The Stones of Venice

First issued in three volumes from 1851 to 1853, this study reads Venetian architecture as a moral and historical record. Ruskin describes the city's Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance fabric, dwelling on St. Mark's, the Ducal Palace, capitals, moldings, and the color of marble and brick. He argues that Gothic workmanship expressed a free, faithful craftsman, while later Renaissance building marked pride and decay. Chapters mix close looking with a theory of ornament and society. The book is architectural criticism, not a political chronicle of the Republic and not a tourist itinerary.

Bound in brown cloth blocked with a pictorial design. Black slipcase.