I got in touch with the book „Istruzioni elementari per l’indirizzo dei giovani allo studio dell’architettura civile“ (1760) by Bernardo Antonio Vittone at the Oechslin Library in Zürich, Einsiedeln.
General subject of the book:
This book is an elementary instruction addressing young people to study civil architecture. It is a rather theoretical and also mathematical book and therefore contains no artistic illustrations but many charts explaining geometric, arithmetic and algebraic problems and how to apply them to architecture.
Organisation of the book:
This book is parted into 3 „libro“s (can be understand as “3 books within the book” or 3 main parts). Libro 1 contains 4 „articlolos“ (sup-parts or articles) with each having either 4 or 5 „capo“s (sub-chapters). Libro 2 has 3 articolos with each having 3 or 6 capos. Libro 3 has 4 articolos with 2 to 5 capos. There is an index at the end of the book. The book contains also a “tavolo” (table/chart) in form of a loose paper in between the pages.
Size of the book
This book has a width of 228mm and a length of 280mm. The height varies between 50 and 60mm, depending on where it is measured. Hence it is a Quarto (Q) in the traditional standard format.
