other, lay, covered with dust and cobwebs, upon the altar. From its appearance, it was evident that it had been found near the spot, the dirt not having been removed; and that the same piety, which had been shown in collecting together the other scraps, had also induced some person to place it upon the altar, as a relique. How long it had remained there could not be ascertained; but in all probability it had lately been deposited, because the cattle, coming into this place, might have disturbed it; and the Moslems, from their detestation of every pictured representation of the human form, would have destroyed it, the instant it was perceived by them. We there fore inquired for the person to whom this place principally belonged. An Arab came, who told us the picture bad been found in moving a heap of rubbish belonging to the church; and that there were others like it, which were discovered in clearing some stones and mortar out of an old vaulted lumberroom belonging to the building, where certain of the villagers had since been accustomed to keep their plaster bee-hives* and working utensils. To this place he conducted us. It was near the altar. The Arab opened it for us; and there, in the midst of bee-hives, implements of husbandry, and other lumber, we found two pictures upon wood, of the same kind, almost entire, but in the condition which might be expected from the manner of their discovery. Of these curious reliques, highly interesting, from the circumstances of their origin, and their great antiquity, as specimens of the art of painting, a more particular description will now be given.

The first, namely, that which was found in two pieces upon the altart represents the interior of an apartment, with a man

Hasselquist was at this place upon the fifth of May, 1751. The monks who were with him alighted to honour the ruins of the church. The inhabitants," says he, "breed a great number of bees. They make their hives of clay, four feet long, and balf a foot in diameter, as in Egypt." This sort of bee-hive is also used in Cyprus. See p. 209.

Having presented this picture to the Rev. T. Kerrich, principal librarian of the University of Cambridge, exactly as it was found upon the altar of the church of Sephoury, that gentleman, well known for the attention he has paid to the history of ancient painting, has, at the author's request, kindly communicated the following result of his observations upon the subject.

This ancient picture is on cloth, pasted upon wood, and appears to be painted in water colours upon a priming of chalk, and then varnished, in the manner taught by Theophilus.(1) an author who is supposed to have lived as early as the tenth century.(2)

"It is a fragment, and nearly one fourth part of it seems to be lost. Three persons, who by the nimbus or glory about the head of each, must be all saints, are at a table, on which are radishes, or some other roots, bread, &c. Two of the figures are, sitting, and one of them holds a gold vessel, of a particular form, with an ear; the

(1) See Raspe's Essay on Oil-Painting, p. 68, and 87. 4to. Lond. 1781.

(2) Page 46, of the same book,

and woman seated at their supper table. The marks of age are strongly delineated in the features of these two personages. A young female is represented as coming into the house, and approaching the table in haste, to communicate intelligence. Her left hand, elevated, points toward heaven. A circular symbol of sanctity surrounds the heads of all of them; and the picture, according to the most ancient style of painting, is executed upon a golden back ground. The subject seems evidently the salutation of Elizabeth by the Virgin, in the house of Zacharias.* Upon the table appears a flagon, some radishes, and other articles of food. Elizabeth is represented holding a cup half filled with red wine, and the Virgin's right hand rests upon a loaf of bread. A chandelier, with lighted candles, hangs from the ceiling; and, what is more remarkable, the Fleur de Lis, as an ornament, appears among the decorations of the apartment. The form of the chalice in the hand of Elizabeth, added to the circumstance of the chandelier, give to this picture an air of less antiquity than seems to cha racterize the second, which we found in the vaulted chamber, near the altar; although these afford no document whereby its age may be determined. Candelabra, nearly of the same form, were in use at a very early period, as we learn from the remains of such antiquities in bronze; and the lily,* as a symbol

other a gold cup, with red liquor in it: the third appears to be speaking, and points up to heaven.

"The glories, and some other parts of the picture, are gilt, as the whole of the back ground certainly was originally.

"It is undoubtedly a great curiosity, and very ancient, although it may be ex tremely difficult to fix its date with any degree of accuracy. From the style I cannot conclude any thing, as I never saw any other picture like it; but there is nothing in the architecture represented in it to induce us to suppose it can be later than the end of the eleventh century; and it may be a great deal older.

*Luke i. 39, 40.

† Probably intended as an allusion to the elements of the holy sacrament.

