The text in Lo inganno de gl’occhi is composed in very systematic and hierarchical way. Proceeding the introduction there is a rather generous paragraph regarding the devotion of the book towards an important figure at the time “Cardinale e Principe Carlo Medici”. His presence seems to accompany the reader throughout the book until the very end, where he is again mentioned, without Accolti sparing any praise.
A stylistic choice that is present in all parts of the book is that all of the beginning letters of each paragraph are emphasized in a very decorative way. Figures and shapes of all sorts surround said letters, which are not only in a different font than the rest of the text, but also sized accordingly. This affects the formatting of the whole book in a distinctive way, creating symbol-like squares that displace the rest of the text towards the edges of the pages.
The headers of each paragraph are also
stylistically set apart from normal text. Precisely they are written in capital
letters, sized much greater than normal text and in italic.
Some are also accompanied by sub-headers, which add to explanatory detail, are
written in normal letters but are sized bigger than the standard text.
Throughout the book there is a constant intermittence of text by schematics, which mostly contain the behavior of the human sight in interaction with light and objects. This varies from rudimentary axes and perspective lines to fully developed drawings, all of it with the main goal to scientifically examine or even determine different phenomena regarding the human perception and its’ defects. As the book goes on these schematics become increasingly complicated. They end in three-dimensional drawings of a cube in different lighting situations and constructed in multiple ways (perspective, orthographic, etc.). All of the schematics are numbered and each take up a different amount of space.