with a silicious glaze, and decorated in blue and black, with gazelles and inscriptions. Meanwhile Venice and other maritime cities on both sides of the Italian peninsula were developing an extensive trade with the East. The Crusaders had been converting the old battle-ground of the Jews into the scene of another strife, in which Judaism was ignored. Mohammed preached the gospel of the sword, and the Christians took up the gauntlet thrown down by the Saracens. Is it not possible that by these two courses--trade, and the movements of followers of the Cross--some inklings of Persian art may have crept into Italy? [Illustration: Fig. 200.--Siculo-Moresque Vase.] The crusading spirit of the twelfth century was a most potent agency. In 1113 the Pisans were roused to a sense of the wrongs suffered by Christians from the piratical Saracens of Majorca. They set sail, and in 1115 the island was in their power; and their galleys returned home freighted with the spoils of war. An extensive trade between the Balearic Islands and Italy was maintained in the fourteenth century. Looking at these facts, does it appear improbable that Moorish wares and Moorish potters may have reached Italy from Majorca? Coming still later, we find Moorish refugees from Spain flocking toward Italy in vast numbers. Leaving the Saracens and Moors entirely out of the question, the art of enamelling might have reached Italy from the Byzantine Greeks. [Illustration: Fig. 201.--Siculo-Moresque Vases. (Castellani Coll.)] With all these facts before us, the bacini, or plates found incrusted in the walls of the old churches of Pisa, need give us little trouble. Mr. Fortnum found one Persian piece. Mr. Marryat thinks them of Moorish origin. Mr. Fortnum is of the further opinion that many of the bacini, both of Pisa and other Italian cities, are of native Italian manufacture. Each specimen must be judged separately, and it may be pointed out that with the highway of the sea open to the East and to the Saracenic settlements in Africa and Spain, with Saracens already settled in Sicily, and with the known early connection by commerce between Italy and Spain, it is difficult to specify the route by which any special ware or process _must_ have reached Italy. We shall afterward see that in Germany tin enamel was known in the thirteenth century. If it should be asked, How did it get there? the question would illustrate a good deal of idle speculation indulged in regarding its introduction into Italy. The same rule will apply to the metallic lustre. [Illustration: Fig. 202.--Sgraffiato of the 15th Century.]