In 1847 William Stirling Maxwell (1818–1878) published the three volumes of his Annals of the Artists of Spain in London. They were followed by a fourth – a limited edition of 50 presentation copies containing illustrations made using the new, experimental photographic technique of Talbotypes (also known as calotypes or sun pictures).

This publication is an “ideal” reconstruction of these reproductions in a facsimile edition of Stirling’s volume, as all the known copies are badly deteriorated due to the action of air and humidity. The work of the two leading specialists responsible for the project, with additional contributions by other major scholars in the field, it contains exhaustive studies on the technique and the art-historical context in which the Talbotypes were produced, along with a catalogue raisonné of the illustrations and a census of the copies in the edition.

Hilary Macartney is Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow, where she also directs the Stirling Maxwell Research Project. Her doctoral thesis for the Courtauld Institute of Art in London was on Stirling Maxwell’s role in the historiography of Spanish art. Other publications include Spanish Art in Britain and Ireland, 1750-1920: Studies in Reception in Honour of Enriqueta Harris Frankfort (2010), with Nigel Glendinning.

José Manuel Matilla is head of the department of drawings and prints at the Museo del Prado. Among other exhibitions, he has curated Alonso Cano. Dibujos (2001), El Grafoscopio. Un siglo de miradas al Museo del Prado (1819–1920) (2004) and Durero. Obras maestras de la Albertina (2005).