_La Piazza Universale di tutte le professioni del Mondo_, by Tommaso Garzoni of Bagnacavallo, was, to judge from the numerous editions issued, a very popular work in its day. The copy before me, not by any means the first edition, is dated Venice, 1585. It contains a chapter entitled ‘_De Vetrari, o Biccherari, Occhialari e Fenestrari_.’ The superiority of the glass of Murano, ‘_luogo amenissimo e delitiosissimo presso a Venetia_,’ he attributes to the saltness of the water, to the absence of dust, so detrimental to the work, and to the abundant supply of wood which gives a most beautiful and clear flame. Besides, it is only at Murano that they know how to prepare the soda with which the beautiful _cristallo_ is made. That made from the herb _ugnea_ (cf. the _duznea_ of Biringuccio) or from fern, produces a yellow and brittle glass,—the inferiority of the potash glass is here indirectly indicated. Among the long list of the vessels made at Murano we find _zuccarini a reticelli_ or _a ritortoli_, interesting as an early mention of lace glass. The word _zuccarino_, literally a basin for sweets, is used as a general name for covered bowls or dishes. We then have the account (already quoted) of the preparation of _latticinio_, and also of a glass made up of fragments of _canne_ of various colours, a kind of _millefiori_, in fact. There is, he tells us, nothing imaginable in the world that these Muranese cannot make with glass—castles even with towers, bastions, walls, and cannon. ‘_Come nell’ Ascensa di Venetia talvolta s’ è vista_,’ he continues. This refers, I think, to the display of masterpieces of glass in the procession on Ascension Day. Garzoni, we must remember, is in this book in the first place concerned with the various trades and professions of his time, and he takes us next to the _occhiolari_, the makers of spectacles, who ply their trade in the Merceria, and finally to the _Finestrari_ or _Vetriari_, who with marvellous rapidity fit into frames of lead ‘_certi occhi di vetro_’ made at Murano. We see from this that the old bull’s-eye glass was still in general use. I must now, in conclusion, say something of the other class of writers, those who, without any literary pretensions, claim to disclose the secret processes and formulas of the glass-workers. These men are the successors of Theophilus and of the compilers of the early alchemistic treatises of which I have spoken in a previous chapter. It is noticeable that not one of these men, as far as we know, was a Venetian; indeed in every case, if the writer is not a Florentine himself, it is from Florentine libraries and archives that his works have been extracted.