to get a tape with a metallic strip in it, and it should be at least fifty feet long in order to take dimensions over all, which is much more accurate than measuring with a short tape from point to point.
"The metric system is very convenient, but it is better for American students to use the English measure that they will have to use in practice, and take the tape over with them, for it is difficult to find them on the Continent. A sliding measuring-rod is nearly indispensable, and it will be most convenient to carry if it folds up to the length of the imperial drawing pad. Two large triangles are very useful in getting the projection of mouldings, as they can be held together to form a right angle."
[Illustration: XV. Door of the Madonna di Loreto, Triani, Italy.]
#Books.#
Verona and Other Lectures. By John Ruskin, D.C.L., LL.D. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1894. 8vo, pp. 204, plates xii. $2.50.
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. In the comparison which this forces upon Mr. Ruskin very naturally suffers, as might be expected, from the fact that his training in drawing was not the most thorough. His proportions are somewhat faulty and the detail is only vaguely suggested, in fact this is more or less true of all his drawings. Nevertheless the book will be welcome to many architects for the valuable suggestions it contains both in text and illustrations; and the author's wonderful and fascinating literary style is here as unmistakably in evidence as in any of his older works. This alone is sufficient inducement to tempt the reader to take it up.
#Club Notes.#
At the suggestion of several subscribers, the addresses are given below of the secretaries of the principal architectural clubs as far as they are known to us, but there are several omissions and possibly some mistakes. In order that these associations may be of as great mutual assistance to each other as possible, through correspondence, the exchange of notices of competitions, etc., it is requested that any not included in the following list will communicate the desired information to the editor of THE BROCHURE SERIES. Corrections or additions will be made in later issues, and the various secretaries will confer a favor by keeping the editor informed of any changes of address or organization.
LIST OF CLUBS.
Sketch Club of New York, club rooms 1473 Broadway; recording secretary, Alfred F. Evans; corresponding secretary, Hobart A. Walker.
Boston Architectural Club, rooms 5 Tremont Place; secretary, F. Manton Wakefield.
The T-Square Club, Philadelphia, rooms Broad and Pine Streets; secretary, A.C. Munoz, 212 South Third Street.
Chicago Architectural Club, rooms 274 Michigan Avenue; secretary, John Robert Dillon.
St. Louis Sketch Club; secretary, E.G. Garden, Telephone Building.
Art League, Milwaukee, Wis.; secretary, Elmer Grey, 904 Winchester Street.
St. Paul Architectural Sketch Club, rooms 239-241 Endicott Building; secretary, John Rachac,
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