2. Shaping Identity through Glass in Renaissance Venice

Abstract

This essay investigates the role of the glass business in shaping the identity of glassmakers in Renaissance Venice. First, it re-examines the debated issue of secretiveness, highlighting the role played by immigration and emigration, and stressing how mobility affected the intersection between secrets and the creation of a distinctive identity. It then focuses on trade, examining the role played by the Venetian high political bodies in protecting a manufacturing that became a matter of state. It argues that thanks to government protection the participation of glass entrepreneurs in commerce did not need any formal branding, yet only to be recognized as “Venetian.” Lastly, the case study of the Bortolussi family shows the strategies of those glassmakers who tried to ascend to a superior social status, that of Venetian “cittadini originari.”