CIBORIUM. — From the Greek *xıβópıov*, also called *fastigium*, *tegurium*, and in the Middle Ages *tiburium*. It was an arched covering supported by four columns that the Romans used to protect statues, altars, fountains, and tombs, as well as being placed over tombs in Syria. G. B. De Rossi believes that precisely because the altar, according to the concept inspired by the visions of the Apocalypse and according to liturgical prescriptions, is a table set above the tomb of Christ, Christian architecture adopted this system already in use for the protection of isolated tombs (G. B. De Rossi, *Roma sotterranea*, III, Rome 1877, p. 437).
Indeed, this architectural type is found not only in Roman cippi or bas-reliefs but also in the Christian catacombs: it is found once in Rome (catacomb of *ad duas lauros*), several times in Naples and Syracuse, and very often in Malta. In the Lateran Museum, the inscription of Adeodata depicts a ciborium with a cross at its center (G. Marucchi, *I monumenti del Museo Pio Lateranense*, Milan 1910). The biography of Sylvester in the *Liber Pontificalis* (ed. Duchesne, I, Paris 1886, p. 172) contains a description of the *fastigium argenteum* of the Lateran basilica; it had on one side the Savior seated on a throne between the twelve Apostles and on the other the Savior enthroned between four angels; it weighed 2025 pounds of silver. A reconstruction of it was attempted by Rohault de Fleury (*La Messe*, II, p. 3 and pl. 90). This ciborium was stolen by Alaric and replaced in the time of Sixtus III by the emperor Valentinian with another, also of silver (*Liber Pontificalis*, I, p. 233). Still preserved in the basilica of S. Clemente are remains of the ancient marble ciborium donated by the priest Mercurius (later John II) during the pontificate of Pope Hormisdas (314–23).
A ciborium is depicted in the museums of S. Maria Maggiore. In the marble ciborium of the basilica of SS. Nereo, Achilleo, and Petronilla in the catacomb of Domitilla, the martyrdom of the two saints was represented on two columns; one of the surviving columns shows the martyrdom of Achilleus (O. Marucchi, *Roma sotterranea*, I, II, Rome 1914, p. 174, fig. 40 and reconstruction at p. 149, fig. 49).
In general, however, in the Roman basilicas the columns supporting the ciborium were of red porphyry; it was usually provided with *vela*, which are often mentioned in the *Liber Pontificalis* among the donations made by the popes to individual basilicas, sometimes called *tetravelo* for the four walls.
G. B. De Rossi illustrated the remains of two African ciboria: “Area of a ciborium near Mediana Zabaniarum,” in *Bull. d'arch. crist.*, 3rd ser., 3 (1878), pp. 115–17; id., “A marble aedicula of a tabernacle discovered in Mauretania adorned with the image of Daniel among the lions and other Christian symbols,” ibid., 5th ser., 2 (1891), pp. 67–72, 138. Enrico Ioni
There are rather numerous examples of ciboria dating from the 8th and 9th centuries. One may recall that of S. Giorgio in Valpolicella, now dismantled, in which the characteristics of the sculpture of that period are clearly expressed. The inscription of 712 records the names
of a MASTER URSUS with his disciples Invintinus and Iuvianus. Some remains of similar character are found in the Christian Museum of Brescia and in S. Maria in Valle at Cividale, and the ciborium, still intact with its four columns surmounted by Corinthian capitals, the arcading worked in relief, and the pyramidal roof with a polygonal base, which was in S. Prospero at Perugia and is now in the Archaeological Museum of that city. Similar features are also found in the remains of the ciborium of the Pieve of Bagnacavallo, the ciborium of S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, from the time of Bishop Valerio (896–910), and the other one that still covers the altar of the Miracle in S. Cristina at Bolsena; the latter, however, may belong, judging by the character of its reliefs, to the 10th century.
In the Romanesque period, the ciboria assume a greater imposing grandeur and correctness of proportions in their organization and general distribution of architectural elements, also in relation to their setting. Notable examples include the ciborium of S. Pietro at Tuscania, very simple, with masonry arches and surmounted by a square pyramidal roof, adorned on the terminal cornice by a clear inscription mentioning the consecration of the altar in 1093, and the magnificent one in S. Ambrogio at Milan, with splendid stucco reliefs that some scholars have attributed to the 9th century. From it derives the other at S. Pietro al Monte of Civate. Also belonging to the 12th century is the ciborium of S. Marco at Venice, supported by four historiated columns dating back to the 6th century, and that of the cathedral of Parenzo. They reflect Byzantine styles, especially in the roofing.
