This is an AHRC funded project supported by the Ruskin Centre. The project will examine Ruskin's engagement with Venice (as well as other places visited and studied on his journey) and with the contemporary representation and context of the time. It will explore his working methods and will make the manuscript materials accessible in an edited electronic edition.

Researchers: Ian Bliss, Roger Garside, Ray Haslam

To access the electronic version of Ruskin's Venetian Notebooks, please visit http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/ruskinlib/Pages/welcome.html

About the project

Writing from Denmark Hill in February 1851 Ruskin noted in the Preface the the First Edition of Volume I of The Stones of Venice:

I went to Venice finally in the autumn of 1849, not doubting but that the dates of the principal edifices of the ancient city where either ascertained, or ascertainable without extraordinary research. To my consternation, I found that the Venetian antiquaries were not agreed within a century as to the date of the building of the facade of the Ducal Palace... 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... (Works of John Ruskin, Vol. 9, pp. 3-4)

The idea of a project which has produced an electronic edition of Ruskin's notes on the architecture of Venice as a basis for The Stones of Venice evolved as the Ruskin Centre's earlier project on Modern Painters came to a close.

The Ruskin Library cares for the largest colection of holograph diaries and notebooks formerly belonging to John Ruskin including the majority of those specifically related to prepatory work for The Stones of Venice. The research material is contained within a series of notebooks and works on 'paper' made during the winter of 1849-50. Ruskin used this in writing The Stones of Venice, a work of generally acknowledged importance in the development of Victorian social and architectural thinking. The Venetian notebooks have never been published except in small selected quotation and few of the thousands of images have been reproduced in accessible form. As yet, therefore, there has been no in-depth analysis of the large central notebook 'M' and its relationship to a number of smaller 'field' notebooks, and sheets of annotated drawings produced during Ruskin's research visit in 1849-50. Following the work of E.T. Cook The Works of John Ruskin, Library Edition, (9, xxxv), Robert Hewison's book and catalogue Ruskin and Venice (1978) presents an important introduction to the material. John Unrau's Ruskin and St. Mark's (1984) makes use of Ruskin's research on St. Mark's whilst James Dearden's Ruskin, Bembridge and Brantwood (1994) outlines the relevant material in the collection and its relationship. However, since then little attention has been paid to these important manuscript materials. A scholarly edition of Ruskin's Venetian notebooks therefore remains to be producted.

The background to the manuscript material at Lancasrter is clearly established. Following Ruskin's death in 1900, it remained at Brantwood until the Sotheby's sale of 1930 when it was purchased by J. Howard Whitehouse for his collection, then held at Bembridge School. The relevant manuscript archive at Lancaster is as follows:

Notebook M: This is the basis for the proposed project. It is essentially Ruskin's diary of his architectural research in Venice in 1849-50, and in it Ruskin maintained an index and cross-references to his other notes and drawings.

N Book 1849: This notebook contains an overwritten pencil draft of an analysis of Gothic architecture later incorporated in Ruskin's first entry of the journey.

Small pocket notebooks called by Ruskin : Housebook 1, Housebook 2, Gothic Book, St. M[ark's] Book, Bit Book Palace Book, Door Book. Ruskin used these to focus on specific themes, buildings and building types (e.g Palazzi, St. Mark's Basilica). These can be related in detail to the work in Notebook M, which served as a master text and point of reference to Ruskin.

Works on Paper: Over 250 sketches, plans and diagrams in pen-and-ink and wash, all with notes more or less full, about half now mounted on cards. These consist of drawings and notes made on the spot which were later written up by Ruskin and cross-referenced to Notebook M. Most of these are held at Lancaster, but further work is needed to identify gaps.

Also available at Lancaster are two scrapbook volumes of further prepatory drawings and paper or worksheet fragments

Other relevant drawings by Ruskin are held in the Ashmolean Museum, the British Museum, Brantwood, Coniston, The Ruskin Museum, Coniston, The Guild of St. George Collection, Sheffield, and the Victoria and Albert Museum

Notebook M2: This is held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. It is available in the form of a transcript and microfilm at Lancaster

Verona Book 1850: Once called Small Notebook 11. This will also be of interest to the project and is held at the Ruskin Museum, Coniston. It includes material collected by Ruskin on his return journey from Venice in March and April 1850, and a draft chapter of The Stones of Venice