“Dell’Architettura” from Mario Gioffredo was supposed to be composed of three parts, as it is described by the author in the preface. However, only the first part has been published. The latter has the subtitle “Degli Ordini dell’Architettura” (on the architectural orders) and the content description “Nella quale si tratta degli Ordini dell’Architettura dè Greci, e degl’Italiani, e si danno le regole più spedite per disegnarli” (In which we will deal with the orders from the Greek and Italian architecture and explain the fastest rules to distinguished them), which is accurate.
The book is organized in 11 chapters: Chapters 1 to 5 expose general theory on architectural orders. The next 5 chapters describe each a single order (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Roman and Corinthian) and systematically refer to plates located at the end of the book. Finally, the 11th chapter gives a comparison of the 5 orders and suggest ways to identify them.
In total it has 6 pages for the title, a dedication (to Ferdinand IV, king of the Sicilies) and the preface, 28 numbered pages of text (double-sided) and 31 numbered pages of illustrations (one-sided). So, the text and technical images are separated, but we still can find pictures on the frontispiece, the dedication, a smaller frontispiece ahead of the first chapter and on page 14. The book is very large and heavy, principally due to the massive cover. Its dimensions are 545 x 400 x 34 mm (format Folio).
