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CHAP. XVI.
of the valuable products of Asia to the European world. The incenses, the perfumes, the spices,and the precious stones, were sources of vast gains;whilst the profit of freights on the bulky com-modities with which Europe supplied Asia addedto the growth of the shipping branch of industry.
Under the auspices and the influence of thisforeign trade, manufactures arose and flourishedin all the districts of the peninsula. Milan sup-plied the best and most costly weapons and armour;Venice produced the most elegant plate, jewellery,and other ornaments; Genoa and Bologna fur-nished the richest silks, satins, velvets, and em-broidery.
Many inventions which owe their origin to Italy and to this period contributed both to the fameand the wealth of that peninsula. Glasses forreading, in some measure resembling spectacles,had been invented by Spino, a Dominican monkof Pisa. Faenza fabricated within its walls a kindof earthenware or porcelain. Glass had been madeby the Venetians to some extent, and mirrors hadbeen introduced by that state, from whence clocksand watches had first became known, The manu-facture of paper from pounded rags was an inven-tion first practised in Padua . To these may beadded the substitution of candles and tapers in theplace of the lamps which had formerly been used.
This flourishing condition of navigation andcommerce, both external and internal, led to the