c. 1530-1540

Pharmacy Bottle with the Coat of Arms of a Member of the Gonzaga Family (one of a pair)

The inscription on this vessel identifies the intended contents as liquefied pumpkin seeds. Advances in the preparation of natural remedies for medicinal purposes furthered the development of pharmacies and dispensaries in late-Medieval and Renaissance Europe. The hospitals, monastic foundations, and pharmacies of noble families and their courts required proper storage vessels for the variety of remedies they kept and prepared. In Italy relatively inexpensive tin-glazed earthenwares, known as maiolica, offered a suitable array of shapes for these purposes. In the 1400s and 1500s, maiolica production flourished, and vessels took the form of pharmacy jars (albarelli), spouted jugs, bottles, lidded containers, and dishes. These ceramics often were painted with an inscription describing their contents, as well as coats of arms or other devices identifying the family or pharmacy for which they had been produced. The coat of arms is that of the Gonzaga family, who ruled Mantua, Italy, for three centuries. An unknown member of the Gonzaga family commissioned these bottles.