Nuovi dati per una storia della ceramica graffita tardomedievale a Ferrara. Materiali dalla US1050 di Piazza Municipio e dalla collezione Carife.

Abstract

c. = century ca. = circa MNV = minimum number of vessels sh. = shreds --- This thesis is the third and last part of a research project whose primary purpose was to revise the role of the sgraffiato ware ascribed to Ferrara during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The ceramic materials which we considered in our study come from two different settings: an underground brick pit excavated in 2001 at Ferrara’s Municipal Square (anciently the city’s Ducal Courtyard) and the Carife Foundation collection of objets d’art (group A). These settings diverge markedly from one another, starting from the type of formation, that is an archaeological deposit, once used for waste disposal, on the one hand and a group of objects from the antique trade on the other; despite that, what brings them together is high share of medieval and post-medieval sgraffiato ware. The study of pottery finds from the pit has pointed out the following data: a total of 4066 ceramic sh. (omitting illegible pieces), that reach 4118 if we add the kiln waste. Of these, 1439 are single sh., whereas 2627 are vessel units (joining in some cases), forming 476 MNV, plus 92 restored pieces. Sgraffiato ware consists mainly of open forms (in particular bowls and plates), few jugs and some other rare items such as inkstands. This group includes all the types of incised slipwares that are known to have been produced in the Padana region of Italy during the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance. Regarding the chronology, since the context was found sealed some metres under the square, both the written sources and the association of the finds allow us to determine when the pit was used for the last time; these two elements seem to suggest the second half of the 15th c. as a possible terminus ante quem for the pit. Furthermore, another aspect that emerges neatly from the study of the ceramic material is the connection with a privileged household, originally, which we can detect in the Este family, whose palace was built all around the square (the previous Courtyard) and where the family lived until the end of 1400s. The pottery that constitutes the group A of the Carife collection comprises 362 items dating between ca. the second half of the 14th c. and the second half of the 16th c.; ceramic classes include mainly slipwares and medieval tin-glazed wares. Unlike the context 1050, these ceramics do not represent a unit, in view of the fact that they were intentionally grouped together throughout the last three decades of the 20th c.; nearly 90% of the pieces consists of sgraffiato wares, all restored except for a plate fragment. Unfortunately, group A lacks any kind of information about its formation and no record is available with regard to the old owner/s, possible dealers and, lastly, to the provenance of the objects. All that we were able to find out has been summed up in one of the first paragraphs of the 3rd part of the thesis, but it is clear from these few facts, drawn mostly from the literature available for a small part of the vessels, that the basic problems related to this collection (i. e. method, type and place of recovery) are still far from solved. Owing to this, these ceramics can only be approximately ‘placed’, both chronologically and geographically; as a matter of fact, we couldn’t avoid general attributions, which we based on comparisons with archaeological material from excavations carried out to scientifical standards, primarily in the north-eastern part of Italy.