First glass - how it all happened
How glass was discovered we exactly don't know. The narrative of roman historian Pliny tells that the first glass was discovered by Phoenician sailors who sailed along the coast of Africa. They decided to land at the bank of the river Bellus and cook some soup because they were very hungry. So they gathered wood but were not able to find any stone to underlay the cattle. Thus they unloaded some stones of natural soda from their ship and built a provisory fireplace in the African desert. When they finished the soup one of the sailors noticed that thanks to the reaction of desert sand, natural soda and a high temperature of flames were created some clear drops lying in the fireplace. So the first glass became to be known.
According to previous researches the cradle of glassmaking belongs to Egypt (the oldest glass pearl comes from Thebes and is 5000 years old). It came to Italy from here and the Romans brought this specialization to an unprecedented perfection as excavations in Pompeii declare. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire the glassmakers had to find new homes. Most of them went to Venice where they found the glory of Venetian glass. Their products were perfect and in a short time the glass became most desirable worldwide. The Venetian government highly appreciated the glassmakers and they enjoyed the great privileges. They could, for example, wear two daggers as nobles and their daughters could marry Venetian patricians. It was not the exception that the killers were hired to murder refugees from glassmaker guild who wanted to leave abroad.