“L’architettura della Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano” is an illustrated book that wants to describe the architecture of the concerning church, with rich and accurate tables.
Although the illustrations are the most important thing of the book, the volume begins with a long text that explains the origin of the volume and gives some general informations about the church’s architecture and context. This opening text is called “DICHIARAZIONE”, it’s organized in a single column and uses a classic font, which becomes italic when referring to quotes.
On the upper corner, the page number is always marked with roman numerals. The notes, referring to the text with letters “a,b,c,…”, are located on the bottom of each page. These notes have a smaller font and are organized in two columns. Because of the big format of the book, the text has quite generous margin.
The volume, after the introduction “DICHIARAZIONE”, is organized in three chapter. Each part illustrates the church and describes it with some text.
The first chapter presents some plans of the building, which are completed with long notes. The second chapter shows the facade and some section of the whole building, while the last chapter illustrates some details of the church; like towers, domes and decorations.
The tables in the book are very big and take up the two facing pages. Between one illustration and the next one, there are always two empty pages.
At the beginning of each chapter, there is always a short text; listing and shortly describing the tables that will follow, and referring to them with “TAVOLA – roman numerals”.
After this introductory text, the figures are presented, most of the time, without any note. This makes, in my opinion, the reading of the book very pleasant.