OMBRELLONE (conopaeum, PADIGLIONE, SINNICCHIO). — It is a sign in the form of a large umbrella called a “conopeum” (in decrees = padiglione), proper to the major and minor Roman basilicas and to those outside Rome that have the privilege and title of “minor basilica.”
With the cross and the tintinnabulum or bell preceding processions, the clergy of the basilica are accompanied. The stripes are of yellow and orange silk (the colors of the Papal States; of the French Roman Republic, today of Rome) with the basilica’s coat of arms; the fringes are of the same colors but alternating with those of the stripes; surmounting it is a ball with a small golden cross. It no longer serves the practical purpose of protecting a numerous clergy from sun or rain, but is rather a distinctive sign of the dignity of the college, just as the little umbrella, from which it derives, is for individual persons. According to others, it perhaps derives from “sinnicchio” (from GYVY-ATZEO = I dwell together), an imperial sign, a derivation and transformation of military tents and particularly of that which served the Emperor in the field. That imperial sign, passed among the honorary prerogatives of the popes, then became the sign of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the pope as bishop of Rome. From the Lateran it then passed as a sign also to the other Roman basilicas.