Copper-Ruby Glasses And "Aventurina" - Comparisons Among Analysis And Recipes (In Italian)

Glasses coloured by copper oxide have been produced from as long ago as the second millennium BC; blue-green glasses are obtained by keeping copper in oxydized form (CuO), red colour is developed when copper is in reduced form and microcrystals of Cu20 or metallic Cu precipitates in the glass. Samples produced from the Roman period until the 19th century have been collected and analysed with modern analytical techniques. A sample of Aventurine glass has also been analysed. Comparison has been made, when possible, between the analytical results and the prescriptions found in different Venetian recipe manuscripts from the 14th to the 19th century.