Last Updated: Sep 17, 2016     Views: 88

Thank you for contacting us. I did a brief advanced search in our online catalog (https://www.cmog.org/research/library/catalogs) to see what books we had in Italian under the subject Glass blowing and working. This is the heading I found for some of our basic English introduction to glassblowing books.

Do you speak Italian? Are you looking for a book originally written in Italian, or would one that has been translated into Italian work? Ed Schmid's books ("Beginning Glassblowing" and "Ed's big handbook of Glassblowing") give a great overview and introduction to glassblowing in English. I could check to see if they have been translated into Italian. I'm checking with a few Italians to see if they have any titles that come to mind.

For now I am attaching a list of the results from my catalog search. You will see that some are very old (15th-17th century) and are likely not a simple introduction to the subject. From the list, it looks like the closest to what you're looking for may be "Tecniche e arte del vetro" by Giovanna Bubbico and the Crous couple. If you find any titles that you would like to look at, you can request them at your local library. The librarian should be able to borrow materials through Interlibrary Loan for you to use if they are not locally owned. We are happy to loan non-rare books, or books that we have second copies of.

I will send you another message when I hear back from the Italians. Please let me know if you have anything to add or additional questions by contacting me at the email address below.

 

I heard back from one of my Italian contacts. She recommends:

"www.glassway.org, containing short texts, photos and some videos. It has also French and English versions. There is also a DVD called simply Glassway (only in Italian and French, I think).

As a book, I can just remember some technological chapters, with photos, in: Dorigato, A. 2002. L'arte del vetro a Murano, S. Giovanni
Lupatoto: Arsenale Editrice. "

She further notes:

"In Italian, a single word meaning “glassblowing” doesn’t exist. “To blow” is “soffiare”, and “blowing” is “soffiatura”. So, the technique is called simply “soffiatura”, but of course it only works if you are already speaking about glass.

I tried a search in your database with “soffiatura” but I couldn’t find any book related to techniques. I tried again with “soffiato” (= blown), and the only related result, among 12, seems to be: Giovanna Bubbico, Joan e Giacomo Crous, Tecniche e arte del vetro. Colognola ai Colli, [Italy] : Demetra, 1999. But I have no idea if it is a good book or not, I have never heard about it!"

I hope these are some helpful suggestions. If I hear more, I will pass it on to you. Please let me know if I can be of additional help by contacting me at the email address below.

 

The next response I received recommended these three titles:

1) L' arte del vetro 1954

2) Il vetro soffiato da Roma antica a Venezia [Mariacher, Giovanni] 1960

3) Mille anni di arte del vetro a Venezia" / a cura di Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Attilia Dorigato, Astone Gasparetto, Tullio Toninato. - 3. ed. - Venezia : Albrizzi Editore, 1988

Please contact me at the email listed below if I can be of further help.

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