Armaria (singular ''armarium'') are a kind of closed, labeled cupboards that were used for

book storage A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

from

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

until the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. They were probably used in the

library of Alexandria The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, ...

. They were also used for storage of important

papal The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

documents in the

Vatican Archives The Vatican Apostolic Archive (; ), formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archive (; ), is the central repository in the Vatican City of all acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope, as the sovereign of Vatican City, owns the material held i ...

Usage

Religion

The armarium is used for storing liturgical objects, arranged in the walls of the sanctuary or the presbyterium. In monasteries, the armarium claustri is used for storing volumes. The niche is carved in a wall of the “gallery of the collatio” of the cloister, with lateral grooves intended to receive the bookshelves. The relatively modest dimensions of the original armarium-niche testify to the rarity of books in the central

. The

Carolingian renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne's reign led to an intellectual revival beginning in the 8th century and continuing throughout the 9th ...

leads to an increase in the number of volumes in the large abbeys, which leads to its transformation into a book store room. In ancient

Cistercian architecture Cistercian architecture is a style of architecture associated with the churches, monasteries and abbeys of the Roman Catholic Cistercian Order. It was heavily influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), who believed that churches should avoid ...

, it is a small room that is located between the

abbey church A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

and the

chapter house A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...

and opens directly into the cloister where the books read by the monks are stored. The armarium often has an external storage cupboard, close to the entrance door of the church. The monks who borrow these books use them for their liturgical offices or read them during

lectio divina In Western Christianity, ''Lectio Divina'' (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word. In the v ...

, sitting on the stone benches that line the walls of the cloister. The cantor, responsible for the armarium, must keep it closed during working hours, meals, vespers and night sleep. The armarium is to be distinguished from the

scriptorium A scriptorium () was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes. The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they ...

(sometimes called library), a much larger room, and located on the other side of the cloister, which is a place of work and study: in the Middle Ages, manuscripts were diligently copied there. The scriptorium (library) often contained several thousand books and was enriched over time. All fields of knowledge were cultivated there and not only

ecclesiology In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership. In its early history, one of th ...

: books of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

, and Latin classics such as

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

Houses

The armarium is most often a wall cabinet, a common arrangement in medieval houses used for storing objects. In inventories, it does not appear as the place containing the objects mentioned. On the other hand this word often appears in price-made works of construction.

References

Cabinets (furniture) Library of Alexandria {{furniture-stub