Glassmaking has been one of the most important commercial industries of the Venetian Republic for hundreds of years. The first written record of a glass master in Venice – the bottle maker Dominicus Phiolarius, dates back to the year 982.

However, archaeological research suggests that glass production was practiced in the lagoon, on the island of Torcello, even before the foundation of the Republic. Venice was known and commercially successful for its glass production, especially for the work of mirrors and bottles, before all the furnaces were moved from the city center and concentrated on the island of Murano in the year 1291.

Although there were already furnaces in Murano, there was at that time a strong and growing concentration of glass furnaces and workshops in “Riva Alto” ​​and Dorsoduro in the center of Venice.

Venice and the lagoon islands were founded from the very beginning by people fleeing conflicts in the region. Among the first settlers of the lagoon were former citizens of the Roman Empire. It is known that Roman society had been producing glass objects for domestic, religious and decorative use since the 1st century AD.

Later, immigrants from the East, especially those fleeing the siege of Constantinople, brought with them a vast knowledge of the art of glassmaking and the production processes adopted in the East. Thus Venice and Murano, for many centuries and under the protection of the Republic of Venice, literally became the international melting pot of glassmaking techniques and the global center for advances in both glass production and individual glass objects.