Recherches et observations sur les vipères
Recherches et observations sur les vipères is a 1671 French medical treatise on viper venom, printed in Paris by Claude Barbin and written as a letter to a correspondent. The four pages shown are text-only: dense black-letter-style roman type with long s, justified lines, a small italic heading reading 'Contre l'opinion de Monsieur de Charas' and a decorated initial M with leafy foliage. A designer could take from them the classic seventeenth-century book page, with its tight justified columns, floral initial and italic running heads.
