The 1588 edition of L’antichità di Roma is set in a gothic, but generally well-legible typeface with florally ornamented drop caps. Due to the small format of the book, there is only one column of text, however on the majority of pages there is a narrow column of annotations in italics, which has its own font size/height. It seems to have a double function as „bullet points“ and as additional commentary. Quotes in Latin are either in Italics (usually indented) or all caps (usually centered). There’s a header running across all pages with an indication of the current section, the name of the book and pagination. Save for titles, font size is consistent over the entire book. At the end of chapters, when there would usually be some empty space left, the text is often decoratively set in a way to resemble an upside-down triangle.
The pictures in the book, mostly showing works of architecture, but in the later chapters also some sculptures and other cultural treasures, are all elevations or crude axonometries, very rarely they are sections or ground plans. Some buildings are shown as ruins, some in all their glory, some with some sort of context, others in an abstract white space. Still, the overall style of the pictures is quite consistent, and they seem to rather function as quick, iconic references than as particularly accurate representations.
The images accompany the text, scaled a page wide, usually prefacing the paragraph that is concerned with them. Rarely, the text flows around them.
The images are all set in a box with an integrated Latin title in caps. They are neither numbered nor referenced.
The fact that there’s an image for almost every item discussed, but never more than one, even for the most important buildings, along with the format and systematic structure, suggests that „L’antichità“ is meant to serve as a handbook – a guide used to travel or as a starting point for further research.
For the next task, I will be using a different book, where the OCR worked better: The Antiquities of Herculaneum, Martyn/Lettice, 1773