ABSTRACT
The furnace men of the Murano glassworks are coming off the night shift. For a great long time, glass-making has been its industry and, in Italy and in Europe, its glassmakers have enjoyed a solid reputation. But the historians have contented themselves with that; we know very little about all the other Muranesi who, in these years, inhabit the island, the glassworkers and apprentices labouring in the workshops, the other artisans, the shop-keepers, the fishermen, the peasants, the domestic servants – the men and women who came to watch the handover. This chapter devotes to them: the popolo, Murano's community and society. Vitturi, quitting the loggia, marches towards the canal's edge. Around him cluster Murano's better folk – glassmakers and furnace-owners, no less dressed up than the others for the event. The podesta's companions, Venetian nobles and Murano citizens, hesitate to step on board with him. It had been the plan to keep him company to Venice, a floating parade.
