Ein geheimer Tractatus ... von den dreyen Seculis oder Haupt-zeiten, von Anfang biss zum Ende der Welt
A 1660 German religious treatise printed in Amsterdam by B. Bahnsen, attributed to Julius Sperber (died 1616), concerning the three ages of the world from its beginning to its end, held by the Wellcome Library. The pictures are small woodcut decorative initials: a letter J inside square frames of scrolling acanthus foliage and interlaced strapwork, and a decorative initial built from curling volutes with dotted fields. A designer could take from them the dense, symmetrical tradition of early modern printed ornament for borders, capitals and frames.
