MSS IIA, B, C, D, E

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PML (MA 3451; books A, B, D, E) and Ruskin Museum, Coniston (book C, now replaced by a photocopy and the original deposited in Cumbria Record Office, County Offices, Kendal, Cumbria). Date of composition largely late 1832, 1833, and probably into 1834.

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See above, introduction to Appendix A.

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These handmade books, the so-called Sermon Books, bear no title by Ruskin except for the titles he gave to the individual sermons (a paper cover to book A reading Sermons Written by Ruskin as a Child is in an unknown hand, perhaps Ladd-Thomas’s). All books roughly 15.5 × 9.5 cm, except for slightly larger blank covers on some books; all except IIE constructed of sheets folded in half and hand-sewn and written in black ink. MS IIE, once sewn, now consists of loose sheets containing both ink fair-copy holograph and rough draft in pencil. Beginning with 3v of IIA and continuing throughout all the booklets, the ink script is justified --that is, a line is ruled in pencil down the right and left margins, about 1 cm from the edge, and the script is kept carefully within the lines to mimic printed text. Ruskin left no top or bottom margins. IIA. Fifteen unnumbered leaves, with the sixteenth leaf cut away; text begins 1r, ends 15v; no cover. Despite the missing leaf, sermon 5, which is divided between MS IIA and MS IIB, reads uninterruptedly. IIB. Twelve unnumbered leaves; text begins 1r, ends 12v; paper cover, identical to folios only slightly larger. On several leaves and the outside back cover, a penciled draft is visible, usually erased and lightly visible beneath the ink script but sometimes remaining intact and upside-down to the finished text. IIC. Ten unnumbered leaves; text begins 1r, ends 10v; stiff blue cover, once sewn to text leaves but now loose, and larger than text leaves by 1 cm each way. IID. Sixteen unnumbered leaves; text begins 1r, ends 16v; stiff brown cover, larger than text leaves by 1 cm each way. IIE. Consists of loose leaves and folios, a few of which show evidence on left margins of having once been sewn, containing both fair and rough copy, as follows: (a) Fair copy of sermons XVII (conclusion continued from MS IID), XVIII, XIX, and XX (beginning only), consisting of cover with four leaves. Cover.--Front or back only, other half having been cut away; identical to text leaves; on recto, rough pencil geometry diagram; verso blank. Text.--Ink fair-copy holograph; text begins 1r, ends 4r with 4v blank. (b) Pencil draft, labelled by Viljoen Sermon [XX and] XXI in rough draft, but Ruskin himself provided no headings and no direct indication of the proper order of these pieces. Their physical characteristics are as follows (n.b.--these may need reordering eventually): (b.1) One leaf, recto beginning 1. draws out the duties, verso blank. (b.2) One folio, watermark 1832; 1r beginning Deuterony [sic] 30.19 ; 1v blank except a little watercolor of an amalgam of cubes, perhaps a crystal; 2r beginning We are like the seed ; 2v, likely continuous from 2r, beginning would obey him. (b.3) One leaf, recto beginning Deut. 28-1, verso blank. (b.4) One folio, 1r beginning Now what is life ; 1v, rough geometrical diagram; 2r beginning Provision for intercourse ; 2v blank. (b.5) One leaf, 1r beginning The only difference, 1v blank except for meaningless doodles.

From front of book, the sequential order of contents:

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With the exception of some pencilled Euclidean diagrams, the booklets consist entirely of what Viljoen called The Sermons on the Pentateuch, nos. 170, 174-75, 182.

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