Cleopatra : tragedia
A 1550 tragedy by Alessandro Spinello, printed in Venice by Pietro de Nicolini da Sabbio, with a title page headed CLEOPATRA and a woodcut device of a flowering vase entwined by a serpent above a plinth reading BIASKA. The pictures are small black woodcut ornaments: an emblem of a sprouting vase and serpent, and a decorative initial made of framed leafy scrolls, offering a designer compact figure-and-ornament motifs with strong black-and-white contrast and vine-based borders.
