 So good morning. First of all, I would like to thank the session organizer for the chance that I've given me to participate at this international meeting. What I'm going to present are the results of my research down for the master's degree. It focuses on one of the still current problems of the medieval archeology in Italy, the dating and the origin of the glaze bricks from Santa Maria del Popolo in Pavia, a city that is 33 km south from Milan in Lombardy region. The discovery of these glaze bricks occurred in the 30s during the dismantlement of the last part of Santa Maria del Popolo that started in the 1488. Santa Maria del Popolo was the Romanesque with a cathedral built in the Lombard city between the 11th and the 12th century, when it still was the capital of the reign of Italy. In the picture you can see the part of the facade with the glaze decoration at the discovering and on the right the reconstructive panel of it, now conserved in the civic museum of Pavia. The size of the bricks is about 17 x 15 x 7 cm. As confirmed by analysis, they are covered by glaze containing lead oxide or thin oxide. The unusual presence of this type of architectural glaze ceramics on a Romanesque fabric caused immediately astonishment between Italian and foreign scholars, mostly because it is generally assumed that these glaze covering techniques were introduced in Italy in 13th century, so 100 years later. After the first proposal of Gaitano Ballardini in 1938, who believed that the coverings of these bricks were the results of a local trials, the problem of the origin of the Pavia bricks was faced again by Francesco Aguzzi in 1970. He agreed that the finds had been produced locally since the clay which are made of is local, but he was convinced that they had been glazed by Middle Eastern ceramists, brought to Pavia by Venetians. In occasion of the exhibit Quadro di Pietra in 1999, Sergio Neppoti was able to date the bricks at the early beginning of the 12th century by thermal luminescence analysis, confirming in this way that the material belongs to the first constructive phase of Santa Meia del Popolo, so the Romanesque one. In 2004, Otto Manzucato criticized this dating, sure that Pavia bricks had been rolled on the faquette in a more recent movement. He supported his thesis with new thermal luminescence analysis that dated materials at 14 and 30, with an emerging error of 80 years. In Italy, no contemporary comparison has been found yet. Besides few bricks with some involuntary glazed drops from the Collegiata or St. Partholomeu in Vercelli, Piemonte region, dated in the second half of the 12th century, all the other Italian glazed bricks are dated from the 13th century on, like the two examples on the slide. On the left, there are some of the lead and tin glazed tiles found in San Fruttuoso Ave in Camoglio, Liguria region, dated from the, sorry, found in San Fruttuoso, yes, during some works of the fabric, down in the 17th century. On the right, some of the 650 tin glazed tiles found in Prima Fortress in Savona, so again in Liguria region. The lack in Italian comparison and the study updates make me consider that glazed bricks of Santa Maria del Popolo had been covered by foreign artisans, like Aguzzi already supposed, but I think that we shouldn't look to the Byzantine era, where there are not so many examples of this type of architectural decoration, like the ones in some fabrics of Kreslav era in Bulgaria and in the city of Arta, in the Epirus. I think that we should consider the exchanges of goods, ideas and traditions between the Christian West and Islamic people through the Pyrenean sea and the Western Mediterranean sea between the 11th and the 12th century. As already said, these current techniques have been introduced in Italy in the 13th century. It occurs in many cities in different ways. While in Sicily, the introduction occurred after the Arab conquest, the other Italian cities, like Savona and Pisa, obtained a know-how thanks to their fervent commercial contacts with Islamic people all over the Mediterranean sea. These contacts are also confirmed by the architectural baccini. Those dated between 11th and 12th century were principally worn fabrics of the western era of north-central Italy, that is closer to the Iranian commercial exchanges. Generally, these baccini were produced in Moody Spain, North Africa and in some cases in Middle East. These two examples you can see on the slide were both produced in North Africa. The one store in the Victorian Albert Museum doesn't come from an Italian building, but I use it as an example because it is better preserved than all the Italian ones with a lust for decoration, like the one bought on Santa Maria del Popolo, now conserving the civic museum of the city. In the areas mentioned above, we can find also architectural glaze ceramics that can be compared by chronology and typed to the Pavia ones. Overlooking the remote areas of Iran and Iraq, where techniques originated and Egypt, where at the moment finds, don't permit us to determine if there was a wide use of architectural glaze ceramics, Maghreb gave back a lot of materials. The thin glaze briefs from the Raccada, Caeruan and Kalal proved that this architectural decorative taste was appreciated here. Analyzing chronologies, we can recognize two different phases of the use. The first dated between the 9th century and the 11th century is characterized by the use of thin glaze tiles decorated also with luster. The second one dated from the half of the 11th century on presents thin glaze tiles used to compose decorative panels, like the one I show from San Futuoso. Although any production centers have been found yet, scholars as jerkins and gulatli are pretty sure that these bricks have been produced locally. Since a big quantity of material had been found in some important sites, such as Caeruan in Tunisia and Kalal in Algeria. Studies done on Kalal materials also tell us that the clay used was local, so confirming the local production. In the slide, a picture of the internal court of the great mosque in Caeruan. It is possible to have a small glimpse of the green decoration so part of that architecture. Arriving at last in Europe, the Iberian peninsula presents a diverse panorama about clay springs. In southern Spain and the Luz there are the older examples of Alicatados and Fulejos. According to Zuzaya, these scoring techniques have been introduced here after the Arab conquest as in Sicily. Except for the Ladrillo Spurvois on the Mirabdome of the court of a mosque, dated at the 2nd of the 10th century, the main part of Spanish place bricks are dated between 12th and 14th century. Here, an example of one of the internal world decorations of the Alhambra, that is obviously in Granada. From the written sources, we also know that the master of the Ferragoles, producers of clay styles in Catalan, were so often by important church personalities and nobles. An example is a Libra des Fates, sorry for my pronunciation, biography of one the first, where it is told that some Valencian ceramists had been called in France at the beginning of the 13th century to work there. Other information about the French habit to cause Spanish artisans to work in building sites are present in some supply contracts, like in the one for clay styles ordered for the palace of Cardinal Oberten in Avignon. Near Fabrican Tesserra, Christian, there is a Fabrican d'Or de Malicia, a converted Muslim. So concluding, if the clay bricks of Santa Maria del Popolo can really be dated at the beginning of the 12th century, we can believe that has happened in France, an important customer as the bishop of the Count or the Count of Faglia, called a Spanish ceramist to decorate the faquette of the Winter Cathedral of the city. Unfortunately, the dating given up to now cannot be considered valid because not all the analysis documentation have been published by the different scholars. Therefore, it is not possible at the moment to carry on with the research and find an answer to who called the pavia bricks, when and where did it come from. To solve the pavia enigma, it is necessary to undergo with new archaeological analysis and with in-depth studies of remains of the church and of all the documents that are still existing in the ecclesiastical and public archives. In my opinion, this is the best way to improve our knowledge about the fabric, the materials and the customer of the church, and the best way to have a more concrete and precise overview. Thank you for the