Vitæ Patrum : Oder Das Leben Der Altväter und anderer Gottseeligen Personen
Vitæ Patrum, a German-language collection of biographies of early church fathers and other pious Christians, compiled by Gottfried Arnold and published in Halle in 1700 by the Waysen-Haus press for a devotional readership. Its pictures are small woodcut decorative initials and ornamental headpieces, with bold black letterforms set in dense looping scrollwork, flourishes and acanthus-like leaf borders that a designer could adapt for display lettering or ornamental frames.
