Architectural Notebook ‘Door Book’ (p21)

During the visits of 1849-50 and 1851-52 Ruskin spent two winters collecting material for The Stones of Venice, a work which proved to be very influential within the development of Victorian architecture.

This architectural notebook, known as the ‘Door Book,’ is one of the series of ten which Ruskin used to record details and measurements of aspects of architectural features, carefully cross referencing them with worksheets and drawings. The smaller notebooks are named by Ruskin according to content, ‘Door Book’, ‘House Book 1’, ‘House Book 2’, ‘Palace Book’, ‘Gothic Book’ and ‘Bit Book’.