8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

reader, that he will find the certainty of every statement I permit myself to make, increase with its importance; and that, for the security of the final conclusions of the following essay, as well as for the resolute veracity of its account of whatever facts have come under my own immediate cognisance, I will pledge myself to the uttermost.

6. It was necessary, to the accomplishment of the purpose of the work (of which account is given in the First Chapter), that I should establish some canons of judgment, which the general reader should thoroughly understand, and, if it pleased him, accept, before we took cognisance, together, of any architecture whatsoever. It has taken me more time and trouble to do this than I expected; but, if I have succeeded, the thing done will be of use for many other purposes than that to which it is now put. The establishment of these canons, which I have called “the Foundations,” and some account of the connection of Venetian architecture with that of the rest of Europe, occupy the present volume.¹

7. It was of course inexpedient to reduce drawings of crowded details to the size of an octavo volume-I do not say impossible, but inexpedient; requiring infinite pains on the part of the engraver, with no result except farther pains to the beholder. And as, on the other hand, folio books are not easy reading, I determined to separate the text and the unreducible plates. I have given, with the principal text, all the illustrations absolutely necessary to the understanding of it, and, in the detached work, such additional text as had special reference to the larger illustrations.²

A considerable number of these larger plates were at first intended to be executed in tinted lithography; but, finding

elsewhere he adds to the list-e. g., “A Life of Pope” (Fors Clavigera, Letter 32), a series of Early English Reprints (Letters to Ellis), “A Life of Moses” (Fors, Letter 63).]

¹ [The first volume was, it will be remembered, published in advance of the remainder of the work. Ed. 1 here added the words:-

“The second will, I hope, contain all I have to say about Venice itself.”

The sentence was omitted in subsequent editions, when the second volume had grown into two.]

² [The detached work is The Examples of the Architecture of Venice, in this edition included in vol. iii. of The Stones of Venice, the processes now available rendering the reduction of the plates possible.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]