Derived from antique Roman curule stools, such as the Pompeian example from the 1st Century A.D. in the Museo Nazionale, Naples, such stools were commonly referred to as faldistorii in the Renaissance and were widely used within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed that used by Pope Innocenzo XII (1691-1700) is illustrated in G. Lizzani, Il Mobile Romano, Rome, 1970, p.33, fig.64, while a related stool, inscribed with Bishoprics in the province of Viterbo and dated 1631, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 11 December 1992, lot 61 (34,100).