QUARESIM (QUARESMI), Francesco. - Franciscan Palestinian scholar, born in Lodi on 4 Apr. 1583, died in Milan on 25 Oct. 1656.
President of the Holy Land (1618-19), he was sent by Urban VIII in 1629 to Mesopotamia to induce the Nestorian patriarch to unite with Rome; however, he was unsuccessful. Upon his return to Italy he served as guardian, provincial, and curator general of the Order in Rome. To compose his principal work, the *Elucidatio*, he undertook several journeys to the Holy Land, Syria, Egypt, and also to various European countries.
His principal work is *Historia, theologica et moralis Terrae Sanctae elucidatio...* (2 vols. fol., Antwerp 1634-1639; new ed. by Fr. Cipriano da Treviso, 2 vols., Venice 1880-81), in which Q. treats in 8 books of the privileges of the Holy Land according to papal bulls and decrees, of pilgrimages and individual places in the Holy Land; it includes a map, drawings of Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, and the basilica of Bethlehem. The work is highly esteemed and remains useful even today.