Structure
Presentation
Caption
The book seems to be printed because the letters all look the same and there are no major deviations. It is assumed that this was printed with the help of a metal plate. For this purpose, a copper plate is engraved with the corresponding subject. After engraving, the warm copper plate is coated with paint and then printed on a piece of paper. This process is called chalcography or copperplate engraving. This book is not coloured, it is black and white.
The major aim of the large-scaled illustrations is to visualize the written description of the cities and villages in France. For the survey of the most popular localities of “Gallia”, today France, the author uses the following method. First of all, an overview map shows a whole province. Further in the chapter detailed plans of the important fortifications in the cities and villages are presented. In order to get a more accurate overview of certain city areas, they are represented with the help of a veduta (Italian for “view”).The city and villages shall be recognized by the reader, therefore the maps, plans and, views are drawn accurately and in great detail.
With the aim of giving an overview of the whole province, the maps are richly labelled. Thus, waters, regions, cities, villages, coasts and islands are named.
What also immediately strikes the eye is that the plans were all drawn as isometry. On the other hand, it is also special and worthy of recognition that the plans are not as usually aligned, but mostly a south-west or south-east orientation. On the other hand, most of the plans have a detailed labelling. This includes prominent buildings, places and the surrounding area, which is named. Instead of bullet point letters or numbers are used for different objects. The exact explanation or rather naming then follows caption. The so-called prominent buildings include, for instance, churches, squares, towers, bastions, main streets, marketplaces. The caption is mostly either in the plan on top to the right side or below in a plan head. Unlike the squares and important buildings, the naming of the surrounding and waters is written directly in the plan.
Last but not least, the view (veduta) provides a profound outline of certain aspects of the selected cities.
These maps, plans and views have in common that they were drawn with a rich diversity of different hatching and line techniques.
In conclusion, the detailed drawings enable the reader to have an idea how the location looks like based on the written like description.