Free Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill Page A

The three most common types of masks are bautas, which can cover the whole face; morettas, which are oval masks of black velvet generally worn to visit the convents; and voltos (also called larvas), which are the simplest and most common type of mask.
conciatore —a person who prepares a batch.
convent —traditionally, a place where a girl is sent to take up devotions in the Catholic Church and become a nun. However, in the 1400s, the skyrocketing cost of dowries meant that many of the city’s noblest families were obliged to place their teenage daughters, regardless of the girls’ wishes, in convents. Few of these girls felt a spiritual calling. The nunneries were run like luxury boutique hotels. Novices were given duplicate keys so they could come and go as they pleased from their palatial apartments, which were filled with artwork and overlooked the Grand Canal. Wearing the most fashionable, low-cut dresses, they would entertain male visitors with wine-fueled banquets, then invite their beaux to spend the night in their rooms. They took romantic gondola rides with admirers to private picnics on the islands of the Venice Lagoon and went on poetic moonlit walks in the secluded gardens. The most passionate eloped, presumably with men who were not obsessed with dowries. The mature-age abbesses rode the city in opulent carriages with their pet dogs and oversaw their girls’ activities with a maternal eye. If a nun fell pregnant, she would simply give birth in the privacy of the convent and then pass the child off as an orphan abandoned on the doorstep.
Corpus Christi —a Western Catholic feast that honors the Eucharist (the sacrament in which a wafer is eaten during Mass, having become the body of Christ through transubstantiation) and dates back to the thirteenth century. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, the date of which changes each calendar year.
Council of Ten —one of the major governing bodies of the Republic of Venice from 1310 to 1797. Sometimes known simply as the Ten, the council was formally tasked with maintaining the security of the republic and preserving the government from overthrow or corruption, though its actions were often secretive. The council’s small size and rapid ability to make decisions led to its increasing power, and by 1457 the Ten was enjoying almost unlimited authority over all governmental affairs. In particular, it oversaw Venice’s diplomatic and intelligence services, managed its military affairs, and handled legal matters and enforcement, including sumptuary laws. The council also attempted, though largely ineffectively, to combat vice.
courtesan —the word originally comes from “courtier,” which means “someone who attends a monarch or other powerful official at court.” In the Renaissance, cortigiana came to mean “the ruler’s mistress,” and then to mean “a well-educated and independent woman of free morals, a trained artisan of dance and singing, who associated with wealthy, upper-class men who provided luxuries and status in exchange for companionship.”
cristallo —a totally clear glass, like rock crystal. Cristallo is thought to have been invented around 1450, with Angelo Barovier often credited as its inventor.
crucible —the cauldron that holds the glass inside the furnace.
cullet —the hot, molten state of glass when it is being formed in the furnace. Also, the pieces of glassware that have chips that can be broken down and used instead of batch to make glass.
dancing master —the person who led the bride on a procession through the streets and taught various group dances to those in attendance. He also acted as a sort of unofficial modern-day wedding coordinator.
doge —the head of the government in fifteenth-century Venice.
dowry —the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage.
Ducal Palace —the palazzo on San Marco Piazza where the Doge lived and where the political