Thurles, Ireland, March 20.
_Matrix of Monastic Seal._--A brass matrix has fallen into my hands of a
period certainly not much anterior to the Revolution. Device, the Virgin
and Child, their heads surrounded with nimbi; the former holds in her right
hand three lilies, the latter a globe and cross. The legend is:
"* SIG[=IL] . MON . [=B] . [=M] . DE . PRATO . ALIAS . DE . BONO . NVNCIO."
In the field, a shield charged with three lions passant. Can any
correspondent aid me in assigning it rightly? There was an Abbey of St.
Mary de Pratis at Leicester (Vide _Gent. Mag._, vol. xciii. p. 9.); and
there is a church dedicated to "St. Mary in the Marsh at Norwich." In a
recent advertisement I find a notice of Scipio Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and
Prato, so that the appellation is not very uncommon.