Of the contents of this volume a large part has not before been printed, very little has been published, and the whole will be new to many readers of Ruskin's writings. It gives, for the first time, a complete Catalogue of the Ruskin Art Collection presented by him to the University of Oxford, and brings together within one volume a larger number of reproductions of his drawings than has hitherto so appeared.

In connexion with the Art Collection Ruskin printed at various dates several Catalogues, Notes, and Instructions. He also wrote, and deposited in two MS. books in his Drawing School at Oxford, a large number of additional Notes. These have not hitherto been printed. In this volume all the printed Catalogues, Notes, and Instructions are included, and with them are now incorporated all the MS. Notes. The Bibliography of this section of Ruskin's work is extremely intricate, and it is not necessary to trouble the reader in this Introduction with the details. A general statement will be found at p. 1, and fuller Bibliographical Notes, given in the usual detail (very necessary in this case for the identification by collectors of the several editions), are supplied at pp. 5, 55, 161. It may here be stated generally that the arrangement of the present volume has been governed by two considerations.