Originally from Casteldurante, now Urbania, near Urbino, he represents the peculiar figure of an eclectic writer. Besides the best known ‘Le Piante et i Ritratti delle Città e Terre dell’Umbria’ (1578), he is also the author of “Li tre libri dell’arte del vasaio”, a manuscript written not long before 1559, housed today in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The first printed edition is one from Rome in 1857, followed by a French one, published in 1861, meretriciously translated by C. Popelyn into renaissance French, whose title is ‘Trois Libvres de l’Art du Potier’.

We don’t know a lot about his formal training, although some of its characteristics are revealed in his works, one being its incompleteness. In numerous passages one can find references to hermetic traditions; mysteries that almost certainly have little to do with his craft. His formulae to make enamel, his description of the production cycle and the lively depictions of the activities in the craftsmen’s studios which decorate the manuscript still remain a point of interest, essential for the studies in this field. Piccolpasso reveals the meticulous procedures of the kilnsmen and painters of pottery in sixteenth century to which he adds his personal experience as a potter. The work is divided into three books: the first deals with the choice of the kaolin, the techniques for modelling and the right machines to be used; the second book is about the instructions for the baking of the vases and the processes for colouring. Finally in the third book the glaze, the enamel, the painting and the other procedures of decoration are taught.