Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain (sometimes "Capo di Monte") is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory ("Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte"), which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most outstanding factory for early Italian porcelain, the Doccia porcelain of Florence being the other main Italian factory. Capodimonte is most famous for its moulded figurines. The porcelain of Capodimonte, and later Naples, was a "superb" translucent soft-paste, "more beautiful" but much harder to fire than the German hard-pastes, or "a particularly clear, warm, white, covered with a mildly lustrous glaze". The Capodimonte mark was a fleur-de-lys in
Italian name (including Latin ones) such as "Cicerone". That practice somewhat resembles the Greek custom of placing definite articles before "all" names (see Greek names). The Greco-Italian practice even spread to French in the 17th century, especially in writings regarding figures in literature and painting such as "le Poussin". For example, some Italian surnames of Greek sound descent: "Papasidero", "Papadopulo". Italian name A name in Italian consists of a given name ("nome") and a surname ("cognome"). Surnames are normally written after given names. In official documents, the surname may be written before given names. In speech, the use of given name before