La gallerie des femmes fortes
A 1647 Paris book by the Jesuit poet Pierre Le Moyne, printed by Antoine de Sommaville, a collection of prose and verse portraits of celebrated women of strength for a literate French readership. The pictures are repeated woodcut decorated initials, large capital I letters with fruit and foliage, cherubs, and grotesque figures, which a designer could use as ornamental drop caps and border motifs.
