Three hundred and fifty years separate us from the last medieval Maronite epigraph, that of Our Lady of Ilige dated 1277 and the new inscription, dated 1628, at Mar Chalita of Ghosta, which marks the beginning of a renaissance that Lebanon was to experience under Ottoman rule. These two epigraphs are among the finest in their calligraphy, whether in Estrangelo or Serto script, and both demonstrate a remarkable mastery of the Syriac language.