Although there can be little doubt that CASTEL DURANTE was one of the earliest sites of the manufacture of enamelled pottery in Italy, as well as one of the most fruitful not only of produce but of those potters who in their own city, and at other establishments founded by them in various parts of Italy, spread the fame of the Durantine wares and the Durantine artists throughout Europe, it is remarkable that so few pieces have descended to us, upon which the names of their authors are recorded, or of the “boteghe” in which they were produced. Long lists are given by Raffaelli and other writers, but to identify the works of their hands is generally denied us, from the absence of signed examples by which their style can be known. From Castel Durante came the Pelliparii who on establishing themselves at the capital city of the duchy took the name of Fontana, to which is attached some of the greatest triumphs of their art. “Francesco,” the able painter who probably worked at Urbino and afterwards at Monte Bagnolo near Perugia, was as he styled himself “Durantino.” A new life seems to have been given to artistic pottery in Venice by the immigration of a Durantine artist Francesco del Vasaro in 1545; and even later in the history, when the independence of the duchy was oppressed and local patronage had waned, another potter, Mº Diomede Durante, tried his fortune at Rome. Others went to France, Flanders, and Corfu, spreading the art which attained important development at Nevers, at Lyons, and other French centres. Castel Durante, which rose from the ruins of Castel Ripense in the thirteenth century, took the appellation of Urbania under the reign and in compliment to her native Pope, Urban VIII. It is now a small dull town on the banks of the Metauro, on the post-road from Urbino to Borgo San Sepolcro, and about thirteen Italian miles distant from the former city. The alluvial banks and deposits of the river furnished the material for her pottery.