FLORERIA APOSTOLICA. - The f. a. is the papal wardrobe, where the regent, a palatine official dependent on the foriere maggiore of the Holy Apostolic Palaces, keeps the household goods, the furnishings, the furniture, the linens, the silverware, the table services, the copperware, the decorations and everything needed for pontifical functions; in short, everything movable that belongs to the Holy Apostolic Palaces, except for the sacred furnishings and vestments, the custody of which is entrusted to Mons. Sacrista.
Preserved at the f. a. are also valuable ancient registers and plans of the palatine chapels, basilicas and churches of Rome, where the pope customarily celebrates or attends sacred functions, with an indication of the decorations and of everything the f. a. must provide in order to adorn and prepare the palatine halls for consistories, congregations, sermons, etc.
In the work of Gattico a Vatican codex is cited in which, among the other palatine offices of the time of Alexander V, elected in 1409, there appear the Florerius Palatii and the f. a., then called floraria. This is one of the first certain notices concerning the f. a., whose origin must be placed between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th.
The most recent norms on the attributions of the f. a. are established in the motu proprio of Leo XII of 23 Nov. 1824, in the motu proprio of Gregory XVI of 12 Dec. 1832 and in his Regolamento per gli uffici centrali dell'azienda palatina, published on 2 May 1840.
During a vacant see the custody of the f. a. is devolved upon the clerics of the Apostolic Chamber.
Bibliography2 works
Guglielmo Felici