Majolica - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MAJOLICA, a name properly applied to a species of Italian ware in which the body is coated with a tin-enamel, on which is laid and fired a painted decoration. It is also applied to similar wares made in imitation of the Italian ware in other countries. The word in Italian is maiolica. Du Cange (Gloss. s.v. " Majorica") quotes from a chronicle of Verona of 1368, in which the form majolica occurs for the more usual Latin form majorica. It has usually been supposed that this type of pottery was first made in the island of Majorca, but it is more probable that the name was given by the Italians to the lustred Spanish ware imported by ships hailing from the Balearic Islands. (See CERAMICS: Medieval and Later Italian.)