EDICOLA. — The word, derived from the Latin aedicula, the diminutive of aedes = temple, properly means a small temple or chapel, generally referring only to a niche in the walls of temples and houses or in the corners of buildings. As an architectural term, it therefore denotes a structure displaying the features of a temple façade, namely, a pediment supported by columns or pilasters. A type of e. is the tabernacle, whether it encloses an image or, in the form of a small temple placed on the altar, houses the S. Species.
More generally, any architectural composition framing objects of particular religious significance, such as images and relics, is called an e. The architectural structure may also be reduced to a simple frame: this broader meaning of the word e. is the one in which it is most generally used today in sacred art.
I. LITURGY AND CANON LAW
Anyone may erect a sacred e. in his own home or outside, in a suitable place, as an act of devotion or piety, without contravening any special norms of canon law, subject to the prohibition against the public display of images (v.) not admitted to worship.Under civil law, the building regulations must naturally be observed (Italian Civil Code, arts. 871–72).
There is no special blessing for e. in the Roman Ritual, nor can the blessing proper to private oratories (v.) be applied to them, since e. are not in themselves such; only the blessing of images may be applied to them. If solemn, this blessing is reserved to the Ordinary; if private, it may be given by any priest (Rit. Rom., tit. VIII, chap. 25), or else the blessing «omnis rei seu ad omnis» (ibid., Appendix, no. 70).
The e. may have a particular status under canon altar (v.) is attached to II. For the purposes of celebrating Holy Mass, an altar so attached must be regarded as a portable altar, whether covered by the e. or situated «sub dio»: the permission of the Ordinary of the place is therefore required (in the former case, for his subjects, it may also be granted by the Superior of an exempt clerical Congregation), subject to the usual conditions, namely: there must be a just and reasonable cause; the case must be extraordinary; the permission must be granted «per modum actus»; and the sacred stone must be present (can. 822 § 4).
Since the place is an e., it is presumed to be decent and, other conditions being equal, is to be preferred to any other place for the celebration of Mass «sub dio». Legitimate custom, if it existed, could legitimize the celebration of the sacrifice of Holy Mass at an altar in front of the e. even outside the conditions stated above; but often these are abuses rather than legitimate customs.
With regard to the custody of e., the norms governing the custody of domestic oratories may, by a certain analogy, be applied, both as regards decency and as regards reservation for worship to the exclusion of other profane uses (can. 1196). In some places, such as Rome, the custody of e. is entrusted to pious associations, which attend to their maintenance, veneration, and aesthetic appearance.
Pietro Palazzini
In canon law, the term e. also includes funerary e. erected in cemeteries by families or private persons for their own burial; but these are considered in canon law to be private oratories (can. 1190; V. ORATORIO). In them, unlike other private oratories, the Ordinary may permit the celebration, even habitually, of several Masses (can. 1194), provided, however, that the corpses are not beneath the altar but at its side and at a distance, measured horizontally from the altar’s projection surface, of not less than one metre (otherwise the celebration of Mass is forbidden: can. 1202 § 2).
If the funerary e. interdict (v.), the cemetery itself is not thereby placed under interdict; whereas, if the cemetery is placed under interdict, all the funerary e. existing within it are thereby affected.
II. ARTS
In classical art, mention should be made of the shrines inside the Pantheon, with triangular or curvilinear fronts alternating with the niches, and of those which, as independent structures, stood in large numbers at street intersections and housed images of the Lares. Shrines with images of the Lares, either sculpted or painted, were also found in private houses, as can be seen at Pompeii and Ostia. In funerary art, too, shrines in the form of small niches are very common, with a sculpted image of the deceased, either as a reduced full-length figure or in bust form, or limited to the head alone.In the Middle Ages, especially during the periods of Romanesque and subsequently Gothic art, shrines were employed both inside and outside buildings, of which they constituted a distinctive feature. In Rome, on the façade of the church of S. Tommaso in Formis, a shrine frames a Cosmatesque mosaic depicting Jesus between two slaves; on the Romanesque bell tower of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, in the lower zone with single-lancet windows, a projecting shrine shelters the patriarchal cross, formerly adorned with Cosmatesque decoration, preserved only in part; and on the top floor another projecting shrine can be seen, perhaps added in the fourteenth century. Other shrines are found on the bell towers of S. Maria Nova and of SS. Giovanni e Paolo; likewise, on the bell tower of S. Maria in Trastevere, on the top floor, there is a shrine housing a mosaic depicting the Madonna with the Child.
In the Renaissance, the Robbian terracottas may be regarded as shrines: they adorned the buildings of the cities of Tuscany in the form of tabernacles enclosing sacred images. Among these shrines may thus be counted the tabernacle enclosing the image of the Madonna della Febbre in the sacristy of S. Pietro in Vaticano, the one containing the Annunciation in the Florentine church of S. Croce, and the other, now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, with the image of the Virgin with the Child in painted stucco—all works by Donatello.
The fifteenth-century tombs formed by a relief frame surrounding an opening made in the wall, in which the sarcophagus is placed, may likewise be considered shrines. Such are the tomb of Leonardo Bruni, the work of Bernardo Rossellino, and that of Carlo Marsuppini, by Desiderio da Settignano, in S. Croce in Florence.
From the Renaissance to the present day, Rome has witnessed a flourishing of shrines on the façades and at the corners of its houses. These works, for the most part modest, nevertheless reveal the religious fervor of the people and enliven the old streets with the Baroque exuberance of their richly ornamented stucco frames, adorned with angels and putti, more than with their painted images, which are often darkened and scarcely visible. Many have disappeared, also as a result of demolitions, but many still remain, especially in the old districts; nor has the custom of placing images of the Virgin in public streets and squares been forgotten, since new shrines are also being installed in modern neighborhoods.
The most artistically noteworthy of these Roman shrines is the one containing the image of Ponte, designed by Antonio da S. Gallo, which stands at the corner of Via dei Coronari and Vicolo Domizio and encloses a painting, unfortunately damaged, by Perino del Vago, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin.
Among the Baroque shrines, which constitute the majority, mention should be made of the one in Via dell’Anima, at the rear of the church of S. Agnese, containing a fragment of a fresco with a Cavallinian image; the one at the corner of Piazza dell’Orologio and Via del Governo Vecchio; and those in Via del Pellegrino, Via Mario de’ Fiori, Via di Tor Sanguigna, and Via del Plebiscito, on the façade of Palazzo Doria. - Vedi tavv. IV-V. BIBLICA.: P. Parsi, E. di fede e di pietà nelle Vie di Roma, Milano-Roma 1930. Vincenzo Golzio