The vulgar appellation of Flower de Luce is given in England to a species of iris, but the flower originally designated by the French term Fleur de Lis, was, as its name implies, a lily. It is represented in all ancient paintings of the Virgin, and sometimes in the hand of the archangel, in pictures of the annunciation: thereby denoting the advent of the Messiah. Its original consecration was of very high antiquity. In the Song of Solomon (ch. ii. 1, 2.) it is mentioned with the rose, as an emblem of the church: "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley." This alone is sufficient to explain its appearance upon religious paintings. Its introduction as a type in heraldry may be referred to the crusades. It appears in the crown worn by Edward the Confessor, according to a coin engraved both in Speed and in Camden. But there is another circumstance which renders its situation upon pictures of the Virgin peculiarly appropriate: the word Nazareth, in Hebrew, signifies a flower: and St. Jerom, who mentions this circumstance, (tom. I. epist. xvii. ad Marcellam: See also Fuller's Palestine, book II. c. 6. p. 143. Lond. 1650) considers it to be the cause of the allusion made to a flower in the prophecies concerning Christ. Marinus Samutus hints at this prophetical allusion in the writings of Isaiah. These are his words: Hæc est illa amabilis civitas Nazareth, quæ florida interpretatur: in quâ flos campi oritur, dum in Virgine Verbum caro efficitur....Ornatus tamen illo nobili flore, super quem constat spiritum domini quie visse. Ascendet,' inquit Isayas, 'flos de radice

of Christianity, has been found upon religious pictures as long as any specimens of the art of painting have been known, which bear reference to the history of the church. The wood of the sycamore was used for the backs of all these pictures; and to this their preservation may be attributed; as the sycamore is never attacked by worms, and is known to endure, unaltered, for a very considerable time. Indeed, the Arabs maintain that it is not, in any degree, liable to decay.

The second exhibits a more ancient style of painting: it is a picture of the Virgin, bearing, in swaddling clothes, the infant Jesus. The style of it exactly resembles those curious specimens of the art which are found in the churches of Russia* excepting, that it has an Arabic, instead of a Greek, inscription. This picture, as well as the former, is painted according to the mode prescribed by Theophilus, in his chapter "De Tabulus Altarium;"† which alone affords satisfactory proof of its great antiquity. The colours were applied to a priming of chalk upon cloth previously stretched over a wooden tablet, and covered with a superficies of gluten or size. The Arabic inscription, placed in the upper part of the picture, consists only of these words:

Mary the Virgin.

The third picture is, perhaps, of more modern origin than either of the others, because it is painted upon paper made of cotton, or silk rags, which has been also attached to a tablet of sycamore wood. This is evidently a representation of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, although the words “ The Holy," in Arabic, are all that can be read for its illustration; what followed having been effaced. Three lilies are painted above

Jesse, et requiescet super cum spiritus domini.'" (Marin. Sanut. Secret. Fidel. Cruc. lib. iii. pars 7. c. 2.) Hence the cause wherefore, in ancient paintings used for illu minating missals, the rose and the lily, separately or combined, accompany pictures of the Virgin. In old engravings, particularly those by Albert Durer, the Virgin is rarely represented unaccompanied by the lily. Hence, again, the origin of those singular paintings wherein subjects connected with the history of Christ are represented within a wreath of flowers, added, not for ornamental purposes alone, but as having a religious interpretation; and hence, in all probability, the curious ancient legend of the miraculous flowering of Joseph's staff in the temple, whereby the will of God, concerning his marriage with the Virgin, was said to be miraculously manifested. See the book of "The Golden Legende," as printed by Caxton. In the account given by Quaresmius concerning Nazareth (lib. vii. c. 5. Elucid. Ter. Sanct.) Christ is denominated Flos campi, et lilium convallium, cujus odor est sicut odor agri pleni." Vid. tom. I. p. 817. Antwerp. 1639.

*See the first volume of these Travels, chap. II.

† See the ancient manuscript published by Raspe, and referred to by Mr. Kerrich in his note upon the former picture.

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:

The Unbeliever hath walked in the MMay of Sin.

Whatsoever may have been the antiquity of these early specimens of the art of painting, it is probable that they existed long prior to its introduction into Italy; since they seem evidently 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 were found, although some Christian pilgrim had placed the two frag ments belonging to one of then upon the rude altar which his predecessors had constructed from the former materials of the building. Not the smallest objection was made to their removal: so, having bestowed a trifle upon 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. Quaresmius, who published in the seventeenth century a copious and elaborate description of the Holy Land,t 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 observations upon these pictures. Professor Palmer travelled in the Holy Land soon after they were discovered.

