The full title of the book is “Les Plans Et Les Descriptions de Deux Des Plus Belles Maisons De Campagne De Pline Le Consul. Avec des remarques sur tous ses bâtimens et une dissertation touchant l’architecture antique & l’architecture gothique par Mr. Felibien des Avaux” (1706).
The first part of the title translated means as much as “Plans And Descriptions Of Two Of The Most Beautiful Country Houses Of Pliny The Consul.”, which therefore probably describes the rough theme of the book.
The second part can be translated to “With remarks on all its buildings and a treatise on ancient and Gothic architecture by Mr. Felibien des Avaux.”, which is probably the subtitle of the book and intends a more precise specification of the subject.
So we already know by title that the book is about the two most beautiful country houses of Pliny the Consul and a treatise on ancient and Gothic architecture.
The book has no table of contents, so the title is the only source of information about the book’s contents before reading.
The book, which is very small as noted in the first encounter in Task 1, has very large plans instead, which are compressed to the size of the book by folding it several times.
In addition, there are also many medium-sized representations which are folded no more than 1 to 2 times. On the plans are floor plans of very large castle-like country houses with large parks. The rooms of the houses are numbered and on the following pages you will find a list of which number stands for which room. Partially this goes over several pages, that tells a lot about how many rooms are in these buildings.
The book is about DIN A5 size, because of that the plans, which are up to DIN A3 in size, have to be folded several times. Due to its handy size, it was probably intended as a pocket book to take along on a trip or to the construction site.
The author is Felibien des Avaux who, as already described above, mainly analyzes the two great country houses of Pliny the Consul and appends a treatise on Gothic and ancient architecture.