During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there was a revolution in historical method. Antiquarians, who until then had favored textual, epigraphic and numismatic sources in the study of antiquity, started to place greater value on architectural monuments and works of art. At the same time, travelers in the Grand Tour rekindled debates on the aesthetic qualities of ancient works of art and fueled an expanding art market. These changes led to the creation of several royal academies and private societies throughout Europe, whose objectives were the study of antiquity and the promotion of the arts. These institutions, along with publishers and booksellers, ensured the diffusion and popularity of new archaeological discoveries.
The Society of Dilettanti, founded in 1732 as a London dining club for noblemen who had been on the Grand Tour, was typical of this age. The Dilettanti not only contributed funds to support archaeological expeditions, but they also sponsored the publication of richly illustrated volumes on ancient art, featuring the Dilettanti's private collections. Thomas Windus' book on the Duchess of Portland's antiquities (1845) follows this tradition of deluxe publications of private collections. However, unlike the volumes produced by the Society of Dilettanti, Windus' book offers more than an aesthetic appreciation of works of art and engages in learned interpretations of the represented objects.