De balsamo dialogus. In quo verissima balsami plantae, opobalsami, carpobalsami, et xilobalsami cognitio plerisque antiquorum atque juniorum medicorum occulta nunc elucescit ...
A 1591 Latin medical dialogue on balsam plants by the physician Prosper Alpini, printed in Venice under the sign of the lion. Its pictures are small woodcut ornaments: a decorated initial, a rampant lion holding a scroll with a motto, and a putto riding a sea creature among leafy sprigs. A designer might borrow the dense foliate letterform, the heraldic lion-and-banner framing, or the playful cherub-and-monster vignette as period ornament.
