Cipriano Piccolpasso

From a longstanding family of Bologna, Italy, Cipriano Piccolpasso (1524-79)  recorded the techniques of the maiolica artists of the Late Renaissance in a manuscript entitled The three books of the potter's art.  Piccolpasso's mid-sixteenth century text was the first time that any written description of the art of pottery making was recorded. However, his manuscript remained unpublished and obscure until the end of the nineteenth century. Its first publication appeared in 1857, and may have been influenced by the popularity of writing on ceramics technology that arose in the wake of Brongniart's Traité des Arts céramiques.