Curiosities from the archive

The ancient pottery of Deruta
and its archaic production

First records: 1290   ·   Medieval archive documents
A thousand-year conversation between clay and hand

"A load of vases, paid as tribute.
This is how Deruta's pottery enters written history."

To understand Deruta majolica as we know it today, it helps to look back at the earliest documents that mention pottery being produced here — medieval archives, notarial deeds, and the quiet transactions between potters and friars that, almost by accident, left a trail. Here is what the records tell us.

Chapter One

1290 — The Earliest Written Evidence

The first reliable documentation to bear witness to ceramic production in Deruta dates back to the Middle Ages. A document from 1290 — one of the oldest to come to light — informs us that the church of San Nicolò in Deruta, subordinate to the chapter of the cathedral in Perugia and therefore obliged to pay an annual tribute, paid it with a "load of vases".

Specifically: 12 amphorae, 12 amphorettes, 6 "lavandari" (small basins), 50 jugs and 100 "gavate". It is not possible to establish for how long this practice had existed, but it does suggest that ceramic activity in the Deruta area was widespread, established and well-known.

Chapter Two

1336 — The Guild of Potters

Thanks to research carried out at the Perugia State Archive by Orietta Boini in 1976, an important document has been traced dating back to 1336: a notarial protocol drawn by Giovanni Contucci, a notary from Deruta. It contains evidence that the guild of potters was thriving, and it throws light upon the relations which existed with the Perugia College.

Chapter Three

1358 — Cecce d'Alessandro and the Friars of Assisi

The Franciscan archive in Assisi contributes further to outlining medieval production in Deruta. A written document dating back to 1358 makes mention of a certain Cecce d'Alessandro, a potter who sold hundreds of pieces of pottery to the friars at the convent.

The purchase included "yellow vases, white vases, green amphorae, small white jugs, small basins and other earthenware" — and the friars also paid the transport expenses from Deruta. A simple invoice from seven centuries ago, still legible, still precise.

Chapter Four

The Quality of Medieval Production

From the point of view of quality, given the present state of research it is difficult to assign a precise connotation to the medieval production of Deruta. Yet, based on the fragments available for examination, overall it does not seem to diverge much from that of Central Italy.

Even if Orvieto was probably the Umbrian centre where forms of the archaic style found their widest expression — with elaborate decorative motifs proposed in several variations, alongside simple vegetable and animal decorations drawn in green and brown, and more complex representations such as monsters and mermaids — the numerous finds discovered in the Deruta subsoil allow for the identification of a fairly simple production.

This consisted for the most part of objects for everyday use: vases, wine and water jugs, bowls and basins. The decorations — in the typical two-color scheme of the archaic style — depict on the whole geometric motifs and rapid stylisations of flowers and leaves.