I.), but that one shall be the oldest, and under every respect the most interesting of them all. On the Via Salaria Nuova, about two miles from Rome, the Irish College has its vineyard, formerly called the Vigna de Cuppis. In this vigna the excavation of the famous cemetery of Priscilla had its beginning, and from this it extended its intricate galleries in all directions, passing beneath the road, and far under the fields on the other side. The picture we are about to examine is found over a loculus or grave in this cemetery of Priscilla. In it is depicted a woman, seated and holding in her arms an infant, who has his face turned towards the spectator. She has on her head a scanty veil, and wears a tunic with short sleeves, and over the tunic a _pallium_. The position of these figures and the whole composition are such as to convince any one who has had experience of this kind of paintings, that they are intended for the Virgin and Child. Indeed, all doubt of this has been removed by the painter himself. Near the top of the painting he has represented the star which is ever present when our Lady is described as presenting her Son to the Magi, or as seated by the manger. To the spectator's left, a man youthful in appearance, with a sparse beard, standing erect and robed only in the _pallium_, raises his right hand and points towards the Virgin and the star. In his left he holds a book. At the first sight of this figure it naturally occurs to the mind that it can be none other than Joseph, the chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin, who is represented at her side on various sarcophagi in Italy and France, in diptychs, and in the mosaics of St. Mary Major's. Generally speaking, he is described as of a youthful appearance, and rarely with a beard. But it is unusual to paint him with the pallium, and with a book in his hand. De Rossi is of opinion that the figure in question is that of a prophet, it being quite usual to unite the figure from the Old Testament with the reality in the New. Besides, in a monument of the ninth century two prophets attired like our figure stand one each side of our Blessed Lady. He believes it to be Isaias, who so often foretold the star and the light that was to shed its rays on the darkness of the pagan world (_Isaias_, ix. 2; lx. 2, 3, 19; _cf._ _Luc._, i. 78, 79). On one of the painted glasses explained by F. Garnieri, Isaias is represented as a young man. We have here, therefore, in the heart of the catacombs an undoubted representation of our Blessed Lady.