Clear view
Structure
Orderliness
Illustration
The book “Les Dix Livres d’Architecture de Vitruve” is a translation of the work from Marcus Vitruvius Pollo which is called “De Architectura”. Vitruvius’s book is the only theoretical report about the art of architecture from the ancient world. Because it got misjudged from the architects till the 16. Century, many illustrations and sketches got lost. Later on, the work was translated in many languages like this edition which was translated from latin to french by Claude Perrault. Today the work from Vitruvius is a classic since many centuries.
First of all, the book follows a clear structure which makes it easy for the reader to orient oneself. After a preface, all the ten books follow step by step in a chronological order. Because all ten books and the Preface are all in one as a treatise it could be very easy to lose the read thread. Therefore, there are subtitles on every page which on the one hand show the authors name and on the other hand the current book you are reading.
Furthermore, there is a clear orderliness across the whole book apart from the straightness of the text which is printed askew on every page. In contrast to this, the format of the text is neatly justified and nicely cut on every side. To make it easier for the reader to keep track of the book, the text is written in separate sections which also makes the whole page look very clean. Further, it is noticeable that there is much less space in the middle than on the sides of the book. The space on the sides is sometimes used for small notes from the translator.
The last point of the concept is the visualization of the written words with illustrations which vary in size and shape. For example, one illustration is very small and fits into the text and another illustration is very large and fills a full page. Rarely, there is a picture filling two pages. The purpose of the images is to portray what has been written before.
Generally speaking, the whole book has a clear overall structure to never lose the orientation and the book has a clear order therefore looks inviting to read. In addition to that there are some illustrations from time to time to explain the written text visually.