One of two main manuscripts of Modern Painters I at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, the Brantwood manuscript (MA 2389-1) is to be found in the first of two notebooks containing the manuscript of part of Ruskin 's The Poetry of Architecture (1837-38), together with his draft of a letter to The Times on the National Gallery (7 January 1847). The notebooks measure 20.2 cms x 16.8 cms, with bindings of maroon half-calf and blue marbled boards, having no stationer's label on plain buff pastedowns. They are ruled in blue feint with 22 lines to the page, the spacing between lines being only 8.5 mm. The provenance of the notebooks is mysterious. They were the subject of an export license from Britain as late as 1964, and the wording reflects Ruskin's reputation at the time: 'not of great national importance and no copies necessary'. The contents of the Brantwood manuscript provide evidence that it predates the Allen manuscript. Ruskin's handwriting in the Brantwood manuscript indicates that it postdates The Poetry of Architecture by several years and was probably written immediately before the Allen manuscript. The facsimiles of the manuscripts in this edition are based upon a microfilm provided by the Morgan Library, and the transcriptions of the manuscripts are based upon the original manuscripts in New York. (see Wedderburn's transcript of the Brantwood manuscript of Modern Painters I)