d
curiosities.

The church resembles that of St. Barlaam, but is in better order; and
the paintings are more brilliant in colour and are more profusely
decorated with gold. There is a dome above the centre of the church, and
the iconostasis or screen before the altar is ornamented with the usual
stiff pictures and carving, but the latter is not to be compared to that
in the monastery of St. Stephanos. There were some silver shrines
containing relics, but they were not particularly interesting either as
to workmanship or antiquity. The most interesting thing is a picture
ascribed to St. Luke, which, whatever may be its real history, is
evidently a very ancient and curious painting.

The books are preserved in a range of low-vaulted and secret rooms, very
well concealed in a sort of mezzanine: the entrance to them is through a
door at the back of a cupboard in an outer chamber, in the same way as
at St Stephanos. There are about two thousand volumes of very rubbishy
appearance, not new enough for the monks to read or old enough for them
to sell; in fact, they are almost valueless. I found, however, a few
Aldines and Greek books of the sixteenth century, printed in Italy, some
of which may be rather rare editions, but I saw none of the fifteenth
century. I did not count the number of the manuscripts; there are,
however, some hundreds of them, mostly on paper; but, excepting two,
they were all liturgies and church books. These two were poems. One
appeared to be on some religious subject, the other was partly
historical and partly the poetical effusions of St. Athanasius of
Meteora. I searched in vain for the manuscripts of Hesiod and Sophocles
mentioned by Biornstern; some later antiquarian may, perhaps, have got
possession of them and taken them to some country where they will be
more appreciated than they were here. After looking over the books on
the shelves, the librarian, an old grey-bearded monk, opened a great
chest in which things belonging to the church were kept; and here I
found ten or twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, all of the eleventh or
twelfth century. They were upon vellum, and all, except one, were small
quartos; but this one was a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful
manuscripts of its kind I have met with anywhere. In many respects it
resembled the Codex Ebnerianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was
ornamented with miniatures of the same kind as those in that splendid
volume, but they w