teenth-century N. portal of
the tower have been replaced the two small lions in relief between
which, in olden times, the cures are said to have exercised justice.
We note the thirteenth-century W. portal, transferred from the old
church of St. Pierre aux Boeufs, and enter for the sake of the
beautiful Gothic interior, mainly fifteenth century, with its double
aisles and ambulatory and fine stained-glass in the nave. We turn L.,
on leaving, along the Rue des Pretres St. Severin (No. 5 is the site
of the old College de Lisieux) which is continued by the Rue
Boutebrie, in former times the Rue des Enlumineurs, famous for those
who practised the art, "_che alluminare chiamata e in Parisi_."[185]
At the end of the Rue des Pretres we turn L. along the picturesque Rue
de la Parcheminerie, where we may recall the old poet Corneille
sitting at a cobbler's stall while his gaping shoe was patched, and
where still remain, among other curious old houses, Nos. 6 and 7,
which in the thirteenth century were owned by the canons of Norwich
Cathedral, who maintained a number of scholars there. We are now on
the very foyer of the University quarter, in mediaeval times swarming
with poor scholars, the busy hive of knowledge, and so notorious for
its misery and rowdy depravity, that Charles V. during his regency had
the Rue du Fouarre closed at curfew by strong iron grilles. We pass on
to the Rue St. Jacques, then R. to the Boulevard St. Germain, again
sharply to the L. and descend the new Rue Dante, R. of which, in the
Rue Domat, are some quaint old houses: at 12 _bis_ is the site of the
old College de Cournouailles (Brittany). The Rue Dante is continued by
the Rue du Fouarre (Straw Street) where Siger taught (p. 103) and in
one of whose colleges the author of the _Divina Commedia_ probably sat
as a scholar. The houses are all modernised and the name alone
remains. We turn R. along the Rue Galande, noting R. the Rue des
Anglais which reminds us that there the English scholars congregated.
We pass on by the Rue Lagrange and reach the place Maubert of dread
memories, for here were burnt many a Protestant martyr and the famous
printer philosopher, Etienne Dolet, friend of Erasmus, of Marot and of
Melancthon, whose statue in bronze stands on the Place. Dolet's
martyrdom is still yearly celebrated there by democratic Parisians,
and the Place has always been famous for its barricades during the
Fronde and later Revolutionary times. We cross the Bo