The institution of Christian religion
Thomas Norton's English translation of Jean Calvin's Reformed theology, printed in London in 1587 by H. Middleton for W. Norton, a doctrinal work for clergy and readers of Protestant divinity. The four pictures shown are typographic ornaments: a foliate historiated initial N, a dark initial T with white scrolling foliage, a coat of arms with a helmeted crest and the letters H M, and a strip of interlaced scrollwork with cherubs. A designer could draw on their contrast of black ground and white ornament, and on the layered Renaissance decorative vocabulary of leaves, scrolls and armorial framing.
