Pretiosa Vitrea

de Fabrizio Paolucci, Giandomenico De Tommaso

"Pretiosa Vitrea, whose title is inspired by the Latin definition of glass given by Gaius Petronius in the Satyricon written in the late 1st century AD, emphasises the heritage of glass manufacturing through the showcase of artefacts currently housed in the state museums of Tuscany and in important private collections within the region. The quality of these one hundred works is comparable in excellence to the artefacts that can be found in the most renowned international museums. The book brings together relevant archaeological finds of Roman glass manufacturing in Tuscany, such as the glass cameo from Torrita di Siena or the chrysography of Arezzo. Alongside these exclusive glass products, the book showcases a wide variety of finds to illustrate the evolution of mass production techniques, from the use of moulds to the discovery of the glass blowing technique in the middle of the 1st century BC, which soon showed clear advantages compared to traditional ceramic production in terms of lower cost and maintaining the taste of foods and liquids."--