Archaicmaiolicajug with brownand green decorationfrom Tuscania. Height, 16.5 centimeters. group of maiolica tiles from the high altar of the Upper Church of St. Francis. The tiles were dismantled in 1898 and are now preserved in the sacristy. Palumbo was able to show convincingly that the alt^r was at least under construction in 1236 and probably was completed before 1239 when Elia, St. Francis* successor as leader of the community, retired to Cortona. The tiles are significant for two reasons: their color scheme (they are polychrome, not brown and green) and their date. If they were indeed made before 1239, they are the earliest datable examples of tin-glazed pottery in central Italy. Unfortunately, we have no means of knowing whether they were made by a local potter at Assisi, or by an itinerant craftsman. In any case, they allow us to push back the date of tin glazing in central Italy to the 1230's, a generation before the Orvieto ware dish used by Liverani in his counterblast of Waagé's article on Proto-maiolica. 47