Rami Msallam — 29.01.1999
Number of the assigned book: #61
Student ID: #19-934-744
Category: Text&Image
The book begins with a prologue of four pages, which consists of two main parts. The first part is dedicated to the Duke Fran Maria di Monte Feltro della Rovere, while the second part of the prologue is a message for the reader of the book. This is followed by an index of the notable things that are contained in the work. The index is organized in two columns per page. It is interesting that the topics are sorted in an alphabetic order rather than in a chronological one. The figure index on the other side is sorted chronologically as per the sequence in the book.
The index is followed by the ten books while each represents an own chapter. Each chapter, respective each book, is about 15 to 20 pages long. The number of pages on the top right corner is written in arabic numerals. The text is written in an old-style cursive font, which resembles today’s modern font “monotype corsiva”.
At the top header of the beginning of each chapter there’s an approximately 16×4 cm artistic drawing that might be telling the story of the chapter. The name of the book and the author is written after the drawing of each chapter. The first character of each chapter is represented with an image in a sqaure-shaped frame and approximately as long as six lines. Each paragraph starts with a capital letter that is about four times bigger than the rest of the text. The drawing inside these frames of the respective inside letter don’t necessarily have a relationship with the content of the book.
The illustrations are of big importance and they usually occupy half or more than half of a page. The total number of pages is 148 but the book contains 160 woodcut illustrations, which is a big number compared to the number of pages of the book. Each illustration is mentioned like already said in the index. The text is generally complimenting or at least explaining the illustrations, which are of a technical nature. Thus, the book is supposed to be something between a pragmatic handbook and an academic study.