LIBER STU'DIO'RUM (Lat., book of stud ies). A set of prints from engraved plates pre pared by J. M. W. Turner from his own designs, and published in parts between the years 1807-16. The intention was, probably, to issue one hundred plates, but only seventy-one were published, of which number one, the frontispiece, did not ap pear until several years after the commencement of the work and was then presented to the sub scribers. More plates had been prepared. and prints from some of these are accessible. They are called 'the unpublished plates,' and are of very great value. The first scheme seems to have been to use aquatinta (q.v.) for the plates. with a skeleton or substratum of etched outline by Turner's own hand. The great majority of the plates are, however, in mezzotint, done by Charles Turner. T. Ifodgetts, G. Clint, Thomas Lupton. and others; and the etching of each plate was in nearly every case by the designer himself, M. \V. Turner. These etching's are
generally of the most extraordinary merit and interest, and copies of them are greatly in de mand. A very few of the plates are entirely in mezzotint, and by Turner himself, and these are of especial and peculiar importance to the stu dent of landscape art. Single prints in the first state are quoted at several hundred dollars. A complete set in the finest condition may he worth 810,000. The biographies of Turner treat of Liber Studiornm, as it forums an important epi sode in the early prime of the artist's life. Good special commentaries are Rawlinson. Tu•ner's Liber Rtudiorum, a Deseription and Cataloger (London, 1878) Pye. :Votes and Memoranda Respecting the Librr Studiorunt of Turner (Lon don, 1879) ; Brooke, Notes on the Liber Studio rum of J. IV. Turner (London, 1885). One of the illustrated catalogues of the Burlington Fine Arts Club is devoted to the work.