Opus de morbo gallico
A 1532 Latin medical treatise on the French disease (syphilis), printed in Turin by B. Silva and held by the Wellcome Library, written for physicians and scholars. The picture is a page opening with a large ornamented initial V built from scrolling foliage, set beside dense black-letter text under a centred heading. A designer could take the decorative capital and its interlaced leaf-and-scroll framing as a model for historical display type and border ornament.
