Zuane Gazzabin,
glassmaster
in Murano under
the sign of “Al Bastian”
The earliest memories of the Gazzabin-
Vistosi family, whose history sinks its roots
into the tradition of Murano glass art, date
back to the XVIth century, when the first
member of the family to be named in the
registers of the era was Vincenzo.
His second son Zuane Geronimo joined the
ranks of the furnace owners on Murano,
forever tying the family name to the glass
tradition of the island.
Zuane Geronimo Gazzabin was in fact, be-
tween 1640 and 1642, the owner of a
furnace which worked under the sign of
“Al Bastian”. There were four colonelli,
that is sectors into which Venetian glass
production was divided: “lastre, quari e
rui” (decorative motifs in the shapes of
disks or glass plates, used for windows)
“suppiadi” (elements in blown glass), “da
smalti” (glass pieces prepared to be deco-
rated with enamels) and “da canna” (sol-
id or hollow glass rods used for the pro-
duction of conterie and “lampwork
beads”). Zuane Gazzabin’s furnace be-
longed to this last category, as specified in
an agreement signed between the “mag-
nificent Signor Zuane Gazzabin, owner of
the furnace under the sign of saint
Sebastian and Zuane Moro de Vicenzo
hired as “Master of rods for beads”, for
the year 1657-1658.
Upon Zuane Geronimo’s death in 1662,
the family’s destiny of furnace ownership
was carried on by the oldest of his ten
sons, Geronimo; he was succeeded by his
grandson Zuanne born in 1663.
He had only one male heir, Gerolamo: at
his baptism, his father’s name was tran-
scribed as Giovanni Vistoso called
Gazzabin. This is the first appearance of
the surname Vistoso, which would be kept
by the generations to come.
The eclecticism
of Gerolamo and the seal
of the “Golden Book”
In 1725, after the family glasshouse had
passed under the sign of “Al San
Sebastian”, Gerolamo began to work with
his father. Several years before, he was
married to the daughter of Giuseppe Briati,
the most famous Murano glassmaster of
the XVIIIth century: thus the destinies of
two of the most famous families in the his-
tory of glass were bound together.
In those years not only did Gerolamo solid-
ly take the reins of his father’s activity, he
also became a leading institutional figure,
the first of the Gazzabin-Vistosis to be
elected to the Council of XXV three times.
At the time of the third election in 1744,
he was running the Bastion di San Donà as
well: on Murano there were four “bas-
tioni”, San Stefano, San Donà, San Pietro
and Agli Anzoli. Each bastion was the
property of the Community of Murano: it
sold wine, and functioned as a sort of
pawn shop where one could deposit valu-
able objects as a guarantee against a loan.
But the most important event in his life,
the achievement which crowned a life of
commitment and success, occurred in his
old age: in 1757 the Gazzabin family
earned the right to imprint its seal in the
“Golden Book”, adding its name to the
Zuane Gazzabin,
vetraio in Murano sotto
l’insegna “Al Bastian”
Le più antiche memorie della famiglia
Gazzabin-Vistosi, la cui storia affonda le
radici nella tradizione muranese dell’Arte
vetraria, risalgono al XVI secolo, quando il
primo membro della famiglia ad essere no-
minato nei registri dell’epoca fu un tale
Vicenzo. Il suo secondogenito, Zuane
Geronimo entrò a pieno titolo nel padro-
nato muranese, legando indissolubilmente
il nome della famiglia alla tradizione isola-
na del vetro.
Zuane Geronimo Gazzabin fu, infatti, pro-
prietario dal 1640 al 1662 di una fornace
a Murano, che produceva sotto l’insegna
“Al Bastian”. I colonelli, ovvero i settori in
cui si suddivideva la produzione di vetri ve-
neziani, erano all’epoca quattro: “lastre,
quari e rui” (motivi decorativi in forma di
dischi e lastre vitree, usati per le finestre)
“suppiadi” (elementi in vetro soffiato),
“da smalti” (vetri preparati per essere de-
corati a smalto) e “da canna” (bacchette
vitree massicce o forate, usate per la pro-
duzione delle conterie e delle “perle a lu-
me”). A quest’ultimo ramo apparteneva
la vetreria di Zuane Gazzabin, come spe-
cifica un accordo pattuito fra il “magnifico
signor Zuane Gazzabin, Patron de fornace
all’insegna del san Bastian e Zuane Moro
de Vicenzo assunto come “Maistro de
canna da perle”, nell’anno lavorativo
1657-1658.
La prosecuzione del percorso padronale
della famiglia Gazzabin alla morte di
Zuane Geronimo nel 1662, venne attuata
dapprima dal maggiore dei suoi dieci figli,
Geronimo, e poi dal nipote Zuanne nato
nel 1663. Quest’ultimo ebbe un solo ere-
de maschio, Gerolamo: in occasione del
suo battesimo il nome del padre fu tra-
scritto in Giovanni Vistoso detto Gazzabin.
È questa la prima apparizione del sopran-
nome Vistoso, mantenuto nelle generazio-
ni a seguire.
La Famiglia
I Gazzabin-Vistosi protagonisti della Vetraria Muranese
The Family
The Gazzabin-Vistosi family in Murano glass art
28
