The Poison Detecting Glass of Gothic-Romantic Literature
A rumor found its way into romantic and Gothic literature during the 18th and 19th centuries that involved Venice’s world renowned Murano glass. Fiction authors claimed it was so pure that if it came into contact with a poison impurity, the glass would break.
One of the most popular Gothic authors to extoll this supposed virtue of Murano glass was Ann Radcliffe in her best-selling novel The Mysteries of Udolpho. The Gothic novel was published in 1794 and in its pages Emily, the protagonist, visits the Italian city of Venice. One of the austere men in her party has wine poured into his glass and it cracks. He immediately realizes that someone is trying to kill him.
A subsequent example is in Lord Byron’s play: “The Two Foscari.” There, one of the characters says “’tis said that our Venetian crystal has / Such pure antipathy to poison, as to burst if aught of venom touches it."
Then in 1837 William Harrison Ainsworth published his novel: The Admirable Crichton, which also discusses the special glass.
The poison-reacting glass of Murano makes for a good device plot, but there is no truth in the offering.
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