Novelle amorose
Novelle amorose is a collection of love stories by Giovanni Francesco Loredano, printed in Venice in 1656 by the Guerigli press for a general literary readership. Its four pictures are small woodcut ornaments and initials: a cartouche with a grotesque face and swags, a mask with drapery, a female head framed by flowers, and a letter A set among leaves. A designer might draw on their dense black-and-white carving, symmetrical baroque scrollwork, and compact decorative-capital forms.
