Doctor Syntax and the bookseller occupy the center of the piece. Syntax gestures demonstratively at his travel journal while the bookseller looks upward. To the left, the bookseller’s wife is seated in a parlor, grasping a decanter in one hand and a cup in the other, both of which are full of wine.

Dr. Syntax sits on his horse at the center of the engraving, holding an open sketchbook and pen; an open umbrella appears to be tucked under his arm. A local fisherman and his dog stand behind him; before Syntax, on the water, a man rows three tourists in a boat, two of them women.