Vestararius

[1] Along with the highest financial officers arcarius[2] and the sacellarius,[3] the vestararius was one of the three most important staff officials of the Lateran Palace (the palatini).

[4] The vestararius was also responsible for the written financial archives and accounts, and may have received and distributed some sums independently of the other offices.

[5] By 813, the vestararius was seated beside the pope in the Palace in giving judgement and in 875 was sent as an embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor.

[4] Theophylact I, Count of Tusculum, who for all intents and purposes ran the temporal affairs of the papacy during the saeculum obscurum of the first half of the tenth century, was a holder of the office of vestararius.

[6] The financial administration of the papacy as a whole began to be referred to as a camera in 1017, but the name change may not have been of any real significance.