The history of terrazzo tiles: Part I
The Venetian mosaic or beaten floor is named after the lagoon city where it reached the zenith of its development and splendour. Its progenitors date back to the beginning of Greek flooring history when floors were made of river stones set in a bed of lime and clay. Later, particularly in the days of the Romans, this quite simple type of flooring was substituted with various flooring techniques – including the technique of interest to us – opus signinum, which, it seems, also went by the name of pavimentum barbaricum.
In Italy the opus signinum was made with a mix of potsherds and lime which produced a pinkish colour. That is why it was also called pavimentum testaceum. If shards of marble were also added to the mixture it was called opus segmentatum. Examples of segmented floors dating back to the 1st century AD are found in the deepest layer between the basilica and the bell tower of Aquileia.
Already in ancient Rome one could see pavimenta [from the Latin pavimentum a hard floor] and a special type of paving, so-called lithostrota – ancient mosaic floors made by interweaving small stones.
Pavimenta, on the contrary, were beaten floors. It would appear that the root of the word is pav- from Latin pavire “to beat hard”, as explained by Pliny (Nat. Hist., XXXVI, 185).
These floors were made of lime using a technique and materials similar to those of plasters.
Mosaic floors (opus tesselatum or sometimes also vermiculatum) reached the height of perfection towards the end of the Roman Empire in the early Christian and Byzantine ages. In this period, in fact, with the advent of Christianization mosaics prevailed over painting. Later, with the barbaric invasions this art died out, but nonetheless, it continued to be handed down in ways not yet clear. Credit for the rediscovery and reappraisal of ornamental flooring is especially due to the craftsmen of Friuli, who developed mosaic floors using multi-coloured pebbles collected from the beds of the Meduma, Tagliamento and Cellina rivers and which they called beaten floors. The mosaic floor makers, attracted by the beginnings of trade and flourishing building activities in the lagoon centre, brought their expertise to Venice where they developed to such an extent as to become members of the art guilds from as early on as 1586.
