Les characteres des passions
Les characteres des passions is a 1640 treatise on the emotions by Marin Cureau de La Chambre (1594-1669), printed in Paris by P. Rocolet and P. Blaise for a learned French readership. The pictures are woodcut decorative initials: large letters framed by leafy scrolls, foliage, and interlaced ornament, with one circular initial holding a sprig of leaves. A designer could draw on their dense, carved line work and the way the foliage wraps and fills the letter shape.
