Caroli Stephani, De nutrimentis, ad Baillyum, libri tres
A Latin treatise on nutrition and diet by Charles Estienne, printed in Paris in 1550 by his brother Robert Estienne, a printer. The pictures are woodcut decorated initial letters, B, D, S and R, each set in a frame of scrolling acanthus leaves and flowers. A designer could take from them the dense, carved foliage that fills the space around a letter and the way a large capital is built from interlaced vine forms.
