Descrizione e studi dell’insigne fabbrica di S. Maria del Fiore, metropolitana fiorentina, in varie carte intagliati
by Sgrilli, Bernardo Sansone, -1755
- Structured
- The first four pages are empty, without any writing, picture or instruction. On the fifth page is a picture of a woman and on the sixth page is the title and some important facts about the book. It gives a first insight in which font and language the book is written and for me, it has to be invitingly to look at. On this page, you find the only color in this book, the color red to highlight important words. The rest of the book is black and white, even in the pictures is no other color seen than black.
To my taste, this book is very inviting to read and stimulates curiosity to keep turning the pages.
After the first few pages, there’s a dedicatory of six pages, follows by the first chapter. From this first chapter the pages are numbered, started with roman numbers at number one. These numbers are always on top above the writing, which gives the book a remarkable charm on antiquity. Pages with pictures aren’t counted as well as the last five pages of which the last three sheets are blank. As already mentioned, includes this book some pictures to underline the text and to make it more understanding.
The book is varied and nice to look at. It’s always written in the same writing and every letter of the start of a new chapter bigger (takes a length of three lines) than the rest of the text – nothing unusual when you look at the year of the constitution.
This particular font with its peculiarities gives the book an old touch that I think makes the book interesting and beautiful. The materiality gives it a unique touch like an antique handbook you want to treat carefully because it appears fragile and antique. Nowadays there are not many books made of greaseproof paper anymore, which makes it even more exceptional and valuable.
It is important to have an order in a book to understand it. Also, if you’re looking for something you’ve read, it is easier to find the spot, if there are titles, pictures and a certain structure which guides the reader through the book.
Because of these reasons, I chose to have a closer look to its structure and its design. I wanted to investigate what influence the appearance of this book makes with my power of judgement and how it guides me through the book.
- Keywords: arranged, considered, designed