92. The " Stones of Venice. " Volume The First. " The Foundations. " By John Ruskin, " [Two lines] With Illustrations Drawn By The Author. " London: " Smith, Elder And Co., 65. Cornhill. " 1851. [-1853.]

These fine volumes, printed by Spottiswoode and Shaw, have a particularly clean and clear type-page, and are excellent in press-work. It is not the type, however, that demands our especial attention, but the illustrations with which the work is liberally furnished. These distinguish it from anything we have hitherto seen in our list of books. The plates and cuts, made by various processes, mezzo-tinting, lithography, line engraving and wood-cutting, mark most clearly the advance in bookmaking which had taken place within the half century. Hitherto we have had illustrations for their own sakes, or for the ornamentation of the books they are in, and depending for their existence solely upon the liberality and intelligence of the publisher; but here we have illustrations introduced into the book for the sake of the text, of which they are an integral part. Ruskin's own words about them, as found in the Preface, are instructive:

"It was of course inexpedient to reduce drawings of crowded details to the size of an octavo volume,—I do not say impossible, but inexpedient; requiring infinite pains on the part of the engraver, with no result except farther pain to the beholder. And as, on the other hand, folio books are not easy reading, I determined to separate the text and the unreduceable plates. I have given, with the principal text, all the illustrations absolutely necessary to the understanding of it, and, in the detached work, such additional text as had special reference to the larger illustrations.

"A considerable number of these larger plates were at first intended to be executed in tinted lithography; but, finding the result unsatisfactory, I have determined to prepare the principal subjects for mezzotinting,—a change of method requiring two new drawings to be made for every subject; one a carefully penned outline for the etcher, and then a finished drawing upon the etching ...

"For the illustrations of the body of the work itself, I have used any kind of engraving which seemed suited to the subjects—line and mezzotint, on steel, with mixed lithographs and woodcuts, at a considerable loss of uniformity in the appearance of the volume, but, I hope, with advantage, in rendering the character of the architecture it describes."

"The illustrations to the new book," Collingwood adds, "were a great advance upon the rough soft-ground etchings of the Seven Lamps. He secured the services of some of the finest engravers who ever handled the tools of their art. The English school of engravers was then in its last and most accomplished period. Photography had not yet begun to supersede it; and the demand for delicate work in book illustration had encouraged minuteness and precision of handling to the last degree. In this excessive refinement there were the symptoms of decline; but it was most fortunate for Mr. Ruskin that his drawings could be interpreted by such men as Armytage and Cousen, Cuff and Le Keux, Boys and Lupton ... The mere fact of their skill in translating a sketch from a note-book into a gem-like vignette, encouraged him to ask for more; so that some of the subjects which became the most elaborate were at first comparatively rough drawings, and were gradually worked up from successive retouchings of the proofs by the infinite patience of both parties. In other cases, working drawings were prepared by Mr. Ruskin, as refined as the plates."

"Like much else of his work, these plates for 'Stones of Venice' were in advance of the times. The publishers thought them 'caviare to the general,' so Mr. J. J. Ruskin told his son; but gave it as his own belief that 'some dealers in Ruskins and Turners in 1890 will get great prices for what at present will not sell.'"

An "Advertisement" in the second volume tells us, "It was originally intended that this Work should consist of two volumes only; the subject has extended to three. The second volume, however, will conclude the account of the ancient architecture of Venice. The third will embrace the Early, the Roman, and the Grotesque Renaissance; and an Index...."

The first volume, called The Foundations, and having twenty-one plates, and the second, called The Sea-Stories, with twenty plates, each cost two guineas. The third volume, called The Fall, with twelve plates, cost a guinea and a half. They were bound in cloth, stamped in gold, with the "Lion of St. Mark" on the back. A few copies of both volumes one and two were issued in two parts. The first volume ran into a second edition in 1858, and the second and third were reissued in 1867.

Octavo.

Collation: Three volumes. Illustrations. Fifty-three plates.