DOSSALE. - The term derives from the late Latin *dossalis*; it refers to the cloth used to cover walls, seats, and altars. A decorative element placed on the altar. In early churches, *dossali* did not exist. Only when altars were set against walls or placed at the back of the apse did the need arise to adorn the bare wall with a *dossale*.
In the West, from the end of the 11th century, the *dossale* appears above the altar as a repository for relics or sacred objects. It was mostly movable, made of metal or painted wood, or covered with fabric. From the beginning of the 12th century, fixed *dossali* were created, consisting of a thin, worked metal plate that concealed a reliquary. Over time, *dossali* of metal and precious stones were replaced by those carved in marble, permanently placed on the mensa to support the crucifix as well. Then, in the 13th and 14th centuries, large painted *dossali* with carved and gilded wooden frames divided into three or more sections appeared: true paintings, hence the name of triptychs or polyptychs. By the 15th century, a single painting (pala) often richly framed triumphed on altars. In the 17th and 18th centuries, angels, allegorical groups, and rich ornamentation were added to the frames of altarpieces.
*Dossale* is also defined as the carpet or tapestry placed to cover the backs of beds, chests, and chairs.
It is also used to refer to the cloth that covers a missal or other book like a sheath. — See pls. CXVII–CXVIII. Pietro Gazzola
DOSSI, CARLO. - Pseudonym of Alberto Pisani Dossi, writer, b. at Zenevredo (Pavia) on March 27, 1849, d. at Cardina (Como) on Nov. 16, 1910.
At the age of 19 he published his first book, *Altirieri* (Milan 1868), and in 1871 *Vita di Alberto Pisani*: two autobiographical works rich in intimate poetry but artificial and arbitrary in expression and syntax, so much so that Dossi earned the epithet “eccentric.” He fared better in the utopian novel *La colonia felice* (ibid. 1874), which he later disavowed, telling of the gradual formation of a perfect human society arising from a group of deportees who escaped to distant regions. Turning from literature to diplomacy, Dossi served as secretary to F. Crispi, as minister plenipotentiary in Bogotá and then in Athens, where he became passionate about archaeological research. *Note azzurre* (ibid. 1912), a vast diary written continuously for nearly 40 years, was published posthumously and revealed Dossi as a thinker, often acute and suggestive. But the truest Dossi is found in the sketches and narratives of *Gocce d’inchiostro* (Rome 1880), where he reveals himself as a subtle observer of exquisite sensitivity. Some of his erotic and irreligious pages seem more a concession to the fashion of the time than the expression of a sincere conviction. Dossi’s work is placed in relation to late Lombard Romanticism.