The book by de Rossi consists mostly illustrations. They are always on the right-hand side (except for double-pages). Thus, the left side remains blank. The pages are organized in different styles.
There are elevations of façades that take up an entire page. These elevations are accompanied sometimes with a floor plan of the situation depicted. Below the illustration is a description that explains which building can be seen and who has built it. There is also a scale for almost every illustration to being able to assess the dimensions.
There are also pages with two elevations. One the left and one on the right. They also come along with a floor plan. In some cases, there is a section view through the façade. It helps to understand the profile of the façade. Or a detailed view of certain elements such as column capitals or similar. The name of the building and architect is in the description below.
There are pages with three illustrations. These pages are structured exactly the same as the pages with two illustrations. But due the smaller section part and/ or the smaller scale, more illustrations could be put on one page.
There are pages with four or six elevations. There are two or three columns by two illustrations.
There are foldout spreads too. These are used especially for longer façade sections. In this case you can see an elevation and a floor plan. As in the other illustrations, the description is below.
There are also pages which only contain details. For example, different capitals, ornaments or other details. They are pictured in section views or elevations.
The pages are always divided into columns. Depending on how much is shown, there are correspondingly many vertical and horizontal columns. The illustration is always on the top and de description at the bottom. The writing of de description is divided into two sizes. The name of the building is in larger letters than the name of the architect. There is a table of contents at the end of the book which lists all the illustrations.
The book shows an academic study of different architectures.