SWAP
Leona follows my sister
into our fornica.
She looks about as comfortable
as a peacock in our furnace.
She tries hard not to inhale too deeply.
“Brother, put down your sword.”
Andrea sheathes his metal
but keeps his hand on the grip.
Leona fans herself
with a large document.
“Giovanna and I have been
examining the will all morning
and may have found a solution
to our dilemma. Nowhere does
the will state the first names
of Giovanna or Maria
but only refers
to the first and second daughters
of Angelo Barovier.”
I shrug.
“But, Leona, everyone knows
that Giovanna is the elder
and I am the younger daughter, so—”
Leona rolls her eyes
and raises her hand to me,
annoyed as only an older sister can be.
“That would be a problem only
were you not to marry a nobleman, Maria.
And the betrothal papers drawn between
the Bembo family and the Barovier family
state only that a daughter of Angelo Barovier
is to marry my brother.”
Like three singing larks, Andrea,
Luca, and Vanna look about to rejoice
in heavenly praise.
“I don’t understand.” And I don’t.
“Dearest Maria,” Andrea says.
“All you must do is marry a nobleman
according to your father’s will.
You need not marry me. And I must
only marry a daughter Barovier,
not specifically you.
For we have not been ringed.”
Andrea smiles an ocean’s breadth
at my sister. So he does wish
to marry her after all.
I clutch the finished betrothal glass
to my chest, almost to crushing it.
I had a similar plan but now wish
never to admit it.
“What do you hold there?” Luca asks.
“Please let us see.”
I would give it up to no one,
but his plea is sweeter than sugared figs.
Leona examines the glass,
eyes me oddly, then laughs.
“You silly girl. You had the same plan.”
“Only I will throw myself
to sea before I marry a nobleman
I do not love,” I say indignantly.
A NOBLEMAN’S CLEVER SOLUTION
Andrea clears his throat.
“That may not be necessary, little sister.
For if Luca does not know his surname,
could it not be Bembo?”
Andrea winks at us.
“I believe I have just been reunited
with my long-lost cousin Luca Bembo.”
He lets go his sword’s handle
and embraces Luca.
“I shall throw a feast of grandeur
two days hence to anoint you, Luca Bembo,
and welcome you home.”
Andrea is so tall and handsome
right now I should like to smother him
with kisses, but I wisely leave
that privilege to my sister.
Vanna gives Andrea her hand
and he seals it a hundred times over
with his lips.
GOD’S WILL
Mother awaits me in my chambers
with my dancing master,
who has been hired
to lead me through the streets
as we publicly announce
my engagement to Andrea tomorrow.
“Mother, an urgent matter
calls your attention in the hall,”
I say, and nearly drag her like
a tugboat from my room
until she and the master follow me.
Mother is shocked
to see Andrea, Leona, Luca,
Vanna, Uncle Giova, and my brothers
stand before her.
Uncle Giova beckons
her to assume her rightful chair at the table.
It appears as though as we are
about to coronate Mother queen.
Uncle Giova makes our plea,
and the dancing master
cannot control his feet.
The master clicks his heels.
“Highly unusual. But what
a beautiful procession of gondolas
this will make, double the number of boats.
The elder sister dancing before
the clumsy younger one.
I have never before seen it.
It will be the rage of Venice.”
Mother interrupts him.
“I have yet to give my consent.”
Her eyes hold back tears.
Mother weighs this as though she
were determining whether
to send Vanna and me to war.
She crosses herself and calls
me and my sister to kneel
at her side, gathering our hands
in hers. “I hope my decision is just.
Your father always said,
‘God’s will will out.’
You shall both go forth
and marry as you choose.
I believe in my heart this
is God’s will,
and no will of man
should interfere with that.”
WHAT TO DO ABOUT MY FATHER’S WILL
For a wedding gift
Luca gives my sister and Andrea
I clutch the paper
that holds Father’s original
recipe for cristallo.
Father believed, with the conviction
of a stubborn child
who will not come in from the cold,
that when he invented clear glass,
it was God’s will to reward me
with a husband,
even though in his heart
he knew Vanna
was best suited for a senator.
If only he had lived longer.
For I know that if he
were alive today,
he would want us to create
these unions,
that he would see with clarity
how happy Vanna and I are
and rejoice.
SISTERS OF GLASS
I do not want the waving to end,
but Vanna’s gondola grows smaller
until it is but a speck
on the horizon.
