La Scanderbeide : poema heroico
La Scanderbeide is an epic poem in Italian by Margherita Sarrocchi, printed in Rome in 1606 by Lepido Facii and celebrating the Albanian hero Scanderbeg. The pictures are small woodcut and printed ornaments: a large decorated initial I framed by winged griffins and foliage, an oval heraldic cartouche with a crown, serpents, armour and a column, and a shield with a griffin and the motto 'Aquila non capit muscas'. A designer might draw on these dense, symmetrical border and heraldic devices for emblem-style frames and monogram work.