Meanwhile, while in Abruzzo a type of ciborium with lobed arcading spreads (S. Clemente at Casauria), almost a distant echo of Eastern influences, in a somewhat rustic taste that is also found in the upper Lazio (S. Maria Maggiore at Tuscania), in Rome a type of ciborium is created where the columns, sometimes of rare marbles, are connected by architraves rather than arches, and upon them rests a roof or pyramidal covering imposed on rows of small columns. Notable examples are in S. Clemente, S. Giorgio in Velabro, S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and in the smaller centers of Lazio where the activity of Roman marble workers extended.
It is in Rome that, at the end of the 13th century, Arnolfo di Cambio created, in S. Paolo (1285) and S. Cecilia in Trastevere (1293), two ciboria that stand, both for the elegance of their lines, now Gothic, and for the vigor and beauty of their sculptures, which take on a preeminent character, among the masterpieces of Italian art. Arnolfian models were immediately imitated; Deodato echoed this type in S. Maria in Cosmedin (1294), and Giovanni di Stefano, to whom Urban V entrusted the cumbersome ciborium of S. Giovanni in Laterano after the fire of 1361, also considered them with interest, though without grasping their sense of exquisite elegance.
While this ciborium was being erected in the cathedral of Rome, Andrea Orcagna had just completed, in Orsanmichele at Florence, a ciborium (1349–59) that can be considered a masterpiece more of craftsmanship than of Florentine art. Entirely inlaid with polychrome marbles, overloaded with ornamentation, carvings, and tracery, studded with mosaics and surmounted by a strange oval cupola, which appears between two pilasters beyond a spire lacking in thrust, it has full-round arches, and due to a certain deliberate heaviness, it might be understood in Florence as a polemical assertion in opposition to the soaring lines of Gothic, so beloved by Sienese and Pisan artists.
With the work of Andrea Orcagna and Giovanni di Stefano, the ciborium had assumed the character of a true architectural work inserted within the well-defined and enclosed space of the church. An architecture within another architecture, thus difficult to harmonize with the taste and spatial sense of the Renaissance. Hence, the ciboria of Michelozzo at the Annunziata and at Impruneta, and similar ones, do not have the true character of ciboria, as they are not freestanding but placed against walls. But in the second half of the 16th century, the custom returns of creating ciboria that are true sanctuaries erected within the church, designed and executed with architectural taste, made precious above all by the richness of materials and technical refinement. Notable examples include that in the Roman church of S. Alessio, dating to 1582; the magnificent and well-studied one in the basilica of S. Agnese, with four precious porphyry columns and dating to 1614; and the other in the church of S. Crisogono, supported by four precious alabaster columns, from the time when G. B. Soria, by order of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1623), remodeled the ancient Trasteverine church.
On the same path must be considered the other ciboria that, between the 16th and 17th centuries, impose their assertive structures in the midst of churches; first among them is that in the Florentine church of S. Spirito, a rich and monumental work but disharmonious with the lofty structures of the church by Brunelleschi, executed by Giovanni Caccini, with the collaboration of G. Silvani and A. Ubaldini.
The Baroque age, with its unitary sense of environmental decoration, gave a new solution to the problem through one of its greatest geniuses, G. L. Bernini, who created in St. Peter’s Basilica the famous baldachin (1624–35). This baldachin (ciborium) with its four spiral bronze columns and its bronze superstructure, formed by four brackets joined at the top to support the globe with the cross, with its drapery and statues, assumes, by the very nature of its materials, a sense of the provisional despite its gigantic structure. The great Berninian model, so novel as to appear revolutionary, was immediately taken as an example and imitated in Italy and abroad, for instance in the cathedral of Trent and in the church of Val de Grâce in Paris, and, even in the 18th century, when new intentions of architectural composure were already emerging, Ferdinando Fuga took up its fundamental theme in the superstructure of the one he created in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome (1743–50).
The 19th-century ciboria, which generally reflect the eclectic character of the architecture of the time, are often imitations of medieval ones. — See Plates XCIX–C.
V. TABERNACOLO.