Scipionis Cassolae medici Parmensis cum Joanne Francisco Boccalino ... disceptatio, an epithematum vsus antiquis medicis fuerit cognitus
A 1565 Latin medical treatise by Scipio Cassola, printed at Parma by Seth Viotto, debating whether ancient physicians used ointments and plasters, written for physicians and scholars of medicine. Its pictures are small woodcut ornaments and historiated initials: a symmetrical framed panel with two grotesque figures flanking a central face, a large C enclosing a figure with a staff in a landscape, and an S with a seated woman and a crowned man holding a rod. A designer could take the strapwork frames, grotesque symmetry, and cut-letter initials as models for early modern decorative borders.
