Also 7 tribun. [a. F. tribune (1409 in Godef., Compl.), ad. It. and med.L. tribūna (914 in Du Cange), taking the place of L. tribūnāle TRIBUNAL.]
1. = TRIBUNA.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 27 Feb. The edifice without is Gotiq, but very glorious within, especialy the roofe, and one tribune well painted.
a. 1668. Lassels, Voy. Italy (1670), II. 103. There are divers other pictures in that vaulted Tribun in Mosaick worke.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 249/2. The apartment of the Imperial Gallery at Florence, which is called the Tribune (Tribuna).
2. The semicircular or polygonal apse of a basilica or basilican church, usually domed or vaulted.
a. 1771. Gray, Archit. Gothica, Wks. 1843, V. 332. The difference between the body and ailes of the choir at Peterborough, with the east side of the transept, and the semicircular tribune which finishes the same choir.
1794. W. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumberld., I. 155, note. Warwick church, remarkable for its tribune or rounded east end.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 157. The length of the church, from the principal entrance to the end of the tribune, is 601 feet.
1874. Parker, Goth. Archit., Gloss. 329. Tribune, the semicircular space at one end of the Basilica, for the judges. In Churches copied from the Basilicas it was retained as the apse.
3. A raised platform or dais; a rostrum; a pulpit; the throne or stall of a bishop.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 61. A large inscription over the tribune at the end of the hall.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 46. Any of the discoursers in our pulpits, or on your tribune;… Dr. Price, or … the Abbé S[i]eyes.
1842–76. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss. s.v. Apsis, The bishop’s throne being raised by steps above the ordinary stalls … was sometimes called exhedra, and in later times tribune.
1850. W. Irving, Mahomet, xiv. (1853), 87. A pulpit or tribune … to which he ascended by three steps.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, xxiv. Mr. Lyon was seated on the school tribune or dais at his particular round table.
1885. Woodrow Wilson, Congress. Govt., ii. 127. Members [of the French Chamber of Deputies] do not speak from their seats … but from the ‘tribune’ … a box-like stand,… resembling those narrow, quaintly-fashioned pulpits … still to be seen in some of the oldest of our American churches.
4. A raised and seated area or gallery, esp. in a church; also applied to stands at continental race meetings (F. tribune).
1865. Pall Mall G., 13 June, 5. Last year … it was easy to move about from the saddling-ring to the tribunes, to get places in the latter to sit down, and to promenade in front of the tribunes, with plenty of elbow-room.
1865. Times, 1 Aug., 7/4. There were not more than 45 or 50 ladies in the ‘tribunes’—the low galleries on the side of the hall are so called.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, lxvi. The church was crowded; not a chair or tribune vacant.
1883. Mag. Art, June, 338/2. The unfamiliar storey is known as a tribune, and runs immediately above the nave at the point usually occupied by the triforium. It is a lofty gallery.
1891. Winchester Word-Bk., Tribunes, large pews in ante-chapel reserved for ladies. (Obs.)
1904. Princess Radziwill, Recoll., ix. 160. I never left the tribune from which ladies were allowed to hear the debates.
