Oltre la pisside: tabernacoli portativi e altari eucaristici nei manuali di Guillaume Durand

Liturgist William Durandus of Mende (ca. 1230–1296) delves into the staging, status, and materiality of Eucharistic tabernacles with unprecedented breadth. Durandus draws from older texts the intention of installing tabernacles in a permanent and visible way on high altars, whether or not mass is celebrated. He prefers this arrangement over all other options, discarding the previous use of portable altar pyxes and making high-altar tabernacles the primary choice. In this article, the analysis of Durandus' liturgical texts is carried out in light of extant thirteenth- to fifteenth-century tabernacles, produced in French, German, Italian, and Aragonese regions. Its aim is to show that the permanent installation of tabernacles on high altars was initially achieved by means of portable receptacles, and that fixed tabernacles originated in form and spatiality from portable ones. It will become apparent these practices, along with the prolonged success of Durandus' texts, fostered later visual strategies in the centralisation of Eucharistic tabernacles, particularly during the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation.