Paesaggi della produzione vetraria: prime indagini storiche e archeometriche sul sito della vetreria Minetti e Morgantini a Crevoladossola

The paper reports the preliminary results of an interdisciplinary research focused on the glass production of “Minetti and Morgantini” glasswork, located in Crevola in Val d’Ossola and operating in the early 1800s. In order to reconstruct the different manufacturing technologies (glass artifacts, windows pane, plate glass, …) a multi-analytical approach was used. Different lines of research were followed: identification of documents relative to the production cycle, definition of the context of technical knowledge, reconstruction of the production system and reconstruction of the territorial context (production and commercial cycle), raw materials and operating sequence. The archaeometric study of production waste shows a complex and varied chemical composition of the glass. Moreover, the methods of glass processing seem to be diversified according to the type of final glass product. These data show how the success of the “Minetti and Morgantini” glasswork was due to high entrepreneurship combined with an excellent knowledge of glass technology.