8vo. viii, [4], 205pp, [1]. With half-title, 14 plates, and a tipped-in errata slip. Extra-illustrated with an additional plate of unpublished Ruskin etchings. Contemporary green half-morocco, ruled and lettered in gilt, marbled paper boards, T.E.G., marbled endpapers. A trifle rubbed. Stopford A. Brooke's copy, with his inked ownership inscription to front blank fly-leaf.

The first edition of art critic and social commentator John Ruskin's (1819- 1900) extended essay, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, in which the polymath establishes his seven 'lamps', or principles, of architectural integrity. The demands defined - Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience - serve Ruskin's argument for the restoration of architecture's spiritual significance, which he believes has been obscured by the technical prowess of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. Ruskin expanded on these tenets in the three-volume The Stones of Venice (1851-1853), in which he proposes the values of the Seven Lamps can be deployed strategically to motivate social reform and encourage virtuous living.

This copy features an additional plate of architectural illustrations by the author, inserted as a frontispiece. Originally intended for publication, Ruskin apparently rejected its inclusion before printing.