Histoire des plus illustres et scavans hommes de leurs siecles : tant de l'Europe que de l'Asie, Afrique & Amerique : avec leurs portraits en tailles-douces, tirez sur les veritables originaux
A 1670 Paris biographical collection by André Thevet, published by François Mauger, gathering lives of famous scholars from Europe, Asia, Africa and America with copper-engraved portraits for a learned French readership. The pictures here are small letter-cut square initial ornaments built from interlaced strapwork, with a central blank panel holding a single capital letter, plus a decorative cartouche with a grotesque mask at its center; a designer could borrow the framed square lettrine and the mask-centred shield for compact, symmetrical emblem or monogram layouts.