The antiquity of the tablets cannot be determined precisely; yet it may be of importance to remark the absence of any Arabic titles corresponding with MP, OT,, and EOTOKOC, so commonly, not to say invariably, inscribed upon the effigies of the Virgin, some 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 domestic sanctuary, of Milkite Greeks; both from the close correspondence, in figure and expression, between the effigies in their churches, and those on the 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 "Historie Theologica el Moralis Terra Sancta Elucidatio" 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 observation, to illustrate the ecclesiastical antiquities of that country.

ing the form of this building; but his account is avowedly derived from a survey of its ruins. Speaking of the city, he expresses himself to the following effect:* "It now exhibits a scene of ruin and desolation, consisting only of peasants' habitations, and sufficiently manifests in its remains, the splendour of the ancient city. Considered as the native place of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, it is renowned, and worthy of being visited. Upon the spot where the house of Joachim stood a conspicuous sanctuary, built with square stones, was afterward erected. It had two rows of pillars, by which the vault of the triple nave was supported. At the upper end were three chapels; now appropriated to the dwellings of the (Arabs) Moors." From the allusion here made to the nave and side aisles, it is evident Quaresmius believed its form to have been different from that of a Greek cross: yet the four arches of the center and the dome they originally supported rather denote this style of architecture. The date of its construction is invidently afforded by a passage in Epiphanius,t in the account given by him of one Josephus, a native of Tiberias, who was authorized by Constantine to erect this and other edifices of a similar nature, in the Holy Land. Epiphanius relates, that he built the churches of Tiberias, Diocæsarea, and Capernaum; and Diocæsarea was one of the names given to Sepphoris.tThis happened toward the end of the life of Constantine; therefore the church of Sepphoris was erected before the middle of the fourth century. "There was," says he," among them one

Nunc diruta et desulata jacet, rusticanas dumtaxat continens domos, et multas objiciens oculis ruinas; quibus intelligitur quam eximia olim extiterit urbs. Celebris est, et digna ut visitetur, quód credatur patria Joachiin et Annæ, sanctorum Dei gebitricis parentum. Et in loco ubi Joachim domus erat fuit posteà illustris ædificata ecclesia ex quadratis lapidibus: quos habebat ordines columnarum, quibus triplicis navis testudo fulciebatur: in capite tres habebat capellas, in præsentiâ in Maurorum domunculas accommodatas." Quaresmii Elucid. Terr. Sanct. lib. vii. cap. 5. tom. 11. p. 852.

The testimony of Epiphanius concerning this country is the more valuable, as he was himself a native of Palestine, and flourished so early as the fourth century. He was born at the village of Besanduc, in 320; lived with Hilarion and Hesychius; was made bishop of Salamis (now Famagosta) in Cyprus, in 366; and died in 403, at the age of eighty, in returning from Constantinople where he had been to visit Chrysos

tom.

As it appears in the writings of Socrates Ecclesiasticus and Sozomen. Vid. Socrat. Hist. xi. 33. Sozomen. Histor. lib. iv. c 7.

* { "Ην δέ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν Ιώσηπος, οὐχ ὁ συγγραφές, καὶ ἱστοριογράφος, καὶ παλαιές ἐκεῖνος, ἀλλ' ὁ ἀπὸ Τιβεριάδος, ὁ ἐν χρόνοις τοῦ μακαρίτου Κωνσταντίνου του Βασιλεύσαν τος, τοῦ γέροντος, ὃς καὶ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως ἀξιώματος Κομίτων ἔτυχε καὶ ἐξεσίαν εἴληφεν ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ, Τιβεριάδι ἐκκλησίαν Χριστῷ ἱδρύσαι, καὶ ἐν Διοκαισαρεία καὶ ἐν Karepravu, nai raislais.Fuit ex illorum numero Josephus quidam, non histo riæ ille scriptor antiquus, sed Tiberiadensis alter, qui beatæ memoriæ Constantini Senioris Imperatoris ætate vixit: à quo etiam comitivam accepit, cum eâ potestate ut cum in urbe ipsâ Tiberiadis, tum Diocesareæ, Capharnaumi, ac vicinis allis in oppidis ecclesias in Christi honorem extrueret." Epiphanii Opera, Par. 1622, tom.

II. lib. i. Adv. Haer. p. 128.