Butta (Butto, or Butro
Butta (Butto, Or Butro
In some MSS, of the Liber Pontificalis we read that Leo III (795-816) caused to be made for the venerable monastery of St. Sabas, "butronem,
[al. buttonem] argenteum cum canistro suo pensantem libr. xii." Leo IV (847-855) is also reported, by the same authority, to have placed in the Church of St. Peter, "butronem ex argento purissimo, qui pendet in presbyterio ante altare, pensantem libr. cxlix;" and another, also of pure silver, "cum gabatis argenteis pendentibus in catenulis septem." These buttse seem to have been suspended cups used for lamps. SEE CANISTRUM; SEE GABATHA. The illustrations are from the Hierolexicon; the first is a single suspended butta, from an ancient representation; the second, a corona with three hanging buttse, from an old painting once existing in St. Peter's at Rome.
The form butrista is used, apparently in the same sense, by Alcuin, Poem. 165 (Du Cange, Glossary; Macri, Hierolexicon, s.v. " Butto").
Martene (De Ant. Eccl. Rit. iii, 96) describes a buta as used for fetching and preserving the chrism, according to an ancient custom, in the church of St. Martin at Tours.
