General subject of the book
Des fortifications et artifices; Architecture et perspective de Jacques Perret gentilhomme savoysien consists of a volume in folio, mainly illustrated, with 22 plates and 17 synthetic explanatory texts, in French. The contents can be categorized into three groups: projects of fortified towns, projects of civil buildings, and projects of religious buildings. The last two groups include proposals of building types for the fortified towns. It should be noted though, that this classification is artificial, since in several editions the plates are not grouped by topic.
Des Fortifications introduces the projects of five fortified towns of different sizes, and with different numbers of fortified sides. Three towns can be considered little more than fortresses, while the other two are real urban environments. Every town is described through text and illustrated through two plates that present a plan and a bird’s eye view.
Organization of the book
The book is organized in two sections but there are no chapters within these sections. It only exists one volume but it was reprinted in several editions, including one in German (original version in French).
Size of the book
Height: 315 mm
Breath: 205 mm
Width: 35 mm
Traditional standard format: Imperial octavo (inches: 8 1⁄4 × 11 1⁄2, cm: 21 × 29)
Total number of pages and total number of illustrations
Illustrations: 120 / Pages: 300
