On the very first page of L’idea dell’architettura universale by Vincenzo Scamozzi, one can see the an illustration including also the title of the book as well as the name of the author. To be seen is a structure with corinthian columns, six female statues and a portrayal of the author himself in the center of the page.
The Volume consists of eight books. (Libro Primo, Secondo, …) Each book, which is again separated in chapters, starts with an illustrated header on the first page followed my the title and description of the content written in capital letters. The text, beginning with an ornately decorated initial of several lines in height, is organised in one column in which each section begins with the first word written in capital letters. The main text is written in block letters while quotations and references are written in cursive.
On the top margin of every left page, one can read the title and the name of the author, on every right page the current volume, book and chapter. On the inner margin the lines are numbered in intervals of 10, while on the outer margin there is the number of pages and also marginal notes if needed.
The text is accompanied by architectural drawings, mainly ground plans, elevations and sections as well as some illustrations of details and schematics. They are all full-page illustrations sometimes even spread out over a double page.
The image-pages don’t have any numbering or description of content. The images illustrate the topics which are explained in the text. Especially because the text is discussing a lot of different structure types and buildings, the illustrations are needed to exemplify the content.
Depending on the book, illustrations are of different importance. Where in the first and second book illustrations seem to be an important element for understanding the text, books like the seventh or eighth include less illustration accompanying the text.