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THEVET. DANDINI. 181 DAND1NI. Girolamo Dandini, S.J., Professor of Theology at Perugia, was sent in 109,6 by Pope Clement VIII. as nuncio to the Maronites of the Lebanon. He touched at Limassol August 8, visited Larnaca and Nicosia, and left for Tripoli August 27. He returned to Larnaca March 19,1597, and left for Venice April 12, His Missione apostolica al patriarca e Maroniti del monte Libano was published in 4to at Cesena, in 1656, a French translation by R. S. P. (Richard Simon) appeared in Paris, 6vo, 1675, and 16mo, 1685, and an English version in Pinkerton's collection, 4to, London, 1811. vol. χ, I have used for the following extract a Paris copy of 1685, pp. 21—13. In 1901 there were 1130 Maronites, enumerated in 20 towns or villages of Cyprus. In 1891 their number was 1181. The villages named by Dandini are probably Metochi, Phlamoudi, Hagia Marina, Asomatos, Kampyli, Carpasi, Cormaciti, Tremidia, Casaphani, Vouna, Kepos, Yeri, Chrysida, Kephalobrysi, Kato Chrysida, H. Georgios tes Attalîas, Clepîni, Episcopi, Gastria. August 12 Ave amved at Cyprus, and anchored towards evening off Leiniso, where the inhabitants, and particularly the Turks, risited and explored onr ship. We were there three days without going on shore, because there was nothing worth seeing, and there was no church where'we could have said mass. About 11 o'clock on the 16th we left for Salines, whither a good breeze carried 11s quickly so that we reached it two hours before sunset. It is about 600 miles from Candia. The next morning early we landed on the beach and went straight to Arnica about a mile away. It is a convent of Franciscan monks a few of whom live there for the convenience of some Italian merchants. Our vessel continued its journey to Alexandretta, and we had to wait some days in the island to find a ship bound for Tripoli. To lose no time I left my companion, who had been unwell since we left Crete, to the care of these good monks, and of the Maronite servant whom we had bronght with us, and accompanied an honest Venetian merchant to Nicosia. This the ancienta called Let tra and then Leiicoto: it was formerly an archbishopric, and the metropolis of the kingdom. It is only 24 miles from Arnica. I took this journey to get the best information I could about the spiritual wants of the Maronites, who live there in considerable number. Turks only are allowed to enter Nicosia and all other fortresses on horseback. Christians and others must alight at the gate, and once within may remount their horses and go to their houses....Nicosia is a large city and well built after the Oriental fashion. But in the last wars it was destroyed in several places. For it is now twenty-seven years since the Turks took the city from the Venetians; it was thus that God chose to punish the sins and schism of the Greeks of the island....The towers or belfries are ruined, or without bells, which the Turks have tnrnejd into pieces of ordnance. There are at Nicosia four kinds of churches, eaoh of which I examined by itself. The Turkish mosques are the most important, both for their number and for the beauty and size of the buildings. I was not allowed to enter them, but I could see through its iron gates that the mosque which was once the church of S. Sophia was the finest and most stately. It is a large and spacious structure with many columns such as you would see in most of our churches. No altars, statues or paintings of any kind: the walls are simply whitewashed. By the door stands a fine fonntain, which was not there in the time of the Christians....The Greeks have another kind of church, of which I shall only remark that if a Latin priest had

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