THE STONES OF VENICE: INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS AND LOCAL INDICES (PRINTED SEPARATELY) FOR THE USE OF TRAVELLERS WHILE STAYING IN VENICE AND VERONA. BY JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, OXFORD. SELECTIONS. NEW YORK Merrill and Baker 74 FIFTH AVENUE PREFACE. THIS volume is the first of a series designed by the Author with the purpose of placing in the hands of the public, in more serviceable form, those portions of his earlier works which he thinks deserving of a permanent place in the system of his general teaching. They were at first intended to be accompanied by photographic reductions of the principal plates in the larger volumes; but this design has been modified by the Author's increasing desire to gather his past and present writings into a consistent body, illustrated by one series of plates, purchasable in separate parts, and numbered consecutively. Of other prefatory matter, once intended, apologetic mostly, the reader shall be spared the cumber: and a clear prospectus issued by he publisher of the new series of plates, as soon as they are in a state of forwardness. iii |