The Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna holds a unique collection of Italian maiolica from
the fifteenth to the eighteenth century which is now being published almost in its entirety
for the very first time. Maiolica tableware Italy's luxury export spread to the courts of
northern Europe from the early sixteenth century. Today the MAK's holdings from former
imperial ecclesiastical aristocratic and private ownership enter into a dialogue with
maiolica from well-known Austrian and Central European collections. Timothy Wilson professor
emeritus at Balliol College Oxford and former Keeper of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum in
Oxford and Rainald Franz curator at MAK together with other experts provide an extensive
insight into the development of maiolica in its cultural and historical context. Thus a
scholarly exploration of one of the best collections of maiolica in the world has thus now been
scientifically examined for the very first time.
