Repositorium
A piece of furniture employed by the Romans for bringing upon table the various dishes
comprised in a course (
Plin. H. N. xviii.
90), and which was placed with its contents upon a table in the dining-room (
Petron. 60, 4). It consisted of a
large covered box or case (whence
theca repositorii,
Petron. 39, 3), either round or square, and
sometimes made of choice woods inlaid with tortoise-shell, and enriched by ornaments of silver
(Fenestella
ap.
Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 52;
Petron. 35, 2). The whole case was moreover divided
into a number of stories, one above the other, each of which held a separate tray (
ferculum) furnished with dishes like the dinner-baskets in which a French
restaurateur sends out a dinner to his customers. This is clear from Petronius 36, 1 and 2.
Compare also 35, 1 and 2, where a
repositorium is placed upon the table,
and, after the first division has been removed, another tray containing a different course of
entrées is exposed to view—
superiorem partem repositorii
abstulerunt. Quo facto, videmus infra, scilicet in altero ferculo, altilia,
etc.— which passage distinctly points out the difference between a
repositorium and a
ferculum.
