Quadripartitum melancholicum ... Quo variae quaestiones de melancholiae morbo, essentia, differentiis, causis, prognosi, curatione habentur. Et plura de morbo hypocondriaco ... innotescunt ...
A 1644 Latin medical treatise on melancholy and hypochondria by Gaspare Marcucci, printed in Rome at the Andreas Phaeus press and held by the Wellcome Library. Its three decorative initial letters are woodcut-style printed capitals, each enclosing a different motif. The O holds a heraldic lion within foliage, the M frames a winged cherub above scrolling acanthus, and the I is built from twining vine stems with squirrels perched on its scrolls. A designer might take from these the dense, symmetrical framing of letters with leaves, animals and small figures for historical display type or borders.
