The art of Northern Italy has furnished the text for a very considerable
part of the writings of Mr. Ruskin, and there is no one writer among
those who have ventured to investigate and write upon this extremely
engrossing subject whose work has so great an interest for the
architect, or in fact is of so much value to him. It is not necessary
to agree with all of Mr. Ruskin's elaborate theories or to unqualifiedly
admire his drawings in order to find much of real value in his books. No
student of architecture can afford _not_ to read "The Stones of Venice,"
and there are few books which should take precedence over it in the
formation of an architect's library.

Apropos of the illustrations in the last number of THE BROCHURE SERIES,
in the descriptive notices of which we had occasion to refer to Mr.
Ruskin, his latest published work will be found interesting. The title,
"_Verona and other Lectures_," does not convey a very complete idea of
the contents of the book. None of the five lectures included is strictly
architectural in subject matter, and but one, the first, "Verona and its
Rivers," has any direct bearing upon architecture, and this only from
the historical side. The illustrations, with a single exception from
drawings by the author, although lacking in most of the qualities of
good draughtsmanship, are well worth examination and study. Plates II.
and V., "A Fountain at Verona," and "The Castelbarco Tomb, Sta.
Anastasia, Verona," the first made in 1841 and the second in 1835, are
from the point of view of the architect the most interesting. They are
both pencil sketches, the first accented with a few touches of wash in
the shadows and darker portions of the drawing. Plate IX. represents the
angle of the Ducal Palace, Venice, the same given as the frontispiece in
the last issue of THE BROCHURE SERIES. It would hardly be possible to
come nearer the same point of view if the coincidence were intentional.