Cipriano Piccolpasso

Cipriano di Michele Piccolpasso (1524 – 21 November 1579) 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[1] ("The three books of the potter's art"), 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.

[5] He had the humanist education of his station in life and was trained as a surveyor and civil and military engineer and draughtsman, which took him to Rimini, Ancona, Fano and Spoleto.

The tre libri treatise was written at the request of the Cardinal François de Tournon, "who spent a whole year there during the time when the French descended into Italy.

He also wrote an illustrated topography of Umbria, Le piante ed I ritratti delle Città e Terre dell'Umbria sottoposte al governo di Perugia, which was commissioned by Pope Pius IV, by whom he was knighted, henceforth cavaliere.