The earliest work on the ceramic art is that of Giambattista Passeri of Pesaro, who was born about a hundred and fifty years since, and whose inquiries into geology and antiquities attracted him to a subject cognate to them both. While studying the fossils of Central Italy, the transition was not difficult to their fictile products; and after vainly endeavouring to methodise the pottery of Etruria and Magna Grecia, he tried the same good office with better success upon the majolica of his native province.[239] Nor is his theme of so narrow an interest as might on a superficial view be supposed. The existence of pottery has frequently proved a valuable aid to historical research; and even now our surest test of Etruscan refinement is supplied by the painted vases exhumed from the sepulchres of an almost forgotten race.[240] It is not, however, important merely as affording landmarks useful in tracing the civilisation of nations; for, by combining taste with ingenuity, it gives to materials the most ordinary and almost fabulous value, thereby constituting one of the notable triumphs of mind over matter, and largely promoting the advance of intellectual culture. Even in early stages of national improvement, the plastic art, after contributing to the necessities of life, has often been the first to inspire elegance or embody true principles of form and afterwards of colour. Dealing with a substance readily found and easily manipulated, wherein nature might be imitated or fancy developed, it was the precursor of sculpture, the patron of painting, and the handmaid of architecture. [Footnote 239: The subject has since met with more attention, but no other work has been expressly dedicated to it. We may refer to VASARI, LANZI, and GAYE, _passim_; RICCI, _Notizie delle Belle Arti in Gubbio_; _Kunstblatt_, No. 51; MONTANARI, _Lettera interno ad alcune Majoliche dipinte nella collezione Massa_ in _Giornale Arcadico di Roma_, XXXVII., 333; BRONGNIART, _Traité des Arts Ceramiques_; MARRYAT, _History of Pottery and Porcelain_. It is both an advantage and a pleasure to refer readers unacquainted with this interesting art, to the charming and accurate representations of azulejo, Robbian ware, and majolica, given in the last of these works. It is greatly to be desired that Mr. Marryat may, in continuation of his subject, and with access to English collections unknown to me, supply much information which this slight sketch cannot include.]