Discovery of a significant find!

Robert Seniso, a renowned expert, discovered a piece of extreme rarity in Italy in autumn 2019: an insignia of office for a chamberlain of honor of cape and sword di numero. It is only reproduced by a drawing dating from 1933 in the work Orders and Decorations of the Holy See. This exceptional piece has joined a private collection.

The function of chamberlain of cape and sword, meaning a lay servant of the Pope, emerged at the end of the 16th century. To the secret chamberlains, all originally required to be of noble family, were added chamberlains of honor, probably in the 17th century, to avoid excluding non-nobles from these positions. In 1877, Pope Pius IX created the position of chamberlain di numero; they had an oversight role for the other chamberlains. Unlike other chamberlains, they were appointed for life. Their number was very limited: there were four secret chamberlains di numero and four chamberlains of honor di numero. They wore a distinctive insignia, with a red background for the secret chamberlains and blue for the chamberlains of honor. In 1968, Pope Paul VI replaced them with a single class of "Gentleman of His Holiness". Following the research conducted, given the case in which it is housed bearing the coat of arms of Pope Pius XI, the insignia presented above can be attributed with near certainty to one of two individuals: Comm. Pie Manzia (appointed in 1930), Maestro di casa of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces, or Prof. Comm. Ange Silvagni (appointed in 1935), professor of Christian epigraphy at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology.