as “glassblowers’ soap,” it’s the third ingredient used in making the mixture for a batch of cristallo.

marver
—a marble table that is used to roll and shape the glass.

mi rifiuto
—Italian for “I refuse.”

moile
—the blob of molten glass that is on the steel blowpipe or punty.

Murano
—a series of islands off the northeast coast of Venice best known for glassblowing. In 1291, the Venetian government moved the glassblowing industry to Murano, purportedly to prevent fires but also to control its most profitable industry.

neck
—the edge of a piece of glass that will be scored and separated when it is transferred to the punty.

paddle
—a wooden tool that flattens the bottom of a piece of glass.

palazzo
—a palace or large house.

Piazza San Marco
—(St. Mark’s Square) generally known as the Piazza, the political, social, and religious center and principal square of Venice. In the fifteenth century, the bricked pavement would have been laid, the Doge’s palace would have been part of the square (or what is known as the Piazzetta), and St. Mark’s Basilica would have existed as well.

pincers
—a tool that can be used to develop glass, to fix handles, and to form the spout on jugs. Pincers are also used to guide the color patterns, to manipulate the shape of the glass, and to open the piece by hand.

podesta
—the political leader or chief magistrate of an Italian city-state. The political leader of Murano in the fifteenth century.

punty/pontil
—the solid metal rod a glassblower uses for bits and to transfer glass from the blowpipe.

Rialto Bridge
—the oldest bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice. The stone bridge that you see today was designed by Antonio da Ponte and finished in 1591, so at the time of this book, the Rialto Bridge would have been made of wood. One of the wood versions of the bridge had collapsed in 1444, but the one that existed in 1465 would have looked remarkably similar to the stone version that you see standing today.

ricordare
—Italian for “remember.”

rosary
—from the Latin for “garland of roses,” a Catholic devotion. The rosary is a necklace of prayer beads that is used to count a series of prayers—Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father—along with praying one of now twenty mysteries of the rosary.

senator
—one who wore red robes and served as part of the government of the Republic of Venice. Senators came from the aristocracy. The end of the fifteenth century saw the beginning of the golden book of senators, meaning that your family name had to be written in a special book of old, longstanding aristocratic Venetian nobility for you to become a senator.

shears
—a scissors-like tool that is used to cut a straight line or bit of glass.

signore
—Italian for the polite address for a man.

sorella
—Italian for “sister.”

tweezers
—a tool used to pinch and pull glass.