L'Arte Vetraria The Art of Glass by Antonio Neri, Vol. II Translated & Annotated by Paul Engle

This is one of a three volume English translation of the acclaimed Renaissance glassmaking treatise. In the spring of 1612, a 36-year-old Italian priest published a book that is now perhaps the most famous in the history of glassmaking. The priest was Antonio Neri, and the book is L'Arte Vetraria, or The Art of Glass. The son of a physician, and ordained in the Catholic Church, Neri was an accomplished herbalist, alchemist, and a skilled glassmaker. His little book would find its way into numerous languages, and would become the bible of glassmaking throughout Europe for more than two centuries. Neri's recipes expose the coveted secrets of Venetian style glass. They show clearly how raw materials were refined, processed, and melted in the furnace to form a rainbow variety of colors. Now largely relegated to the shelves of rare book collectors, and to the footnotes of scholarly papers, Priest Neri s passion, and brilliance are in danger of being forgotten. This is the first fresh English language translation of the book since the mid 1600s. Each passage is thoroughly researched, each term is carefully explained, and each page of the original Italian is inset alongside Engle's translation, reproduced exactly as it appeared in the first edition. This second volume contains some of Antonio Neri s best work. It covers chapter 37 through 74 of L'Arte Vetraria, including his spectacular chalcedony glass recipes. Here he details each step of these complex concoctions, and includes instructions for all of the basic preparatory chemicals. Also explained are numerous lead crystal glasses, complete with directions to gaffers for working these tricky materials. This volume contains an expanded glossary, useful weight and measure information, and thumbnail biographical sketches of the major characters surrounding Neri s life and the book. Also published for the first time is a synopsis of material from two little known Neri manuscripts that have emerged at the University of