The most common account of the
circumstances assumes that Zorzi actually stole the secrets which Angelo
Beroviero had received from Paolo Godi, and thereby forced Angelo to
give him his daughter in marriage; but the learned Comm. C.A. Levi,
director of the museum in Murano, where many works of Beroviero and
Ballarin are preserved, has established the latter's reputation for
honourable dealing with regard to the precious secrets, in a pamphlet
entitled "L'Arte del Vetro in Murano," published in Venice, in 1895, to
which I beg to refer the curious reader. I have used a novelist's
privilege in writing a story which does not pretend to be historical. I
have taken eleven years from the date on which Giovanni Beroviero wrote
his letter to the Podesta of Murano, and the letter itself, though
similar in spirit to the original, is differently worded and covers
somewhat different ground; I have also represented Zorzi as standing
alone in his attempt to become an independent glass-blower, whereas
Comm. Levi has discovered that he had two companions, who were
Dalmatians, like himself. There is no foundation in tradition for the
existence of Arisa the Georgian slave, but it is well known that
beautiful Eastern slaves were bought and sold in Venice and in many
other parts of Italy even at a much later date.
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