After finding & buying one of the lovely majolica pottery beads with a Latin phrase, I found this web site that not only has an explanation of the beads, but also offers modern, similar reproductions. Their suggested application is a decorated tassel for scissors. If the old beads were used this way, it would explain the tassels that come attached to some (mine had a tassel). They also claim the beads were used as spindle whorls.

Hopefully they won't mind quoting their text and using one of their pictures for educational purposes.

From the web site:

http://www.puntiantichi.com/deruta-majolica-beads-and-buttons-the-fuseruola-an-antique-umbrian-token-of-love-in-majolica-from-deruta/

"The Fuseruola is a little sphere used to balance the spindle when spinning.
Known from Etruscan and Roman times, between the 14th and 17th centuries, it was glazed and then decorated in coloured ÒscalesÓ. Its central area or band was then stamped with delicate well-wishing or virtuous designs, or the name of a girl, to whom the distaff and the spindle, equipped with its fuseruola, were presented as a pledge of love.
The town of Corciano, near Deruta, with the patronage of the Region of Umbria, held a competition to find the ÒTypical Umbrian SouvenirÓ which was won by ÒLe Antiche FuseruoleÓ, S. Angelo di Celle, Deruta, Italy. We advise you to pay a visit to Corciano and DerutaÉÉÉ YouÕll be enchantedÉ."