User:Kristinnmason

Mirrors
While Venice was especially known for keeping its clear glass techniques secret in the seventeenth century that was not the only guarded secret they had. They also manufactured mirrors and made improvements to the tin-mercury amalgam that was used to coat the mirror. Some improvements include adding metals such as gold and bronze. The first publication of the production of mirrors came from a written document in Venice that explained the process of the tin amalgam, called Dello Specchio di scientia universale and was written by Leonardo Fioravanti.[1] As the production of mirrors grew the Republic of Venice decided that all of the fires from the glass working seemed dangerous in a mostly wooden city so they moved the glass makers to Murano, an island that was just near Venice. The island of Murano and Venice held a near monopoly on mirrors for several hundred years. Venice was able to hold this monopoly for so long because giving away the secret of how to make beautifully reflected mirrors was punishable by death.

The glass and mirrors sold from Venice and Murano where high quality and it was mostly nobility who could afford them. The most notable example

of the nobility being able to afford mirrors is the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. King Louis XIV supposedly had Venetian glass makers brought to France so that all of the mirrors would be produced in his own country. France now knowing the secret soon made it hard for Venice to hold a monopoly.