What is the Liber Veritatis created by Claude Lorrain?

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Claude Lorrain: Ulysses Returns Chryseis to Her Father — Claude Lorrain *Ulysses Returns Chryseis to Her Father*, oil on canvas by Claude Lorrain, c. 1644; in the Louvre, Paris. 119 × 150 cm.

The Liber Veritatis (or "Book of Truth") is a remarkable volume created by the French artist Claude Lorrain beginning around 1635–36. It is currently housed in the British Museum in London.

The book contains 195 drawings that Claude carefully copied from his own paintings. To ensure accuracy, he noted the patron for whom the work was intended or the destination of the painting on the back of each drawing; in the latter half of the volume, he also included the dates of the works.

Claude originally undertook this project as a safeguard against the forgery of his paintings, as he told his biographer Filippo Baldinucci. Over time, however, the book became his most precious possession and a work of art in its own right. Because it was compiled in chronological order, it serves as an invaluable record of Claude’s artistic development and his circle of patrons, and he may have also used it as a reference for motifs in new compositions.1