| [167] | It is not less interesting to hear, in a letter (dated 1572) from the governor of Poitou, of ‘Fabian Salviate, escuyer, gentilhomme de Myrane, païs de Venize, venuz lui et sa famille, en ce païs de Poictou pour praticquer l’art de la Verrerie.’ Cf. p. [214]. But this is perhaps an accidental coincidence. |
| [168] | This bed of sand extends eastward through the forest of Fontainebleau, and at the present day it is this sand of Fontainebleau that the glass-makers of Murano, when they can afford it, use in preference to all other sources of silica. |
| [169] | Truguet, Les Cris de Paris—no date, but soon after 1600. Verre de pierre we may compare to our expression ‘flint’ or ‘pebble glass.’ It has been altered to verre de bière by a recent French writer on glass, who quotes the cry! |
| [170] | It was a Ferro who, as far back as the fourteenth century, taught the glass-workers at L’Altare the Venetian methods of making glass. The glass industry of Provence has at the present day been almost monopolized by the French branch of this family. |
| [171] | In the west also, René, who we must remember was head of the house of Anjou, in consideration of the ‘gentilesse et noblesse qui est l’ouvrage de verrerie, et que aussi c’est le bien du pays et de la chose publique,’ granted permission for the foundation of glass-works among the forests of La Vendée, with rights of cutting wood ‘au lieu le moins dommaigeable’ (Gerspach, p. 196). |
| [172] | At this time—in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century—Lorraine was not yet an integral part of France. It formed part of the Holy Roman Empire, while its trade connections were rather with the Netherlands and with Italy. See below for the distinction between Verres de France and Verres de Lorraine. |
| [173] | The Abbé Boutellier has made a special study of the Nivernais glass, but I have not had an opportunity of seeing his Histoire des Gentilshommes verriers et de la Verrerie de Nevers. |
| [174] | In distinction from the Verre en tables quarrées made in Lorraine. I am unable to say whether the latter was at so early a date made by the cylinder process, but the square shape renders this very likely. |
| [175] | Among the documents relating to glass, collected by the Baron Davillier, was the report of the commission of inquiry appointed by Philip II. at the time (about 1560) when it was proposed to glaze the many thousand windows of the Escurial. Samples were sent from the glass-works of Spain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Normandy. The Norman glass was declared to be the purest. (Quoted by Gerspach, p. 304.) |
| [176] | These canons, I think, correspond to the Italian canni, the glass rods from which beads were made. We hear of these canons being supplied to the Pâternostriers, who take the place in France of the Suppialumi of Venice. |