CAPSA. — From the Greek χάψα, properly a box for books; it could also be called a scrinium; for the most part circular, of wood, if very small a capsella, if of bronze a cista. In the passio of the Scillitan martyrs of 17 July of the year 180, the judge Saturninus asks: "quae sunt res in capsa vestra?" (cf. BHL, 7527). Wilpert recognized a representation of a c. for books in a painting of the cemetery of Pretestato from the second half of the 4th century, which he restored (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 178, 3 and p. 215, fig. 19).
C. was also the name given to the small vessel that contained the elements that were to serve for the eucharistic celebration: capsa cum sanctis apertas (but v. PISSIDE). Archaeologists have given the name of capselle to the numerous reliquaries of wood, ivory, terracotta, stone, and silver found in altars and containing relics.
Such, for example, are the reliquaries of Brescia, of Grado, etc., and the one of Egyptian workmanship of the first half of the 6th century, coming from the Sancta Sanctorum, now in the Sacred Museum of the Vatican Library (C. R. Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del museo Sacro Vaticano, Città del Vaticano 1936, p. 58, no. A. 59). Typical is the reliquary illustrated by G. B. De Rossi, found in the small basilica of Ain Zirara 8 km from Ain-Beida in Numidia between Tebessa and Constantine. It is of silver, of elliptical shape; on the lid is depicted a martyr holding with his hands the gemmed laurel crown; above, the divine hand protrudes from the clouds and is about to place the crown on the head of the Saint. At the feet of the martyr protrude the four rivers of paradise, while on the sides two torches burn. On the outer faces of the c., on one side eight sheep coming out of the two cities make their way to the center where the divine lamb is, behind which stands the Latin cross. On the other side, upon a rock stands the Signum Christi; below gush the four rivers, to which two deer hasten to quench their thirst (G. B. De Rossi, La capsella argentea africana offerta al sommo Pontefice Leone XIII dell'e.mo card. Lavigerie arcivescovo di Cartagine, Rome 1889).
The reliquaries found at Henchir-Akhrib in Numidia are datable between 580 and 581 (S. Gsell, Chapelle chrétienne d'Henchir-Akhrib, in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 23 [1903], pp. 3-25).
Africa has yielded a great many of these capselle, which are true reliquaries. Indeed, in the humble terracotta reliquary found in the territory of ancient Lamasba in Numidia, near the present-day native village of Kşar-Belczma in Algeria, one reads the inscription: in isto vaso congregabuntur membra Christi (J. Gage, Eglise et reliquaire d'Afrique, in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 44 [1927], pp. 103-18).