L'instruction des prestres : qui contient sommairement tous les cas de conscience
This 1671 Lyon printing by the publisher I. Balam is a Catholic moral handbook by the Jesuit Francisco de Toledo, written to instruct priests on cases of conscience. Its four pictures are historiated initial letters, each a large black capital L built from a dark stem wrapped in outlined leaves and a small flowering sprig, with the leaves crowding the corners of a square frame. A designer could take from them a dense, carved botanical border style suited to decorative capitals, leaf-framed monograms, or vintage ornament.
