INTRODUCTION.

The important series of drawings which are published in the present
volume are preserved in Sir John Soane's Museum, at 13 Lincoln's Inn
Fields, London. A note at the beginning of the volume in which they are
now mounted (which has an Italian parchment binding of the eighteenth
century, on the back of which is written in ink 'Architec(tura) Civilis
Andrea Coneri Antiqua Monume(nta) Rome ') states that they were bought
at Mr. Adam's sale in May 1818 for £5 18s. od. The sale of Robert
Adam's books took place at Christie's on May 20 and 21, 1818: and the
volume appears in the catalogue as No. 27 of the books to be sold on the
first day, ' Architectura Civilis: a volume containing measurements and
sections of celebrated Ancient Edifices by a Florentine Architect.'1 Sir
John Soane bought many other books and drawings at the same sale,
including three volumes of drawings by G. B. Montano (many of them
published in his Architettura—Rome, 1638) for which he paid £21 10s. 6d.;
and also many drawings by Robert Adam himself. Two copies of the
sale catalogue are preserved at the Museum.
Our drawings were probably acquired by Robert Adam's brother
James, on the occasion of the latter's visit to Rome in 1762, when he
negotiated for King George III. the purchase of the collection of drawings
which had belonged to Cassiano Dal Pozzo from Cardinal Alessandro
Albani (Matz, Nachr. d. k. Ges. d. Wissensck. Gottingen, 1872, 64 sqq
Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 84 § 50, 718 ; cf. Class. Rev.
1904, 70): though whether they came from the same library it is impossible
to say.
They originally formed two sketchbooks (or else one in which the
numbering recommenced from 1 after 99 was reached), but there are
1 A small number of obvious identifications have been pencilled in English upon the mounts —
very possibly by Soane himself.
B