The Stones of Venice, Volume 1 (of 3)

by John Ruskin

The first volume of The Stones of Venice, published in 1851 and subtitled The Foundations, is John Ruskin's attempt to establish the principles of architecture before he turns, in the later volumes, to the buildings of Venice themselves. Beginning with the chapter called "The Quarry," which sets out his argument that Venetian architecture records the moral history of the state, he proceeds through the elements of building one by one: the wall and its base and cornice, the pier, the arch and its load, the roof, the buttress, and the forms and the proper treatment of ornament. The volume is illustrated with Ruskin's own plates, and the index to the three volumes stands in the third. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.