Layout of M2
M2 is laid out as follows (starting from the current front of the notebook):
- Spine with “M / 2” at top and bottom in this orientation
- Front board [vellum, with “2” near top left; brass catch-plate for hinge]
- Front pastedown [marbled, with “Yale University Library 1930” book plate; “Ms vault / Section 14 / Drawer 2” written in the top left of the label]
- Next three sheets (including marbled Front free endpaper recto) cut out all at the same time
- Next page (recto) numbered 1 in ink at top right and starts “This book continues 1850...” [so that, because of the pages torn out, Notebook M2 p.1L is in fact Front pastedown]
- pages numbered 2 to 200 in ink at top right-hand corner (Notebook M2 p.181 is not numbered)
- pages 199 to 229 are also (respectively) pages 31 to 1 upside-down and numbering the other way (although pages 31 and 1 are not in fact numbered)
- page 199 in the current front orientation has:
on the left (verso) text the right way up “Receptive Motion[s?]” to “Penetration & combination [sic]” [the four sections are in ink, pencil, ink, pencil], and at the bottom text upside down “Palladian” to “Northern Gothic” [in ink]
on the right (recto) page number “199” in ink in top right-hand corner and text the right way up “Classification of arts” to “quickness to the intelligence” - page 229 in the current front orientation has:
on the left (verso) unnumbered page 1back with upside-down text starting ‘Dijon 6th Oct / Families of Gothic’
on the right (recto) page number “229” in pencil in top right-hand corner and text at top the right way up starting “[?] [?] mossy green...” [perhaps “fills cornice”?] - page 230 in the current front orientation has:
on the left (verso) an unnumbered blank page
on the right (recto) page number “230” in pencil in top right-hand corner the right way up - page 231 in the current front orientation has:
on the left (verso) an unnumbered page, blank except for a (pencil?) scribble in the top left corner
on the right (recto; this is Back free endpaper recto in the current front orientation) page number “231” in pencil in the top right-hand corner the right way up, and two lines of writing in pencil at bottom right upside down “V/J” or “psi/mu” or something similar (compare V/J at the top left corner of Notebook M p.iL) and underneath something like “mtly 49” or “mtly 43” - Back free endpaper verso and Back pastedown [marbled, with a label “W. Grigg / Engraver, Printer, Stationer / etc” upside down in the centre of the latter page]
on the label, the right way up with respect to the label and in its then top left corner is:
12 . 17 16th [?] / 17th . [?] / 24 . 2[?] / 3 3 / 10th 4 / 17th . 5th / 24th . 6th . / - - Back board [vellum, with brass clasp attached by hinge to the Back board and which clips to the Front board]
Pages Notebook M2 pp.38-39L, Notebook M2 pp.62-63L, Notebook M2 pp.92-93L have a piece cut out - in Notebook M2 pp.92-93L the piece at the bottom has been cut off and then stuck back on, perhaps with sealing wax.
Some page numbers are omitted (181, 5back, 6back, 21back), which suggests that Ruskin was putting them in as he went along (and sometimes forgot), rather than numbering right through from the beginning.
The page numbers at the top right-hand corner (in the current front orientation) are large in black or brownish ink up to page 200, and then page 201 right through to 231 at the end of the book are small in what looks like pencil, except that pencil numbered 218 is also numbered large 220 in the brownish ink. Here (pages 217-8) is the only place where the text on the recto pages is written upright according to the current front orientation, except for the short observation on page 229.
There are some notes and drawings in pencil. Notes added in pencil were presumably written at a different time, though some at least seem to be in Ruskin’s hand of this period.
Pages Notebook M2 p.189L (wrongly numbered 188 in Ruskin Library Transcript T7B) to Notebook M2 p.198 contain Ruskin’s Index to M2 and the Small Notebooks only.
[Version 0.05: May 2008]
