Bibliographical Note.-The bibliography of The Stones of Venice, volume i., and of the complete work, has already been given (Vol. IX. p. liii.). The present note deals with that of volume ii., and of reprints from it.

SEPARATE EDITIONS OF VOLUME II

Volume II.-First Edition (1853).-The title-page (enclosed in a plain ruled frame) is as follows:-

The | Stones of Venice | Volume the Second. | The Sea-Stories. | By John Ruskin, | Author of “The Seven Lamps of Architecture,” “Modern Painters,” | etc. etc. | With illustrations drawn by the author. | London: | Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. | 1853. [Below, outside the frame:-] [The Author of this Work reserves the right of authorizing a Translation of it.]

Imperial 8vo, pp. vii.+394. The “Advertisement” (here, p. ix.) occupies p. iii.; the Contents (here p. xi.), pp. v. vi.; List of Plates (here p. xv.), p. vii. The headline on the left-hand pages 2-150 is “First Period”; on the left-hand pages 152-374 is “Second Period.” On the right-hand pages, it is the number and title of the chapter. In chapter vi., pp. 154-207 (here pp. 184-244), there are additional side headings at the top of each page, “I. Savageness,” “II. Changefulness,” etc. The imprint on the reverse of the title-page and at the foot of p. 394 is “London: Spottiswoodes and Shaw, New Street Square.” At the end is a leaf headed “Mr. Ruskin’s Illustrations of ‘The Stones of Venice,’” and announcing as “Now in course of publication the Examples of the Architecture of Venice. A list of the Contents of Parts i. to iii. followed (for these see the next volume). At the foot of the leaf was the announcement “The Third and concluding Volume of ‘The Stones of Venice’ will be published in October.” Issued on July 28, 1853, in boards similar to those of volume i. Price Two Guineas.

The Plates were more satisfactory in this volume than in its predecessor (see Ruskin’s remarks quoted above, p. lxiii.). They also wore better, and there is not the same amount of superiority in the first edition over its successors as in the case of vol. i. (see Vol. IX. pp. xlviii., liv.). In the coloured Plates, III. and V., part of the colour was done by hand, and part put on by lithographic stones. Plate V. is lettered “In colours by W. Dickes & Co., Licensees.” For a note by the author on the lettering of the plates, see in the next volume “Explanatory Note” to the Venetian Index.

A few copies of vol. ii. were issued in two parts, the first including pp. 1-150, and the second pp. 151-394. They were made up in cloth boards, similar to those of the issue in one part, but lettered “The | Sea Stories I. [II.],” and the central design appeared upon the front cover only. It appears also from a note from Ruskin to his father (July 14, 1853), that he had “some Plates struck without colour of the archivolt of Murano,” and that these were bound up with some of the presentation copies.

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