The romance begins, 'La antiqua et diu observata consuetudine', and ends, 'Tu adunque Illustrissimo et Magnifico lettore vivi felice: et amia damni pensando habbi alcuna volta compassione: Vale'.

The narrative is interspersed with letters, sonnets, and other verse. The manuscript is written in a cursive humanistic script of the early sixteenth century, probably influenced by Ludovico degli Arrighi.

The title-page (folio 1) is surrounded by a border divided by gilt bands into panels containing conventional ornaments in blue and white, and realistic flowers, strawberries, caterpillars, etc., all on a ground of dull gold. Within the panels are medallions containing white busts, a green parrot-like bird sitting on a red scroll among foliage, and the arms of the Ridolfi family of Florence. The first initial contains the figure of a woman holding a staff in the right hand and a flame in the left.

Chapter i (folio 6 verso) has a heading in gold on red and begins with a large initial illuminated in red, blue, and gold on a dull gold ground, with a border of dull gold foliage in the outer margin.

The beginnings of other chapters, poems, etc., have similar decoration, in a simpler manner and on a smaller scale. In the poems, the first letter of each line is in gold or blue.

At the end (folio 148), in another hand, are two madrigals, one beginning 'Sun amoroso core/ Donna con pura fede', and the other 'Empia mie dona et cruda/ Cui in sorte mi diede Il destin rio'.