“Bottonami”, “grani grossi”, “paternostri” e “manifatture minori”. Le innovazioni di prodotto dei perleri veneziani del Settecento tra conflittualità interne all’Arte e tentativi di espatrio del mestiere

Between the 17th and the 18th centuries ornamental objects destined for people, garments and clothing accessories experienced a great change in taste and function in the European novelty market. This paper, based on archival sources, analyzes from an economic history point of view, the spontaneous updating that, during the last decades of the Early Modern Age, involved glass beads created by Venetian perleri. This path was characterized by debates inside the guild system. In fact, due to the extension of the original catalogue of these kinds of products, difficulties arose in defining prerogatives of making beads and other glass fashionable accessories, among artisans who belonged to different branches inside the Venetian glass guild. In the meanwhile, supported by Venetian finished and semi-finished product smuggling towards other regions among the Italian peninsula and Europe, attempts were made to export abroad the know-how of the glass bead manufacturing.