Canonical coronation

A canonical coronation (Latin: Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a formal decree of a papal bull, in which the pope bestows the pontifical right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or Joseph that is widely venerated in a particular diocese or locality.

Since then, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments makes the formal consultation and arrangement to execute the ceremonial act which the decree authorizes.

Although the crowning of statues and paintings occurred occasionally in antiquity and the Middle Ages, the early modern practice of the canonical coronation began with the Capuchin friar and "Apostle of the Blessed Lady", Girolamo Paolucci di Calboldi di Forlì (1552–1620), who on 27 May 1601 crowned the Madonna now enshrined at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma, Italy.

[8][9] When the Marquis of Piacenza and Count of Borgonovo, Alessandro Sforza Cesarini died in 1636, he bequeathed in his will a large sum of money to the Vatican Chapter for the coronation of the most celebrated Marian images in the world.

The solemn rite of crowning images is contained in the Ordo Coronandi Imaginem Beatae Mariae Virginis, published by the Holy Office on 25 May 1981.

The Nursing Madonna of Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata , an early coronation by friar Jeronimo (Girolamo) Paolucci di Calboldi di Forli on 27 May 1601
The famed Madonna della Febbre , first to be canonically crowned by Pope Urban VIII on 27 May 1631. The surrounding marble frame is a ciborium by Donatello di Niccolò di Betto Bardi — The Sacristy of Saint Peter's Basilica , Rome.