L'Arte Vetraria The Art of Glass by Antonio Neri, Vol. III 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. This is the first fresh English language translation 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 third and final volume covers chapter 75 through 133 of L'Arte Vetraria. It details the creation of imitation gems, that "...by far surpass the beauty and color of all other pastes made until today." Also described are enamels, both clear and opaque, with advice for varying the intensity of the colors. The final chapters detail a variety of recipes, some for glass, some for enamels, and others that range from paints, to restoring faded turquoise, to casting white bronze mirrors. In this volume, the glossary has been expanded again with more specialized terms used by Neri, and includes over 550 entries. In July of 1601, Emanuel Ximenes traveled from Antwerp to Florence to visit his sister and her husband. There he met their tenant, Priest Antonio Neri, and the two became fast friends. In 1603 Neri journeyed to Flanders to spend what turned out to be a seven year long visit with Ximenes. In Antwerp he worked in the city's Venetian style glass factory, run by Filippo Gridolphi, where his projects included creating paste gems for Portuguese jewelers, and formulating his finest chalcedony glass, from which he had two vases made and presented to the Prince of Orange. Within a year of his return to Italy, L'Arte Vetraria was published.