This story is set on an island. Murano which, like many other islands is a place of mystery and marvel. A document of 982 AD refers to one Domenico, who was a fiolario or bottle blower. We also know that, in 1291 the glass-markers' furnaces were moved from Venice to Murano. While the official reason was that the furnaces presented too great a fire-risk to the city, the real one was actually quite different. For, the authorities wanted to keep the secrets of glass-making hidden from the prying eyes of the competition. What better sanctuary than an island? Thus became Murano the world's first industrial zone!

Jacobello is the very first member of the Barovier family of whom we have information, and this dates from about 1295. Some two centuries later, the great master Angelo Barovier was to leave his own indelible in the history of the Renaissance. For, it was in about 1450 that he invented what came to be called, "crystalline glass", a diaphanous film of crystal in perfect harmony with Renaissance taste, all light, and clarity.