ARMADIO. — The mosaics of the mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna and a miniature in the cod. Amiatino (Florence, Laurenziana) provide the earliest evidence of cupboards for the safekeeping of liturgical books. Wooden furnishings of the same type must also have been used to preserve sacred furnishings and vestments, and must have displayed the arrangement of interior spaces that is still in use today. The cupboards intended to contain relics were no different, such as the cypress one carved with rosettes, dating from the time of Leone III, discovered in the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran. Still simple in form but rich in ornament is the fourteenth-century example in the sacristy of the Arena Chapel at Padua. During the early Renaissance, inlaid decoration was widely used, as in the cupboards of S. Maria del Fiore made by Giuliano da Maiano. Subsequently, the cupboard was articulated into several sections and the carving became more vigorous, as in those of the seventeenth century in the Certosa of Pavia. In many cases, beginning in the seventeenth century, cupboards formed a complete covering for the walls of the sacristy and thus assumed an architectural function, even while retaining great sobriety of line. Sacred furniture subsequently diverged from the development of secular furniture, remaining more closely attached to tradition, and was able to accommodate modern simplicity—founded on rigorous adherence to use—without precious materials or effects.
Cupboards for the holy oils are generally small and set into the wall; they assume the appearance of small shrines through the architecture framing them. Often the two letters O.S. («olea sancta») appear on the door.