ng a rich American family, who would
otherwise have found the doors shut, and had a test of my knowledge
applied by being asked the period to which a reliquary belonged of which
the date was known. Having passed my examination satisfactorily, I had
the pleasure of handling any of the objects which I desired to examine,
and, further, of being asked to oblige Monsignore by telling him the
period when certain of the objects were made. Some of the photographs of
the reliquaries were not quite successful, and the next year we returned
to make others, taking with us some copies which we had promised to send
to the bishop. I was rather amused to be greeted effusively as
"Carissimo"; it was such a contrast to our first reception.

[Illustration: HEAD RELIQUARY IN CATHEDRAL, RAGUSA]

The treasury is particularly rich in reliquaries, of which the most
valued contains the head of S. Blaise. It consists of a number of small
Byzantine enamels reset in an elaborate floral pattern of filigree and
enamel by a Venetian goldsmith in 1694--"Franc deg. deg. Ferro Venet deg.," as he
signs himself on the lower edge. The design resembles the later
Hungarian enamel-work very closely. The stalks are simply gold wires,
and the leaves, flowers, &c., are filled in with enamels of different
colours, very delicately varied, leaving the copper ground showing, each
plaque being surrounded with a twist of gold and pinned down to the
capsule of the skull. Legend says that the head was brought to Ragusa in
1026, but even the Byzantine enamels scarcely look as old as that; and
the occurrence of two half-lengths of S. Blaise and two of S. Peter
suggests that it was made up with fragments of several reliquaries, of
which other portions have been used in the arm reliquary of S. Blaise.
The names appear to have been added in the thirteenth century; the
letters are Latin. There are three rows of the enamels. At the top, upon
the curve, are four figures in roundels--"SS. Andreas, Blasivs, Petrvs,"
and the Archangel Michael. The nimbi are blue-green, the figures red.
The second row has eight enamels, alternately round and square; the
round ones are unnamed, and represent three saints (one with a stole,
holding a cross in the right hand) and a badly restored Madonna. The
others are: an Apostle with a roll, "Santvs Petrvs"; a bishop, "Santvs
Blasivs"; "Santvs Matevs" with a book in the left hand; "Santvs Jacobvs"
with a roll. The third row has eight circular ename