Cipriano Piccolpasso

Cipriano di Michele Piccolpasso was a member of an Italian patrician family of Bologna that had been settled since the mid-fifteenth century in Castel Durante, which was an important center for the manufacture of maiolica. Today he is remembered for writing Li tre libri dell'arte del vasajo, which are a storehouse of information on the techniques of maiolica from the choice of clays and their refinement, the shaping of the body, the composition of the glazes, to the preparation of the colors. The work "is now widely accepted as the first comprehensive account of the manufacture of any kind of pottery ever produced in Europe".