ISLAND OP PATMOS. 43 
had, and that he should know the Manuscript if CHAP. 
he saw it 9 . Presently he produced from the ^ 
custody of oue whom they call S*tw>pvA*, who is also their steward, 
receives their money, and renders an account of all their expenses : 
but we imi^t not imagine that these libraries are conserved in that 
order as ours are in the parts of Christendom ; that they are ranked 
and compiled in method, on shelves, with labels of the contents ; or 
that they are brushed and kept clean, like the libraries of our Colleges: 
but they are piled one on the other, without order or method, covered 
with dust, and exposed to the worm." Ricaut't State of the Greek 
and Armenian Churches, p. 260. Lond. 1679. 
(3) This Manuscript was afterwards discovered hy Mr. ffalpole, in 
the hands of a schoolmaster, at the Grotto of the Apocalypse, below 
the Monastery. Mr. Ffalpole's observations upon this Library are 
particularly interesting ; because they prove that one of the Manu- 
scripts brought away hy the author was known to Vllloison ; and that 
the removal of the rest had excited some sensation in Greece, as 
appears by the inscription over the door. 
" There was at Patinas, for many years, a school frequented by the 
Modern Greeks, which possessed a higher reputation than any other in 
the Levant. This has now yielded the pre-eminence to one established 
at Kidoniais, near Smyrna. A Gretk in the island of Anliparos, who 
accompanied us to the grotto there, told me he had been educated at 
Putmos; and repeated to me the beginning of the Romance of the 
tfEthiopics of Heliodorus. During our stay at Patmns, we visited the 
lower Monastery, where the grotto is shewn in which St. John 
wrote the Apocalypse : it is called Qaexuriim. Here is also a small 
school : we found the schoolmaster reading a manuscript Homer, 
with some notes ; it was written on paper ; and did not appear of 
great date. 
" The Monastery on the summit of the island is a very handsome 
building : from it, we had a most extensive view over the Archipelago, 
and some of the Greek islands. In the two visits I made to Patmot, 
I was not permitted to examine, as I wished, the collection of books 
and papers in the Library of the Monastery of St. John. There was 
no Greek in the place from whom I could obtain any satisfactory 
Information. On the shelves, in compartments, are arranged 
Theological 
