Abstract
In 1593, a Franciscan friar with antiquarian aspirations abandoned Europe for Jerusalem with the aim of attracting the munificence of the ageing Philip II, king of Spain (r. 1556-98), in support of his order. Bernardino Amico da Gallipoli, OFM, whose biographical details remain shrouded in mystery, would spend nearly five years in the Levant before returning to his native Italy in 1598, the year of Philip II's death. During his extended stay in the Holy Land, Amico's collegial relationship with the Franciscan Custodian Gianfrancesco della Salandra, a fellow Italian, ensured that he was entrusted with a series of important commissions that also gave him the opportunity to travel the length and breadth of Palestine and Egypt. In 1597, for example, while serving as the president and confessor to the Christian community of Cairo, Amico visited the Christian shrine at Matariya, where the Holy Family was said to have taken refuge on their flight into Egypt. Here, Beaver looks into Amico's book published at Rome in 1609 Under the title Trattato delle piante & immagini sacri edifizi di Terra Santa that include highly detailed descriptions of the Holy Land's cardinal buildings and shrines, as well as a wealth of information about their topographical settings and the spatial relationships between them.