Opere drammatiche e componimenti poetici
This is a collection of dramatic works and poems by the Italian librettist Pietro Metastasio, printed in Milan in 1748 by the bookseller Giuseppe Cairoli for general literary readers and opera audiences. The pictures are four near-identical printer's ornaments: a central shield crowned by a canopy motif, flanked by flaring urn-shaped vases with foliage, scrolls and pendant tassels, drawn in fine black line. A designer might take from them a symmetrical, classical framing device for a title page or colophon.
