One of the two main manuscripts of Modern Painters I at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, which appears to give an incorrect accessions date, as follows:
John Ruskin (1819-1900). Modern Painters. Autograph manuscript notebook of drafts for volume 1. [ca. 1842]. MA 393. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1906. Notebook labelled "14a."
This notebook has a maroon half-calf binding with marbled board covers containing no stationer's label, and measures 20 x 16.9 cms. In Ruskin's hand on a paper label on the front cover are the words: '14a | Old MS. of Modern Painters | 1st Vol. and beginning | of translation of Epistle | to Romans.' He wrote on the spine: '14 | a'. Inside the notebook the pages are ruled, with twenty lines to a page. The manuscript of Modern Painters is written on the rectos, with notes and additions on the versos - Ruskin's usual practice (see pagination of the Allen manuscript). At the end of the drafts nineteen folios have been cut out. There then follow notes on architectural details, including various data for The Stones of Venice, and a translation and commentary on the early chapters of Romans. A loose folio sheet with notes on Greek words and lists of biblical verses is slipped into the notebook, the final folios of which have been torn out - another typical features of Ruskin's notebooks. The manuscript includes a draft Synopsis of Contents and drafts of most of Part I - 'Of General Principles' - and two chapters that ended up in Part II - 'Of Truth'. 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 also Cook and Wedderburn's transcription of the Allen manuscript of Modern Painters I).