There are only few instances in this book where text is not simply used to annotate and explain the illustrations, which make up a big part of the books content. Those instances are the introductory texts at the beginning of each book in which the author gives an overlook of the subjects he is going to present. Those Introductions are then followed by a table of content.
There are couple of different fonts used, depending on the function of the text. Annotations are written in italic letters.
The illustrations, which are clearly the focus are quite varied and range from small and detailed drawings of complicated ornaments to more large scaled compositions of important structural pieces, even to entire double paged, or even larger drawings of entire Buildings and monuments. These illustrations are usually accompanied by short annotations and often single sentences at the bottom of the page, probably giving a short explanation of what is being shown and put into a didactic context.
Though the illustrations are not numbered, the pages are, and most of them seem to be credited to other scholars and artists, while some remain uncredited and thus suggesting Ruggieri himself to be their creator.
The book seems to serve as a point of reference in practice as well as in academic study.