Identifier: countryofringb00trev (find matches)
Title: The country of The ring and the book
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Treves, Frederick, Sir, 1853-1923
Subjects: Browning, Robert, 1812-1889
Publisher: London : Cassell
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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l, apparently a dog, but obscure asto its exact species by the accident of being headless. Lions of this kind are not uncommonly found sittingat the doors of ancient churches. A pair, for example,guard the entrance to the duomo at Civita Castellana,while two like them crouch before the beautiful doorof San Feliziano at Foligno. They are intended tosymbolise the kindly protection that the Church affordsto the believer, on the one hand, and the ferocity withwhich it deals with the dog-like heretic, on the other. In the Ring and the Book Pompilia speaks aboutone of these lions in her musings over the Church ofSan Lorenzo: 111 used to wonder, when I stood scarce highAs the bed here, what the marble lion meant,With half his body rushing from the wall,Eating the figure of a prostrate man—To the right, it is, of entry by the door. It may be gathered from this account that Browningnever saw these lions, or that he made confusion betweenthe two. The fact that he knew little or nothing of 120
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1 _*> si < O O K o p o ^ O 1N * w -s < IO £ &• I < I2 .8 A ? o i og H 03 O Ph I San Lorenzo in Lucina the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina may be inferredfrom the following letter written by him to FredericLeighton : Oct. 17, 1864. A favour, if you have time for it. Go intothe Church St. Lorenzo in Lucina in the Corso—and look atten-tively at it, so as to describe it to me on your return. The generalarrangement of the building, if with a nave—pillars or not—thenumber of altars, and any peculiarity that may be—over the HighAltar is a famous Crucifixion by Guido. It will be of great use tome. I dont care about the outside * Leightons description, when it came to be presented,evidently misled the poet on the matter of the lion.The great artist, moreover, must have paid little heedto the general arrangement of the building, since heis probably answerable for Brownings reference to theaisle of the church, whereas the building has no aisle. The interior of San Lore

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