MINAC or equivalents. In the Benedictine monastery of Farfa, as early as the 11th century, there is preserved a collection of 28 glass phials, each contained in a silk pouch, furnished with the corresponding parchment label bearing the inscription indicating the sanctuary to which the earth collected from the various holy places in Palestine refers.
BIBL.: H. Leclercq, s. V. in DACL, I, 2, cols. 1722-47; I. Schuster, Di una collezione d’eulogie dei luoghi santi di Palestina, in N. Bull. arch. crist., 7 (1901), p. 257; [G. Celi], Cimeli Bobbiesi in occasione delle feste commemorative di s. Colombano, in La Civ. Catt. (1923, 11), p. 504; (id., 11), pp. 36, 124, 335, 422, and 2nd ed. Rome 1923; C. Cecchelli, Note iconografiche su alcune ampolle bobbiensi, in Riv. arch. crist., 4 (1927), pp. 15-39; A. Colombo, I dittici eburnei e le ampolle metalliche della basilica reale di Monza, Monza 1934.
3. ART
Extremely precious ampullae, of Byzantine origin, in the form of a handled jug of rock crystal, agate, or onyx with gold or silver binding, are those in the treasury of St. Mark’s in Venice, dated to the 11th–12th centuries. Among the most refined examples of the Renaissance are the two ampullae in the Louvre of Venetian manufacture, made of rock crystal with branches of gilded silver and a handle shaped like a dragon (16th century). Notable for their elegant simplicity of line are some other modern specimens, especially French ones.BIBL.: M. Accasina, L’oreficeria italiana, Florence 1937; E. Roulin, Nos églises, Paris 1938. Guglielmo Matthiae