The work is divided into seven "barks", i.e. seven parts and it contains twelve satirical novels aiming at affecting diseases and degenerations of the 17th century. The author writes in first person taking the voice of Saetta, Diogenes` dog, which can get in everywhere unnoticed. Plays upon words, metaphors and antithesis following one another in a hectic collection and chain of analogic images and witnessing an extraordinary word creativity. The erudite language is alternated with dialects and slangs, neologisms and French and Spanish terms.