With the establishment of the Glassmakers Guild, the glass factories were relocated to the island of Murano, ostensibly to protect Venice from the hazard of fire caused by their furnaces. Murano’s glassmakers were the island’s most prominent citizens. They were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state, and married their daughters into Venice’s most affluent families.
So revered were these masters, their secrets and skills, that laws were established that kept them in a “gilded cage,” actually preventing them from leaving the island. Workers who left the island were often forbidden from ever working again.
Today, Venetian glass production is at its pinnacle, and is world-renowned for its quality and form. The master glassblowers of Murano seem to be stopped in time. They use the same glass-blower pipes, the same instruments, and the same furnaces which made Murano one of the centers of Venetian commerce.
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