6 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

architecture, from the Adriatic¹ to the Northumbrian seas, bordered by the impure schools of Spain on the one hand, and of Germany on the other: and as culminating points and centres of this chain, I have considered, first, the cities of the Val d’Arno,² as representing the Italian Romanesque and pure Italian Gothic; Venice and Verona as representing the Italian Gothic coloured by Byzantine elements; and Rouen, with the associated Norman cities, Caen, Bayeux, and Coutances, as representing the entire range of Northern architecture from the Romanesque to Flamboyant.

§ 6. I could have wished to have given more examples from our early English Gothic; but I have always found it impossible to work in the cold interiors of our cathedrals; while the daily services, lamps, and fumigation of those upon the Continent, render them perfectly safe. In the course of last summer I undertook a pilgrimage to the English Shrines,³ and began with Salisbury, where the consequence of a few days’ work was a state of weakened health, which I may be permitted to name among the causes of the slightness and imperfection of the present Essay.

¹ [The MS. has “Mediterranean.”]

² [Later (1874) the title of Ruskin’s book on Tuscan art.]

³ [See above, Introduction, p. xxviii.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]