The book is divided into several short chapters. Each one of them is only a few paragraphs or sentences long and deals with a specific architectural theme in Rome. The first word of each paragraph has a slight indentation, which improves the readability of the text and helps keeping track while reading. This regular one column structure is only interrupted by the titles, which are written in a slightly larger font and in the centre of the line. In addition, the first letter of each chapter is highlighted much larger and sometimes even elaborately decorated – typical for antique, handmade typefaces. There are no pictures or illustrations that could loosen up the dense structure of the text. Above the actual body, there is a shared header spread over two adjacent pages, showing both the book title “Delle Antichita di Roma” and the even page numbers (2, 4, 6, 8, …).
The beginning of the book stands out, because it contains – besides the formal information – the only illustration. However, they vary from edition to edition and have a rather symbolic than illustrative intention. But what they actually intend, is hard to tell. The title page is followed by a short prologue, which, except for the italic letters, shows the same structure as the body text. The next page shows the compactly arranged table of contents. It is presented in two columns and fills exactly one page.
The fast structuring of the text with its many chapters implicates a usage as manual, which is further supported by the overall small format of the book.