MAGIST[ER] LUCAS DE VENECIIS ME FECIT: A VENETIAN BELL FOUNDER FROM THE MIDDLE AGES

Abstract

This paper examines Master Lucas, a bell founder based in Venice who was active between the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Through the examination of sixteen bells, some of which are no longer extant, the career of one of the earliest known Venetian bell founders can be traced. A catalogue of the bells describes their measurements, inscriptions and decorations. The distribution of his products to locations in Montenegro and central Italy demonstrate the importance of Venice as a bell casting centre in the Middle Ages. Written documents are cited to provide further information about Lucas’s life and some of the bells that he cast. Collation of this evidence sheds important light on the practices of bell casting in Venice around ad 1300.