Luca’s ringed hand clasps mine.
“It is not as though
you shall not see Giovanna.
You will visit your aunts
in the convent two weeks hence.
So why this ocean of tears?”
“Because she was made for Venice
and I for Murano,
and I will be so lonely
here without her,” I say.
“What is it that she can do
that I cannot for you?” Luca asks.
“Well, for one thing, she sang
to me while I prepared the batch?”
Luca opens his mouth,
and a horrible honk
like a sickly goose emerges.
“Please save your tunes
for the blowpipe, my love.
I shall have singing enough in mass.”
We both laugh.
“There is only one Vanna,” Luca says.
“Do you suppose she misses me?” I ask him.
“I am certain that right now, instead
of marveling as she should, as any girl should,
about her good fortune
in taking such a dashing husband,
she is lamenting the fact
that you will not be around
to sketch for her.
Oh, Maria, will you never be satisfied?”
I shrug.
“Well, my dear. Close your eyes now
and I shall give you your wedding gift.”
Luca leads me from my mother’s palazzo
into the road. I feel the last stretch of sun
upon my face. And before I can orient myself,
Luca spins me round like a child’s game.
“This is foolish,” I say.
When I open my eyes,
The furnace is repaired, only it differs
slightly from our first fornica.
“What is that oven over there
and those tools?” I ask.
“I thought that with your talent
at sketching, you might try enameling
while I blow glass. We could then
work together.”
I am stunned, still and silent as a wall.
“Oh, you hate it.
You need never work, Maria.
I just thought—”
I stutter. “I … love … it. I just don’t
know what to say.”
“Well, that is a new proposition.
Maria Barovier without words.”
Luca smiles.
“Well, then kiss me, you foolish girl.”
And so, I do.
GLOSSARY
annealer—an oven that is generally heated to about 900 degrees Fahrenheit and used to cool the glass slowly. Overnight, the oven is brought to room temperature so that the glass does not crack from stress.
batch—the mixture of raw components that is used to make glass.
beaker—a glass used for drinking during the Renaissance. It may be made of clear glass and decorated with colorful enamel and gold leaf to signify special occasions.
bella—Italian for “beautiful.”
bench—the place where the gaffer works the piece and where all the tools are kept. It has two rails perpendicular to the seat on which the glass pipes are rolled.
Berlingozzo—a simple, ring-shaped cake that was popular for Carnevale in the late fifteenth century. Its name may derive from the word Berlingaccio, meaning “Fat Thursday.”
betrothal goblet—a vessel made during the courtship and marriage process in Renaissance times, often of Venetian enameled and gilded glass. It was not an item that was used for drinking, but rather a keepsake, commissioned for the special occasion of marriage. Sometimes it contained profiles of the bride and groom.
biretta—a type of headdress composed of three or four rigid sections and a tassel that evolved in the Middle Ages among the cultured classes and the ecclesiastical hierarchies. The felt biretta that was very much in fashion was often yellowish in color. A hat resembling the black biretta continues to be used in courtrooms by judges and lawyers.
bits—tiny scraps of glass that can be added to the mixture to give color, texture, or shape to the glass.
blocks—hand-sized wooden molds used in the early stages of glass shaping.
blowpipe—a hollow steel rod with a mouthpiece at one end that the gaffer blows through to create a bubble in the glass.
bolognini—a unit of currency equal to 1/100 of a ducat.
buon giorno, signore—Italian for “Good day, sir.”
camicia—a slip, shift, or chemise that was worn underneath women’s garments, generally coming to about mid-calf and made of fine linen. The word camicia means “shirt” in Italian.
capon—a castrated rooster or meat from a castrated rooster. It is especially tender and much less stringy than chicken.
cardinal—the highest church official in the city of Venice in the fifteenth century. He wielded great political and social influence and, with a conclave of other cardinals across Italy, chose the next pope.
