John Ruskin 
Lectures on Architecture and Painting [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. I forgot, in preparing the second Lecture for the press, to quote a passage from Lord Lindsay’s Christian Art, illustrative of what is said in that lecture (p. 77) respecting the energy of the mediaeval republics This passage, describing the circumstances under which the Campanile of the Duomo of Flor ence was built, is interesting also as noticing the universality of talent which was required of architects and which, as I have asserted in the Addenda (p. Always ought to be required of them. I do not, however, now regret the omission, as I cannot easily imagine a better preface to an essay on civil architecture than this simple statement.