Liber Studiorum

Turner's Liber Studiorum, a series of landscape and seascape compositions published as prints in etching and mezzotint, was published between 1807 and 1819 in fourteen parts with a frontispiece and categorised into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. Only 70 prints and the frontispiece [here numbered as plate I] - of the planned 100 prints - were published. The prints are here in picture mounts divided into three maroon leather portfolios: the first has plates 1-21 which were in parts 1-4 issued in 1807-1809 [1 is the frontispiece, and this portfolio lacks numbers 7, 8, 10, 13, 20 and 21]; the second encompasses plates 22-51 whiich were in parts 5-10 issued in 1811-1812 [this portfolio lacks numbers 27, 45 and 46]; and the third includes plates 52-71 which were in parts 11-14 issued in 1816-1819 [this portfolio lacks number 52]. There are a total of 61 plates in this set, rather than the full 71. All the prints were drawn and etched by J. M.W. Turner with the prints worked in mezzotint by collaborating engravers.

In addition to the mounted plates in the first portfolio there are the following: an engraved 'List of the Plates contained in The Liber Studiorum by J. M. W. Turner R.A.'; a mounted advertiement for the 11th and 12th numbers of the Lber Studiorum published February 1, 1816; part of the wrapper for No. 12 of the Liber Studiorum.