Sylva sylvarum; or, A natural history. In ten centuries; whereunto is newly added the History natural and experimental of life and death, or of the prolongation of life
Sylva Sylvarum is a 1670 natural history in ten centuries by Francis Bacon, with additions by William Rawley, printed in London by J.R. for William Lee. The four pictures are decorated initial letters: a large ornamented F with foliage scrollwork, an O and a W each framed by two satyr-like figures holding a branch above a cartouche, and an M showing a banquet scene labelled Ioan XII. Designers might draw on the dense black-ground foliage of the F and the symmetrical framing of the figure-flanked capitals for display letters and borders.
