Companions in the Study

Abstract

Abstract This essay considers John Ruskin’s “reading” of the stonework of fifteenth-century Venice for its lesson in virtues and then adapts his technique for reflection on scenes of St. Jerome in his study. The authors argue that these artifacts have more than art historical interest. They have spiritual interest. By looking backward to previous generations’ ways of imagining scholarship, we can gain a fresh view of our own scenes of reading and writing, not just for the objects strewn about within in them but also for their animating spirits.