4 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

painted. Every date in question was determinable only by internal evidence; and it became necessary for me to examine not only every one of the older palaces, stone by stone, but every fragment throughout the city which afforded any clue to the formation of its styles. This I did as well as I could, and I believe there will be found, in the following pages, the only existing account of the details of early Venetian architecture on which dependence can be placed, as far as it goes. I do not care to point out the deficiencies of other works on this subject; the reader will find, if he examines them, either that the buildings to which I shall specially direct his attention have been hitherto undescribed, or else that there are great discrepancies between previous descriptions and mine: for which discrepancies I may be permitted to give this single and sufficient reason, that my account of every building is based on personal examination and measurement of it, and that my taking the pains so to examine what I had to describe, was a subject of grave surprise to my Italian friends. The work of the Marchese Selvatico¹ is, however, to be distinguished with respect; it is clear in arrangement, and full of useful, though vague, information: and I have found its statements of the chronological succession of the arts of Venice generally trustworthy. Fontana’s “Fabbriche di Venezia” is also historically valuable, but does not attempt to give architectural detail. Cicognara, as is now generally known, is so inaccurate as hardly to deserve mention.

2. Indeed, it is not easy to be accurate in an account of anything, however simple. Zoologists often disagree in their descriptions of the curve of a shell, or the plumage of a bird, though they may lay their specimen on the table, and examine it at their leisure; how much greater becomes the likelihood

¹ [Sulla Architettura e sulla Scultura in Venezia dal medio evo sino ai nostri giňrni: Studi di P. Selvatico per servire di Guida estetica con settanta vignette in legnoed una tavole in rame, Venezia, 1847. Selvatico was President of the Venetian Academy. Count Leopaldo Cicognara’s work is entitled Le Fabbriche e i Monumenti cospicui di Venezia (2 vols., Venice, 1838-1850). Ruskin inadvertently ascribes Cicognara’s book to Fontana. The latter’s work is Venezia Monumentale Pittoresca, a series of lithographs designed by M. Moro, with descriptions in Italian by G. J. Fontana, 1847-1850.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]