[Bibliographical Note.-Some portions of Præterita first appeared in Fors Clavigera, Letters 10, 28, 33, 46, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 63, and 65. A collation of these portions is given below, p. xci.

ISSUE IN PARTS

Præterita was published in twenty-eight chapters, divided into three volumes; the first and second volumes contained twelve chapters each. Of the third volume, only four chapters appeared.

Each Part was furnished with a title-page, and chapter i. with a half-title. The title-page of chapter i. was as follows:-

Præterita. | Outlines of | Scenes and Thoughts | perhaps | worthy of Memory | in my past Life. | By | John Ruskin, LL.D. | Honorary Student of Christ Church, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi | College, and Slade Professor of Fine Art, Oxford.¹ | Chapter I. | The Springs of Wandel. | With Steel Engraving of My Two Aunts. | George Allen, | Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent. | 1885.

The title-pages of subsequent Parts were similar, the chapters, titles, and dates alone being altered. After Part 12, “Volume II.” was added above the chapter, and after Part 24, “Volume III.”

The octavo Parts were issued in buff-coloured paper wrappers, with the title-page (enclosed in a double-ruled frame) repeated upon the front. The rose was added; as also “Price One Shilling” below the rule. Each Part had the number and title of the chapter as headline on each page. The paragraphs were not numbered. Of Parts 1-11, 4000 copies were printed; of each subsequent Part, 5000.

Large-paper quarto copies of each Part were also issued, to subscribers only. Price 2s. each Part. 600 copies. In these the Plates were pulled on India paper.

The twenty-eight Parts were as follow:-

Volume I.-Chapter I. (Part 1). July 1885. Preface, pp. v.-vii. Text, pp. 1-40. The steel engraving “My Two Aunts” was given with this Part as frontispiece: see now Plate VI. p. 62. The following “Advice” was inserted in this Part:-

“The two first numbers of Præterita are little more than reprints from Fors Clavigera; but the collected passages are here placed in better order, and in some cases retouched or further expanded.

“The numbers of Præterita will at first be published monthly, but it is hoped, soon fortnightly; and the whole book then completed without interruption.”

¹ This was inaccurate, for Ruskin had resigned the Professorship before any Part of Præterita appeared. After Part 4, the description was changed to “Honorary Student of Christ Church, | and Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.”

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