- The first volume begins with a large part of text which is separated into five parts, each subdivided into chapters (information about the contents of the chapters in ”Contact_246”). Images only appear in the fifth and last part of the book. Illustrations although few in number are important and always accompanied by proportions and technical measurements.
- The illustrations are single or double-paged, one is a foldout illustration. There are also a few plans, one of which is a foldout.
- Illustrations in this book are not part of the page count but are enumerated as ”planches”, meaning boards.
- This book is primarily composed of text, but images are also important and help the understanding of the book.
- The second volume also starts with text but images are much more integrated with said text. The main part of the book has a page of text related to two illustrations. This part is analytical: the author conducts a study (on different ways to interpret architectural orders). After that, there is a long part of text followed by images, illustrating the trials and experiments of the author.
- The illustrations are generally one-paged and there is also a table of proportions.
- The illustrations are counted as pages (with a few exceptions). And are also enumerated as ”planches”.
- In this book, text and images are as equally important and occupy the same amount of space.
As with the majority of old books, the headers and chapter pages are illustrated and decorated with great detailing. Illustrations are also used to fill the empty spaces at the end of a chapter, etc. An interesting observation about the books is that they don’t have the same orthographic rules. For example the use of accents: one example is ”fifth” is written as ”cinquieme” in the first book and in the second ”cinquiéme” (Most surely due to the new edition of the ”Dictionnaire de l’Académie française” in 1740 which dictates changes in the French orthography) nowadays it would be written ”cinquième”. Also, the illustration and page count is done differently in the two books, which is odd.