QUARESMIO (QUARESMI), FRANCESCO. - Franciscan scholar of Palestine, born at Lodi on 4 April 1583, died at Milan on 25 October 1656.
President of the Holy Land (1618–19), he was sent by Urbano VIII in 1629 to Mesopotamia to induce the Nestorian patriarch to unite with Rome; he did not succeed, however. Having returned to Italy, he was guardian, provincial, and general procurator of the Order in Rome. In order to compose his principal work, Elucidatio, he undertook several journeys to the Holy Land, Syria, and Egypt, as well as to a number of European countries.
His principal work is Historica, theologica et moralis Terrae Sanctae elucidatio... (2 folio vols., Antwerp 1634–1639; new ed. by p. Cipriano da Treviso, 2 vols., Venice 1880–81), in which Q., in 8 books, treats of the privileges of the Holy Land according to the bulls and decrees of the Popes, of pilgrimages, and of the individual places of the Holy Land; it includes a geographical map and drawings of Jerusalem, of the Holy Sepulchre, and of the basilica of Bethlehem. The work is highly esteemed and remains useful even today.