The origin of this art, occupying many Florentine craftsmen from the mid-16th Century until the present day, stems principally from the days of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Opus Sectile mosaics were made with different shaped and sized pieces of coloured stone as opposed to the more widely known mosaics comprising stones (tesserae) of a more uniform shape and size.

Opus Sectile was used to decorate floors & walls. They differed from Florentine pietra dura in that there were gaps showing between the inlaid pieces of stone. However long before this, circa 2600-2400 BC, the Standard of Ur, now in the British Museum, was made by the Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia - present day Iraq. This mosaic, comprising shell, lapis lazuli & red limestone inset into wood, certainly prefigures the Florentine technique.

Another, perhaps less obvious, influence on the 16th Century development of pietra dura was Cosmatesque work originated by the Cosmati family from Rome but itself derived from the mosaics done in Byzantium and in Ravenna & from Islamic patterns. The earliest example of Cosmatesque work is said to date from 1190AD. The technique using complicated geometrical patterns of small pieces of coloured hardstones was much used for decorating the floors of gothic cathedrals, churches and monasteries & some of their contents. Part of the floor of Westminster Abbey near the altar is decorated in this way.

The patterns used later influenced those made centuries later on Roman & Florentine tabletops. When the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco de’ Medici (r. 1574 – 1587) wanted to establish the craft in Florence he imported lapidary workers from Milan who were skilled at carving stone in relief and craftsman from Rome who had been making magnificent table tops there by reusing the marble & other stones that had been extensively imported into Ancient Rome. In Rome 16th century tabletops were mainly decorated with geometrical patterns around a large central slice of alabaster.

In Florence more ambitious designs were created for a host of different objects with colourful depictions of flora & fauna and occasionally landscapes and people. The centre of this activity was the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the court workshop, that received its charter from Ferdinando I de’Medici (r. 1587-1609) in 1588. From Florence the techniques spread to other centres in Italy & throughout Europe notably Naples, Prague, Paris, Madrid and St Petersburg.