Ruskin 's chapter 'On the Nature of Gothic' from The Stones of Venice distinguishes between the 'gothic' and the 'classical' through the concept of work. For Ruskin, the gothic stonemason is an artist, whereas the classical stonemason is a slave. The distinction derives from the degree of creative freedom accorded to each worker.
There is a sense in which this edition has taken the gothic path, partly by choice, partly by necessity. An element of necessity exists particularly in regard to the annotations, because the vast majority of work in this field has been done by academics working in a voluntary capacity. The editorial principle has therefore been to ensure a basic level of coverage throughout but to encourage those contributors who wished to take their research further to do so, where ever possible in an collaborative capacity with other contributors. The resulting elaborations are some of the high points of this edition.