Ostia

INFORMATION

Font ID: 05507OST
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 4th century (early-mid), Early Christian
Church / Chapel Name: San Silvestro
Font Location in Church: [present whereabouts unknown]
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Sylvester
Site Location: Roma, Lazio, Italy, Europe
Directions to Site: Ostia was the port for Rome and is located just west of it.
Font Notes:
Bond (1908: 75) cites the history of St. Sylvester [or Silvester], the 4th-century bishop of Rome and pope, from the Liber Pontificalis, according to which the emperor Constantine donated this church at Ostia "'pelvem ex argento ad baptismum pens. lib. XX.,' i.e., a silver basin for baptism weighing 20 lbs. The weight implies that the vessel must have been a font." Since, as Farmer (1987: 396) informs, in reality, Constantine was baptised only on his death-bed after the death of Sylvester, the story may well be apocryphal [NB: if it did exist, regardless of the accuracy of its origin, it could have been a container of the type known as the "baptistère de Saint-Louis" or "fonts-royaux de France" - cf. Index entry for Louvre museum No. 1]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, silver
Number of Pieces: one

REFERENCES

  • Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 75, 119
  • Farmer, David Hugh, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 396