The book „Tractatus de stylometris sive instrumentis“ by Nikolaus Goldmann consists of 32 pages of text followed by an appendix of 40 pages of illustrations.
The text is structured in two columns for each page; the left column is in Latin and the right one is its German translation. The linguistic difference is being further underlined with contrasting fonts; the Latin text is presented in a font comparable to Times New Roman and the German text in Gothic letters. Additionally, the German text has a more bold appearance than the Latin one. However only the headings of the Latin text are printed in larger font than the normal text, while the Gothic headings remain the same size as the rest of the text body. Only the pages printed with text or illustrations are numbered in the book, thus the total number of pages starting from the title page until the last page of illustrations counts 124 pages.
The illustrations in the appendix start with drawings of five rods serving as a measuring tool. Goldmann himself invented these brass rods in order to simplify the difficult calculations of the proportions of the orders when constructing them. The Author created a rod for each order and its specific characteristic measures. Thus, he also includes mathematical rules to calculate the proportions of the orders with the help of the rods. Furthemore, the illustrations of the appendix show a detailed analysis of the columns, including ornaments such as volutas.
Since the text as well as the illustrations focus heavily on the correct use of Goldmann’s self designed measuring tools, it seems that the book can be understood as an instruction manual. The text can be interpreted as a theoretical introduction to his proposed system of simplifying the calculation process of the orders while the detailed drawings support his explanations visually.