Text&Image_263 - Archived

The organisation of the book is homogenous, wether it is the preface, the commentary of the translator or the bulk of the book. The author presents us with the corpus of the text as one paragraph, with footnotes divided vertically in two paragraphs.

Most chapters will start with illuminated letters, and at the beginning and the end of each book we are presented with vignettes or rudimentary press prints.

It is vital to the understanding of the book to outline the utilisation of Italic script. The book being a translation from latin to Italian, the author chose to heighten the contrast between the two parts by highlighting the latin transcripts in cursive.

We are afforded generous margins on the side opposite to the binding, the font used, due to the extensive nature of the book is quite small (estimated to be between 7-11pt), I have not been able to identify the exact font. 

Nevertheless the 3 types of fonts (Title, Body and italic) remain consistent throughout the book.

In addition to the different embellishments found throughout the text, the book is bundled with a series of Wood pressed prints, I have been told that this was common practice within the realm of Vitruvius translations of the era.

The images are concentrated at the end of the book, possibly because of utilitarian imperatives, as the paper on whitch they are printed seems to be of much higher quality as the rest of the print.

Interwoven between those pictures are legends and indexes of the contents of each of those drawings. One main index is shown at the beginning of this part of the book.

The images contained within it are meant as a visualisation tool for the understanding of this reference tome. They have been, most likely, added by contemporary commentators, they are not essential to the comprehension of the text, as most of the substance is contained within the text. Nevertheless they add a level of philological depth to the translation.

The rest are purely aesthetic.