rOECELAIN AND FAIENCE. 
61 
ITALY. 
Majolica. 
Al though* specimens of majolica wäre, as usually clesig- 
nated, were to be found from all the principal couutries, it is 
chiefly to the Italiaa and Spanish sections that we should look 
for the typical specimens. 
The name majolica is believed to be derived from Majorca, 
the Spanish island from which it is supposed the first speci 
mens were taken or exported to Italy. The island, accord- 
ino- to Fabio Ferrari, was called Maiolica by ancient Tuscan 
writers, and Dante writes, " Tra l’isola di Cipri e Maiolica.” 
Pottery was made there by the Moors from an early penoi 
in the Middle Ages, and it became famous. There is a State 
ment, considered mythical by some, that, at the conquest 
of the Balearic Islands by the Pisan fieets, in 1115, part of the 
spoil consisted of the famous Majorca wäre, and that it was 
used for the decoration of the towers and fa$ades of the 
Pisan churches. The term majolica, or maiolica, appears 
originally to have beeil restricted to the lustred wares, 
those in which there was a nacreous chromatic eflect, due to 
the partial reduction to the metallic state of the oxides form- 
in<r part of the composition of the glaze. This lnstre, though 
easily produced when the cause is known, was doubtless one 
of the o-reat secrets of the art for a time, though doubtless „ 
produced, in the first instance, unintentionally by the lmper- 
fect combustion of the fuel in the kilns giving a smoky atmos- 
phere containing free carbon, or carbomc oxide gas. A 
coarser wäre, of potter’s earth, covered with a white slip, 
upon which the desigus were painted, and glazed with lead, 
was known as mezza-maiolica. The true majolica was prob- 
ably tin-glazed, though it does not appear by any means cer- 
tain thatthis constituted the distinction. Towards the middle 
of the sixteenth Century, the terms seem to have beeil applied 
to all varieties of the glazed earthenware of Italy. Mr. Fort- 
num, with M. Jacquemart, M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, 
and others, think that the word majolica, or maiolica, should 
be amiiu restricted to the lustred wares, althotigh in Italy, 
and elsewhere, it is commonly used to designate all varieties