During the ensuing thirty years the manufacture of glass was at the lowest ebb. There was, however, a first revival about 1838, which is associated with the name of Bussolin. But it was the energy and skill of a lawyer from Vicenza, Antonio Salviati, with the financial assistance of certain English enthusiasts for the art, Sir Henry Layard and Sir William Drake, in the first place, that led, not long after the middle of the century, to the furnaces of Murano again turning out something beyond window-glass and beads. From the technical side Venetian glass belongs essentially to the Mediterranean family—the art was possibly learned in the first instance from the Byzantine Greeks. But it is probably as a consequence of their intercourse with the coast of Syria, the old home of glass, that the Venetians acquired at so early a date a pre-eminent position as glass-workers. Like that of their predecessors, theirs was essentially a soda glass. What distinguished it was, above all, its total freedom from colour; the Venetians were the first, at least since Roman times, to make an absolutely clear white glass. This result they obtained not only by care in the selection of their materials, especially in the source of the silica, but also by an early mastery of the use of manganese, ‘the glass-maker’s soap.’ The Venetian glass excelled again in its working qualities, in the extreme ductility which it maintained through a wide range of temperature. This property was in a measure due to the large quantity of alkali which entered into its composition. On the other hand, this excess of soda has led at times to a rapid tarnishing of the surface, visible above all in our damp climate. [Illustration: _PLATE XXXIV_ VENETIAN GLASS ABOUT 1500 1. PLATE, ENAMELLED AND GILT—ARMS OF DELLA ROVERE FAMILY 2. TAZZA, ENAMELLED WITH COAT OF ARMS]