The work is entitled Rules for drawing the several parts of architecture, in a more exact and easly manner than has been heretofore practiced, by which all Fractions, in dividing the principal members and their parts are avoided and is a second edition printed by W. Bowyer in 1736 in London. The detailed title indicates that the author wished to address the work to a specific audience in the field, mostly English, given the prevailing language (with hints of Latin terminology).
The book was written by James Gibbs, one of Britain’s most influential architects and architectural theorists. Gibbs had a professional Italian education under the Baroque master Carlo Fontana. In fact, throughout his life he went through both English Baroque architecture and later Georgian architecture influenced by Andrea Palladio.
Before the actual work, there are some more formal pages, such as a text of permission to print and publish the book by Baron Harrington, the dedication of the work to Edward Earl of Oxford and some pages addressed to the reader, which briefly summarise the purpose and content of the book.
The title written on a whole page is differentiated by the use of different font styles and sizes (this is also the case in the rest of the book) and is accompanied by a picture of George II, King of Great Britain in the 18th century.
There is an index of 64 chapters, with a title and page number on the right-hand side of the page.
The work has over 200 pages, consisting of both written text and technical drawings (more or less in detail) that help the reader to better understand (e.g. using measurements, specific names concerning parts of the image, etc.).
As far as the arrangement of text and drawings is concerned, they are not concentrated on the entirety of the page, but there is plenty of margin above and below. Moreover, there are often blank pages between drawings, but not between chapters.
Towards the end of the book, the drawings are much more recurrent than the text and the work does not end with any conclusion or final summary.