II. LATRATOR ANUBIS 231

master (Gastoldo), and the companions, in the year 1450, the first article is the body of St. Theodore, with the bed it lies on, covered by a coverlid of “paño di grano di seta, brocado de oro fino.” So late as the middle of the fifteenth century (certified by the “inventario fatto a di XXX. de Novembrio MCCCCL. per. Sr nanni di piero de la colona, Gastoldo, e suoi campagni, de tutte reliquie e arnesi e beni, se trova in questa hora presente in la nostra scuola”), here lay this treasure, dear to the commercial heart of Venice.

Oh, reader, who hast ceased to count the Dead bones of men for thy treasure, hast thou then thy treasure of the living Dead laid up in the hands of the Living God, where the worm doth not corrupt, nor the conquered King of Terror any more break through and steal?¹

¹ [See Matthew vi. 20. The last lines of § 29 are here altered in accordance with Ruskin’s revision in his own copy; the passage has hitherto read: “Oh, good reader, who hast ceased to count the Dead bones of men for thy treasure, hast thou then thy Dead laid up in the hands of the Living God?”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]