The industry of everyday life: men, economy and society in the material culture of an European capital (13th-16th centuries)

Archaeological research done in Rome in the 1980s left open some questions about Late Medieval and Renaissance pottery production and trade. Many topics were socio-economical questions, e.g., who were these artisans? What technical knowledge or skills were they endowed with? What was their aesthetic culture? which market did they address? The goal of this paper is to show how a close confrontation between material and written sources allows for a better reconstruction of the social reality, in our case the main questions we are dealing with are: the origin of the glazed coating technique and the evolution of this type of coating between 1200 and 1300; the development of style during the following century and throughout all of the 15th century; the actors and the driving force of the revolution that occurred between the 15th and 16th centuries; the production of handmade objects precisely imitating the products of other regions. All these questions are if not answered, then at least renewed with our research.