Antoine Desgodetz was employed by the French chief minister Jacques-Louis Colbert to visit Rome to make engravings and measurements of notable structures from Classical Antiquity. By including multiple engravings of floor plans, elevations, cross sections and external decorations; French artists and architects unable to travel to Italy were able to use Desgodetz's study to emulate the architectural practices of Ancient Rome in their own work. The work was reprinted in 1729 and again in 1779, thus helping not only Baroque architects but also adherents of the developing neoclassical approach to architecture, particularly Robert Adam.