Episcopium

An Episcopium is the Latin word for an episcopal palace. It is a broad term used to signify an ecclesiastical figure and their administration. Episcopium emphasizes “an essential unity between his [the bishop’s] person, power and place.”[1] In medieval Italy Episcopium were frequently part of a complex connected to the Baptistery and Cathedral.[2]

In Rome the Basilica of St. John Lateran housed the Lateran Palace. This was the principal Episcopium of medieval Rome. Although Pope John VII (705-07) built an Episcopium upon the Palatine Hill.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Miller, M. C., The Bishop’s Palace: Architecture & Authority in Medieval Italy, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 14
  2. ↑ Miller, M. C., The Bishop’s Palace, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 20
  3. ↑ Augenti, A., Il Palatino nel Medioevo, Roma, 1996
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