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Excerpt from Memoirs of Early Italian Painters: And of the Progress of Painting in Italy The "Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters" first appeared as a series of essays in the "Penny Magazine," where they attracted so much attention that they were collected in book form a few years later. The work has ever since been a favorite hand-book on the subjects treated, and has even been translated into French for the benefit of continental readers (Paris, 1862). So great was its popularity in Mrs. Jameson's lifetime that she was obliged to republish it in a revised and enlarged edition, fourteen years after its first issue. The form she then gave it has till now remained unchanged except in a few trifling matters. The reader will naturally expect to find the present edition differing in many ways from that completed in 1859. Vasari was then the accepted authority on the history of Italian art, and it is now well known that his "Lives" are full of inaccuracies and blunders. Not only are many of his biographical details disproved by documentary evidence, but even the authorship of the paintings he enumerated is in many cases disputed by modern criticism. The patient investigations of expert critics have replaced the careless guesses of earlier writers. In order, therefore, to make the Early Italian Painters a more reliable hand-book it has been necessary to correct the text in accordance with accepted modern authorities. On the other hand great pains have been taken to preserve all that gives unique character and value to the work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a