The MS. of her journey was discovered in the library of Arezzo by Gamurrini in 1883. It was incomplete and its author was not named. Gamurrini provisionally claimed it for St. Silvia of Aquitaine, and dated the journey between 378 and 383. But the abbé Férotin[180] has since pointed out that Valerius (_c._ 650), abbot of a monastery near Astorga in Spain, wrote a letter “In praise of the blessed Etheria,” in which he described how this nun “with a bold heart undertook a journey across the world.” He mentioned details of her journey which establish beyond a doubt that the writer of the Arezzo account was meant.[181] A German writer, Karl Meister, on the internal evidence of the account, hereupon dated the journey between 534 and 539. But he overlooked the fact that Etheria, in connection with her visit to Seleucia, mentioned by name her dear friend, the _diaconissa_ Martbana, who is named also as one of the distinguished women of the place by Basileus, bishop of Seleucia who died in the year 456.[182] There were convents in the south of France before the close of the fifth century, as we know from the rules drafted by Cæsarius, bishop of Arles (501-573); the date of Etheria may be about 460. The MS. account discovered at Arezzo was incomplete. But the account, in its complete form, was apparently in the hands of Peter the Deacon when he compiled his little book _On the Holy Places_, about the year 1157, for Guidobaldo, abbot of Monte Cassino. In this book Peter cited passages found in the account that was discovered at Arezzo together with others which seem to be taken from the part of the work which is wanting. In the account which follows, the initial passages are quoted from the book of Peter on the assumption that they were taken from the account of Etheria. Etheria and her party entered and left Sinai from Egypt. “Before you reach the holy Mount Syna, stands the fort Clesma on the Red Sea which the Israelites passed dryshod. The marks (_vestigia_) of the chariot of the Pharaoh are visible in the ground to this day. But the wheels are farther apart than those of the chariots (_currus_) of our days as they are seen in the Roman empire, for between wheel and wheel is a space of twenty-four feet or more, and the wheelruts (_orbitæ_) are two feet wide. These marks of the Pharaoh’s chariot lead down to the shore where he entered the sea when he wanted to seize the Israelites. On the spot where the Pharaoh’s wheelruts are visible, two signs are set up, one on the right, and one on the left, like little columns (_columella_).[183]