Comedia
Comedia by Vincenzo Gabiani, published in Venice by Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari in 1560, a printed Italian play text. The pictures are small woodcut historiated initials and a printer's device, showing a figure seated within a letter, a grotesque mask-like face inside a D, a lion-like beast curled in a C, and a heraldic shield with an eagle, lions and the motto Sorte Eternamente Vita. A designer could take from them compact decorative capitals and a dense emblematic device suited to period-styled headers and monograms.
