Certosina is a
decorative art technique of
inlaying used widely in the
Italian Renaissance period. Similar to
marquetry, it uses small pieces of wood, bone, ivory, metal, or mother-of-pearl to create inlaid geometric patterns on a wood base.[1] The term comes from
Carthusian monasteries (Certosa in Italian, Charterhouse in English),[2] probably the
Certosa di Pavia, where the technique was used in ornamenting an altarpiece by the
Embriachi workshop.[3]