252 cjuakkes travels. 
the head of the infant .Messiah ■: and where the paint has wholly 
disappeared, in consequence of the injuries it has sustained, an 
Arabic manuscript is disclosed, whereon the picture was painted. 
This manuscript is nothing more than a leaf torn from an old 
copy book : the same line occurs repeatedly from the top of 
the page to the bottom ; and contains this aphorism; 
%$i tmfees in % erf ©itu 
Whatsoever may have been the antiquity of these early spe¬ 
cimens of the art of painting, it is probable that they existed 
long prior to its introduction into Italy; since they seem evi¬ 
dently of an earlier date than the destruction of the church, 
beneath whose ruins they were buried, and among which they 
were recently discovered. No value was set upon them : they 
were not esteemed by the Arabs in whose possession they w ere 
found, although some Christian pilgrim had placed the two frag¬ 
ments belonging to one of them upon the rude altar which his 
predecessors had constructed from the former materials of the 
building. No t the smallest objection was made to their re¬ 
moval : so, having bestowed a trifle ppon the .Mahometan tenant 
of the 'bee-hive repository, we took them into safer custody.* 
Among the various authors who have mentioned Sephoury, 
no intelligence is given of the church in its entire state : this is 
the more remarkable, as it was certainly one of the stateliest 
edifices in the Holy Land. Q,uaresmius, w ho published in the 
seventeenth century a copious and elaborate description of the 
Holy Laud,f has .afforded the only existing document concern- 
% The author is further indebted to his learned friend, the Rev. J. Palmer, of St, 
.John’s College. Cambridge, Arabic professor in the university, for the following ob- 
■ servat-ioas-upon these pictures. Professor Palmer travelled in the Holy-hand soon 
after they were discovered. 
“ The antiquity of the'tablets cannot be determined precisely; yet it may be of im¬ 
portance to remark the absence of any Arabic titles corresponding with 3VdP,"*©T7, 
and ©EGTOKOC, so commonly, not to say invariably, inscribed upon the effigies of 
the Virginvsome of them more than five hundred years old, which are seen in the 
Greek churches.- ' 
“ I assume, as beyond doubt, that these tablets belonged to some church, or do¬ 
mestic sanctuary, of Milkite Greeks ; both from the close correspondence, in figure 
and expression, between the effigies'in their churches, and those on i he tablets; and 
from the fact, familiar to all who have visited eastern countries, that such tablets are 
rarely, if ever, found among Catholic Christians.” 
| This work is very little known. It was printed at Antwerp in 1639, in two large 
folio volumes, containing some excellent engravings, under the title of “ Historic 
Thcolonca et Moralis Terra Smelts' Elucidalio ” Quaresmius was a Franciscan friar 
of Lodi in Italy, and once apostolic commissary and praeses of the Holy Land. He 
had therefore every opportunity, from his situation, as well as his own actual observa¬ 
tion, to illustrate tin) ecclesiastical antiquities of that country. 
