Padua, Mantua, Ferrara, Ravenna and Bologna. In 1634 there were two glass-houses in Rome and one in Florence; but whether any of these produced ornamented vessels, or only articles of common use and window glass, would not appear to have as yet been ascertained.
Germany—Glass-making in Germany during the Roman period seems to have been carried on extensively in the neighbourhood of Cologne. The Cologne museum contains many specimens of Roman glass, some of which are remarkable for their cut decoration. The craft survived the downfall of the Roman power, and a native industry was developed. This industry must have won some reputation, for in 758 the abbot of Jarrow appealed to the bishop of Mainz to send him a worker in glass. There are few records of glass manufacture in Germany before the beginning of the 16th century. The positions of the factories were determined by the supply of wood for fuel, and subsequently, when the craft of glass-cutting was introduced, by the accessibility of water-power. The vessels produced by the 16th-century glass-workers in Germany, Holland and the Low Countries are closely allied in form and decoration. The glass is coloured (generally green) and the decoration consists of glass threads and glass studs, or prunts (“Nuppen”). The use of threads and prunts is illustrated by the development of the “Roemer,” so popular as a drinking-glass, and as a feature in Dutch studies of still life. The “Igel,” a squat tumbler covered with prunts, gave rise to the “Krautstrunk,” which is like the “Igel,” but longer and narrow-waisted. The “Roemer” itself consists of a cup, a short waist studded with prunts and a foot. The foot at first was formed by coiling a thread of glass round the base of the waist; but, subsequently, an open glass cone was joined to the base of the waist, and a glass thread was coiled upon the surface of the cone. The “Passglas,” another popular drinking-glass, is cylindrical in form and marked with horizontal rings of glass, placed at regular intervals, to indicate the quantity of liquor to be taken at a draught.
In the edition of 1581 of the De re metallica by Georg Agricola, there is a woodcut showing the interior of a German glass factory, and glass vessels both finished and unfinished.
In 1428 a Muranese glass-worker set up a furnace in Vienna, and another furnace was built in the same town by an Italian in 1486. In 1531 the town council of Nuremberg granted a subsidy to attract teachers of Venetian technique. Many specimens exist of German winged and enamelled glasses of Venetian character. The Venetian influence, however, was indirect rather than direct. The native glass-workers adopted the process of enamelling, but applied it to a form of decoration characteristically German. On tall, roomy, cylindrical glasses they painted portraits of the emperor and electors of Germany, or the imperial eagle bearing on its wings the arms of the states composing the empire. The earliest-known example of these enamelled glasses bears the date 1553. They were immensely popular and the fashion for them lasted into the 18th century. Some of the later specimens have views of cities, battle scenes and processions painted in grisaille.
A more important outcome, however, of Italian influence was the production, in emulation of Venetian glass, of a glass made of refined potash, lime and sand, which was more colourless than the material it was intended to imitate. This colourless potash-lime glass has always been known as Bohemian glass. It was well adapted for receiving cut and engraved decoration, and in these processes the German craftsmen proved themselves to be exceptionally skilful. At the end of the 16th century Rudolph II. brought Italian rock-crystal cutters from Milan to take control of the crystal and glass-cutting works he had established at Prague. It was at Prague that Caspar Lehmann and Zachary Belzer learnt the craft of cutting glass. George Schwanhart, a pupil of Caspar Lehmann, started glass-cutting at Ratisbon, and about 1690 Stephen Schmidt and Hermann Schwinger introduced the crafts of cutting and engraving glass in Nuremberg. To the Germans must be credited the discovery, or development, of colourless potash-lime glass, the reintroduction of the crafts of cutting and engraving on glass, the invention by H. Schwanhart of the process of etching on glass by means of hydrofluoric acid, and the rediscovery by J. Kunkel, who was director of the glass-houses at Potsdam in 1679, of the method of making copper-ruby glass.
Low Countries and the United Provinces.—The glass industry of the Low Countries was chiefly influenced by Italy and Spain, whereas German influence and technique predominated in the United Provinces. The history of glass-making in the provinces is almost identical with that of Germany. In the 17th and 18th centuries the processes of scratching, engraving and etching were brought to great perfection.
The earliest record of glass-making in the Low Countries consists in an account of payments made in 1453–1454 on behalf of Philip the Good of Burgundy to “Gossiun de Vieuglise, Maître Vorrier de Lille” for a glass fountain and four glass plateaus. Schuermans has traced Italian glass-workers to Antwerp, Liége, Brussels and Namur. Antwerp appears to have been the headquarters of the Muranese, and Liége the headquarters of the Altarists. Guicciardini in his description of the Netherlands, in 1563, mentions glass as among the chief articles of export to England.
In 1599 the privilege of making “Voires de cristal à la faschon Venise,” was granted to Philippe de Gridolphi of Antwerp. In 1623 Anthony Miotti, a Muranese, addressed a petition to Philip IV. of Spain for permission to make glasses, vases and cups of fine crystal, equal to those of Venice, but to be sold at one-third less than Venetian glasses. In 1642 Jean Savonetti “gentilhomme Verrier de Murano” obtained a patent for making glass in Brussels. The Low Country glasses are closely copied from Venetian models, but generally are heavier and less elegant. Owing to the fashion of Dutch and Flemish painters introducing glass vases and drinking-glasses into their paintings of still life, interiors and scenes of conviviality, Holland and Belgium at the present day possess more accurate records of the products of their ancient glass factories than any other countries.
Spain.—During the Roman occupation Pliny states that glass was made “per Hispanias” (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 26. 66). Traces of Roman glass manufactories have been found in Valencia and Murcia, in the valleys which run down to the coast of Catalonia, and near the mouth of the Ebro. Little is known about the condition of glass-making in Spain between the Roman period and the 13th century. In the 13th century the craft of glass-making was practised by the Moors in Almeria, and was probably a survival from Roman times. The system of decorating vases and vessels by means of strands of glass trailed upon the surface in knots, zigzags and trellis work, was adopted by the Moors and is characteristic of Roman craftsmanship. Glass-making was continued at Pinar de la Vidriera and at Al Castril de la Pena into the 17th century. The objects produced show no sign of Venetian influence, but are distinctly Oriental in form. Many of the vessels have four or as many as eight handles, and are decorated with serrated ornamentation, and with the trailed strands of glass already referred to. The glass is generally of a dark-green colour.
Barcelona has a long record as a centre of the glass industry. In 1324 a municipal edict was issued forbidding the erection of glass-furnaces within the city. In 1455 the glass-makers of Barcelona were permitted to form a gild. Jeronimo Paulo, writing in 1491, says that glass vessels of various sorts were sent thence to many places, and even to Rome. Marineus Siculus, writing early in the 16th century, says that the best glass was made at Barcelona; and Gaspar Baneiros, in his Chronographia, published in 1562, states that the glass made at Barcelona was almost equal to that of Venice and that large quantities were exported.
The author of the Atlante español, writing at the end of the 18th century, says that excellent glass was still made at Barcelona on Venetian models. The Italian influence was strongly felt in Spain, but Spanish writers have given no precise information as to when it was introduced or whence it came. Schuermans has, however, discovered the names of more than twenty Italians who found their way into Spain, in some cases by way of Flanders,
