Pages – Friends with an old book - Archived

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These pages are part of the introduction. In the first one you can notice that above the title the page is extensively decorated with animals, plants and architectural decorative elements. The title is written in bold and means “the first register containing the names of the most illustrious cities in Italy”. Below it we find a list in alphabetical order of many Italian cities. Next to them between two vertical lines is indicated the page (Fol.) Between each group cities starting with a different letter there is an ornamental “banner” and the group main letter (eg. B.) In the second page there is the continuation of the list. Here we can see that the title (first register) is written smaller. Every title is followed by a dot.
In the third part (third register) we find a map on which is illustrated the northern part of the Italian peninsula. On the map we can recognize the names of the different cities and towns connected among them between dotted lines. The direction is indicated by a complex wind rose. In the middle of the sea is indicated the name of the sea and also the various types of animals and boats that cross those waters. As it is written in the frame in the upper left corner this map is the newest guide through the most important cities of Italy.

The first page is blank and has some foldings which make us realize that the map can be folded to assume the size of the other pages of the book and fit in.
On the first page we can see a plan of a house. It shows the walls, the rooms, the living room, the loggias, the stairs and the meters. The entire floor has been drawn by hand.
On the second page we see the text attached to the drawing. Probably the plan is described in detail on this and following pages. We also note that above the text there is a line and above it there is the name of the city in which the building is located. On the right side of the text we sometimes see comments which indicate some kind of references and numbers. Through the text there are lines which probably could be comma-point symbols (;).

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