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246 NOTICES OF ANCIENT ORNAMENTS rione, who, shortly after the council of Florence, A.D. 1439, was appointed commendatario of the monastery of Avellana ; he presented to the church of that abbey the remarkable altar now in Dr. Rock's possession, with other precious orna- ments, described in the ancient records of Avellana. Count Cicognara has published a very elaborate fac-simile of the upper part of this super-altar, and of the nielli, in his Memoirs relative to the History of Chalcography'. Several other ancient super-altars exist on the continent ; one, bearing a very curious inscription, is preserved in the De Bruges collection at Paris. It is of the thirteenth cen- tury. Monsieur de Caumont describes another, in the church of Faye-rAbbesse, Dep. des Deux-Sevres, traditionally sup- posed to have been used by St. Hilarius, in the visitations of his diocese. It is an oblong piece of marble, framed with metal, and has a handle affixed to the upper side". Two ancient super-altars are preserved in the church of Conques (Aveyron). The more ancient is formed of agate, ornamented with enamelled plates ; the other is of porphyry, bearing an inscription which records its dedication in the year 1 1 06. These have been minutely described by the Abbe Texier, in the Annales Archeologiques, published by Monsieur Didron". Another, probably of the eleventh century, exists in the col- lection of M. Leven, at Cologne^. Its decorations are very curious, exhibiting personifications of the four rivers of Para- dise, with figures of angels and seraphim. The term super-aUare, it must be observed, occasionally served to designate objects of sacred use, perfectly distinct from the portable altars above described. Thus, Matthew Paris, in the Lives of the Abbots of St. Alban's, describes the benefactions of Abbot John, who died A.D. 1314, amongst which were " tabula picta ante altare beate Virginis, cum supcraltari cselato, et cruce superposita, et pictura desuper ;" and again, he mentions an altar made by Abbot William, the successor of John, in honour of St. Amphibalus and his companions, "cum tabula et supcraltari pretiose pictis^." These were, possibly, the decorations placed above the altar, t Memorie spettanti alia storia della " De Caumont, Cours d' Antiquites Calcographia, del Comm. Conte Leopoldo Monumentales, vol. vi. p. J 29. Cicogavaia, Prato, 1831. t. i. p. 72. " Tome iv. p. 290. This beautiful altar was exhibited, by Dr. y Heideloff, Ornementation au Moyeii- Rock's obliging permission, in the Museum Age, livr. viii. pi. iii. formed duringthe meeting of the Institute ^ M. Paris, Vitae Abb., p. 122. at Winchester, 1815.