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Rh as Fernão Lopes, Damião de Goes, Pinto Ribeiro, Manuel da Maia, the Visconde de Santarem. The keepers of the archives to-day are also men of letters and investigators of valuable records. Senhor Antonio Baião, who showed me many of the rare books and manuscripts, is the author of a monograph on the Inquisition of the fifteenth century included in the Archivo Historico Portuguez published by Government, and joint author of the interesting book O Archivo da Torre do Tombo. It is difficult to summarize the riches enclosed in those old monastery chambers. There are sixty parchment volumes of the time of D. Manuel, in which caligraphy and the illumination are of the highest order; there are other beautifully illuminated manuscripts: bibles, missals, books of the Hours (Horas) of Arms, of Prayers. There is the famous Bible of the Jeronymos in seven volumes, an Italian work of the fifteenth century, done expressly for D. Manuel who gave it to the monks of Belem; also the Livro dos Evangelhos of the Holy Office of the Inquisition; and the famous Atlas of Fernão Vaz Dourado (Goa, 1571), which though mutilated still contains fifteen geographical letters and maps. Among the very rare works was the Vita Christi; also the first edition of the works of Gil Vicente, dated Lisboa, 1562. The ecclesiastical archives contain the most ancient letters, and documents in the country, veritable historical monuments from which Herculano reconstructed the history of the early ages of Portuguese national existence. The vast collection of records of the Inquisition must not be forgotten, in which the number of trials documented rises to 36,000, as without their examination it would be impossible to write the social history of at least two centuries. Here, too, are guarded the records of the military Orders of Christ, Sant' Iago,and Aviz, and of the extinct monasteries and convents. 63