This gilded silver chalice was donated by Pope Pius IX on the occasion of his pastoral visit to Tuscany in 1857, and it bears his heraldic arms in the plaque near the base of the foot. It was given to the Florentine Metropolitan Chapter on the occasion of the mass celebrated by the pontiff in Santa Maria del Fiore, when he almost certainly used the chalice in liturgy. Pius IX had also, almost certainly, received it as a gift from persons now unknown. The punch mark allows attribution to the workshop of the Roman silversmith Salvatore Palica, and so limits the dating of production to 1847-57. The object is in eclectic style, with neo-Gothic and neo-renaissance accents, according to the taste of the time. The relief decorations of the plaques focus on the Eucharistic theme and on the Passion of Christ, consistent with liturgical function and according to the stylistic trend of the period.