Iconologia, overo, Descrittione dell'imagini vniversali cavate dall'antichita et da altri lvoghi
Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, printed in Rome in 1593 by the heirs of Gio. Gigliotti, is an illustrated handbook of allegorical figures and emblems for artists and writers. The pictures here are small woodcut historiated initials, each framing a single figure in an ornamental letter: a D with a leaping animal, an L with a lion's head and mane, and a Q with a seated bird, set among scrolling foliage and cartouche borders. A designer could take from them the compact logic of an initial, where a figure is fitted inside a capital letter and surrounded by strapwork and leaves.
