Ruskin, Stones of Venice, 3vol.in 2 1890s Poems, Giotto

"Stones of Venice" by John Ruskin, illustrated by the author, published by Lovell and Coryell, New York, undated (1890), complete three volumes bound in two and additional works.

Volume I "The Stones of Venice - The Foundation", illustrated with c.30 plates [431 pages];
Volume II "The Stones of Venice - The Sea Stories", illustrated with c.60 plates [396 pages];
Volume III "The Stones of Venice - The Fall", illustrated w 17 plates and c.30 illustrations; with Appendixes and Indexes [384 pages];
and it also includes
"The Poetry of Architecture"; Poems; and "Giotto and His Work in Padua" [389 pages].

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolorist, philosopher, prominent social thinker and philanthropist.

"The Stones of Venice" examines Venetian architecture in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city. Ruskin had visited Venice before, but he made two visits to Venice with his wife Effie specially to research the book. The first visit was in the winter of 1849-50. The first volume of "The Stones of Venice" appeared in 1851 and Ruskin spent another winter in Venice researching the next two volumes. His research methods included sketching and photography (by 1849 he had acquired his own camera so that he could take daguerreotypes).

"The Stones of Venice" became "a revolutionary success." Mainly a treatise on architecture, it moves beyond the earlier work's abstract treatment, not only because it dedicates substantial attention to the details of architectural construction, but also because it places architecture within its social, political, moral, and religious context. Volume I, 'The Foundations', discusses the edifices of Venice and their functional and ornamental aspects and presents a brief history of the city. In Volume II, 'The Sea Stories', Ruskin turned his thoughts to the Byzantine period and the climactic development of Venetian life, its Gothic period, which meant to him 'not only the best, but the only rational architecture', while Renaissance architecture 'is pure in its insipidity, and subtle in its vice'. Crucially, it is in Volume III, 'The Fall' (which also includes the alphabetical guide to the most important buildings of all periods, the Venetian Index), that Ruskin puts forth his thesis that the onset of the Renaissance caused the city's architectural decline; he felt that architecture had lost all of the moral character he had described so eloquently in his earlier volumes, and has instead been turned into the 'perpetuation in stone of the ribaldries of drunkenness and rowdiness.

US: Priority (c.2-5 days) ----------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) --- $27.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ---- $37.50
Condition Report: Two hard bound volumes, original publisher’s cloth [some wear, partial loss of color, soiling: see photos]; 5.1/4” x 7.1/2”; c.4” shelf space; volume I & II: 431 and c.30 plates + 396 pages with text illustrations and c.60 plates. Volume III: 384 pages and 17 plates + c.30 illustrations; a few page corner folds, a little soiling, very good condition.