Carnevale mask—Carnevale is a festival in Venice that is celebrated before the Lenten season (from two weeks before Ash Wednesday until Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras) during which masks are worn, making it impossible to distinguish between the social classes. The three most common types of masks are bautas, which can cover the whole face; morettas, which are oval masks of black velvet generally worn to visit the convents; and voltos (also called larvas), which are the simplest and most common type of mask.
conciatore—a person who prepares a batch.
convent—traditionally, a place where a girl is sent to take up devotions in the Catholic Church and become a nun. However, in the 1400s, the skyrocketing cost of dowries meant that many of the city’s noblest families were obliged to place their teenage daughters, regardless of the girls’ wishes, in convents. Few of these girls felt a spiritual calling. The nunneries were run like luxury boutique hotels. Novices were given duplicate keys so they could come and go as they pleased from their palatial apartments, which were filled with artwork and overlooked the Grand Canal. Wearing the most fashionable, low-cut dresses, they would entertain male visitors with wine-fueled banquets, then invite their beaux to spend the night in their rooms. They took romantic gondola rides with admirers to private picnics on the islands of the Venice Lagoon and went on poetic moonlit walks in the secluded gardens. The most passionate eloped, presumably with men who were not obsessed with dowries. The mature-age abbesses rode the city in opulent carriages with their pet dogs and oversaw their girls’ activities with a maternal eye. If a nun fell pregnant, she would simply give birth in the privacy of the convent and then pass the child off as an orphan abandoned on the doorstep.
Corpus Christi—a Western Catholic feast that honors the Eucharist (the sacrament in which a wafer is eaten during Mass, having become the body of Christ through transubstantiation) and dates back to the thirteenth century. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, the date of which changes each calendar year.
Council of Ten—one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice from 1310 to 1797. Sometimes known simply as the Ten, the council was formally tasked with maintaining the security of the republic and preserving the government from overthrow or corruption, though its actions were often secretive. The council’s small size and rapid ability to make decisions led to its increasing power, and by 1457 the Ten was enjoying almost unlimited authority over all governmental affairs. In particular, it oversaw Venice’s diplomatic and intelligence services, managed its military affairs, and handled legal matters and enforcement, including sumptuary laws. The council also attempted, though largely ineffectively, to combat vice.
courtesan—the word originally comes from “courtier,” which means “someone who attends a monarch or other powerful official at court.” In the Renaissance, cortigiana came to mean “the ruler’s mistress,” and then to mean “a well-educated and independent woman of free morals, a trained artisan of dance and singing, who associated with wealthy, upper-class men who provided luxuries and status in exchange for companionship.”
cristallo—a totally clear glass, like rock crystal. Cristallo is thought to have been invented around 1450, with Angelo Barovier often credited as its inventor.
crucible—the cauldron that holds the glass inside the furnace.
cullet—the hot, molten state of glass when it is being formed in the furnace. Also, the pieces of glassware that have chips that can be broken down and used instead of batch to make glass.
dancing master—the person who led the bride on a procession through the streets and taught various group dances to those in attendance. He also acted as a sort of unofficial modern-day wedding coordinator.
doge—the head of the government in fifteenth-century Venice.
dowry—the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage.
Ducal Palace—the palazzo on San Marco Piazza where the Doge lived and where the political institutions of the Republic of Venice were housed until the Napoleonic era.
ducat—the most valuable Italian currency during the fifteenth century. It was a small gold coin with the Doge’s picture on it.
enameler—one who practices the glass art of enameling. Enamel is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually at between 1380 and 1560 degrees Fahrenheit, until the powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating on metal, glass, or ceramic. Frit is also often used in enameling. The fired enameled ware is a fully laminated composite of glass and metal.
fornica—Italian for “furnace,” the location where glassblowing takes place. This oven holds liquid glass and is usually heated to about 2000 to 2200 degrees Fahrenheit.
frit—the hard substance the glass becomes as it is formed. Also, tiny chips of glass that can be used in the coloring process.
gaffer—a glassblower.
gilder—someone who performs gilding, a decorative technique wherein gold leaf or silver is applied to surfaces such as wood, metal, or stone.
gondola—a traditional, flat-bottomed rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. For centuries, gondolas were the chief means of transportation and the most common watercraft within Venice.
jacks—large tongs that are used to create scores in the neck of a piece of glass. It is often the main tool used by glassblowers.
lip—the top edge of the piece of glass.
maestro—an Italian glass master.
manganese—a metal that helps keep the glass clear and pure. Known as “glassblowers’ soap,” it’s the third ingredient used in making the mixture for a batch of cristallo.
marver—a marble table that is used to roll and shape the glass.
mi rifiuto—Italian for “I refuse.”
moile—the blob of molten glass that is on the steel blowpipe or punty.
Murano—a series of islands off the northeast coast of Venice best known for glassblowing. In 1291, the Venetian government moved the glassblowing industry to Murano, purportedly to prevent fires but also to control its most profitable industry.