are the plateaux with
a raised flat disk in the centre; small dishes with broad flat rims
and deep though narrow central walls (_tondini_), suitable for handing
a wine-glass or sweetmeats; flat trencher-shaped plates (_piatti_ or
_taglieri_); saucer-shaped dishes on low feet and sometimes with
moulded sides (_tazze_ or _fruttieri_) suitable for holding fruit.
Among the vase forms ovoid shapes with short necks and a pair of flat
handles are common in the Tuscan wares of the 15th century; the jars
for confectionery, drugs, or syrups were often of the cylindrical form
with graceful concave sides known as the "_albarello_," in shape of
Eastern origin, and in name perhaps derived from the Persian _el
barani_ (a vase for drugs, &c.); other vase forms with spouts and
handles were used for the same purpose; ornamental vases after
classical designs (_vasi a bronzi antichi_); and in the best Urbino
period a great variety of fanciful forms--ewers, vases, cisterns,
shells, salt-cellars, ink-pots, &c., with applied masks and serpentine
handles, were made in the exuberant taste of the time. A complex piece
of furniture for the bedside of ladies in childbirth (_vaso
puerperale_) consisted of a bowl with a foot surmounted by a flat
trencher on which fitted an inverted drinking-bowl (_ongaresca_); and
above this again a salt-cellar with cover. Many of these shapes were
suited to daily use, but the richly decorated majolica was designed to
adorn the walls, the _credenze_, table-centres and cabinets of the
rich. This alone could have been the destination of the large dishes
(_piatti di pompa_) with rim pieces for suspension, and the smaller
dishes (_coppe amatorii_) with portraits of young men and girls and
lovers' symbols; and it is inconceivable that the costly lustred wares
of Gubbio or the fine _madreperla_ dishes of Deruta were designed for
anything but decorative use. The ware was in fact an article produced
for the wealthy in the century of Italy's glory, and under no other
conditions could such magnificent and expensive pieces have been made.

_Technical Methods._--This is a convenient place to give an account of
the methods used by the early medieval potters--(1) because they
represent what had been learnt from Roman times to the 16th century,
and indeed to the introduction of modern methods, (2) because, besides
all that a potter could derive from an examinatio