The motto "Roma quanta fuit ipsa ruina docet" (how great was Rome, the ruins themselves teach) inscribed on the arcade identifies the remains of ancient Rome, magnificent even in their decay, as ideal models. Between the arches, a figure of Design holds the architect's tools. Volume three of Serlio's treatise was the first to rely on the visual imagery of ruins and was an important source of architectural theory throughout Renaissance Europe.

The Getty Research Institute, Research Library has a number of works by Sebastiano Serlio