Thompson, Kate: A handbook to the public picture galleries of Europe: with a brief sketch of the history of the various schools of painting, from the 13th century to the 18th inclusive (London: Macmillan and Co., 1880)

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A Second Edition having been required, I determined at
onee to revisit the principal Continental galleries, so as to
embody in the new work any changes and additions recently
made. During the last year these have been unusually
important. For example, the Brera at Milan has been
recatalogued, the pictures have been numbered afresh, new
space has been obtained and positions have been altered, so
that some works are brought to light which were barely
visible before. The Museum at Naples has been similarly
rearranged; so has the Gallery of Parma, while some
changes have been made in the Vatican collection, and the
pictures there are no longer distinguished by numbers as
heretofore. An important portion of the collection in the
Venetian Academy has been re-catalogued ; and a new
issue, with altered numbers, has appeared of the catalogue
to the Italian and Spanish schools in the Louvre.
The collection at Cassel has been just removed to a new
and splendid gallery, and has of course an entirely new
catalogue. A valuable small gallery has been lately
established at Lucca, and its chief contents are given in
due order. The Gallery at Brunswick, interesting as
containing a chef d'oeuvre by Jan van der Meer of Delft,
finds a place in the new edition ; as also do the Galleries
Czernin and of the Academy at Vienna, and of Esterhazy at
Buda-Pesth, the latter, which I was prevented from ex-
amining, having been done for me by friends on the spot.
Every other gallery named in the volume has been visited