By looking at the book, the first thing that perhaps strikes the reader is the typeface which is kind of particular. It is in a gothic typeface that Ryff wrote his book. This style of writing was common at that time. The text is relatively compact and of a medium size. The title of the chapter or the subject discussed is written bigger and put at the top of the page. The margins are regular. Each new chapter is notified by a large decorative letter
Throughout the 560 pages, no precise rule of organisation can be noticed: the images can sometimes take one full page or they can be small and surrounded by the text. If it is surrounded by the text, the image is always placed at the right side of it. There is often continuous text spread over several pages without one image as well as several pages containing illustrations without text. The images have different size and no illustration is referenced or commented, which makes us assume that the text directly refers to the images. the book contains a large variety of illustrations: perspective and geometrical drawings can be mostly found. But there are also illustrations of monuments, objects or even sketches of nature. Humans are sometimes represented using some techniques to measure dimensions of a place or building, which acts as a guideline for the readers.
Even if the organisation of the book is disparate, the texts and the images share equal importance for the comprehension of the content.
By this book, Walther Ryff aims to complete the subjects discussed in De Architectura from Vitruvius by translating theoretical texts from his contemporaries. Therefore, the book might be an academic study because it acts as a complementary work for those who would like to deepen their knowledge about Vitruvius.
Due to some difficulties with the OCR, the book On the polychromy of Greek architecture and sculpture and its limits written by Franz Kugler (1835) has been assigned to me. This book, composed of 88 pages, has a relatively simple structure: except one image at the very beginning of the book, no illustration is present. Equal margins board the text which is itself compact and written in a small font. The book is divided into 2 main chapters which are themselves composed of subchapters. Throughout the text, the sources used by the author are indicated as footnotes. As the title suggests, Kugel discusses the use of colors in the Greek architecture and sculpture. Hence, this book can serve for an academic study.