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.” [Miller, M. C., The Bishop’s Palace: Architecture & Authority in Medieval Italy, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 14] In medieval Italy Episcopium were frequently part of a complex connected to the Baptistery and Cathedral. [Miller, M. C., The Bishop’s Palace, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 20]

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. [Augenti, A., Il Palatino nel Medioevo, Roma, 1996]

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