De ss. martyrum cruciatibus liber : quo instrumenta & modi quibus ijdem martyres olim torquebantur, simul perspicuè descripta, & tabulis aeneis accuratissimè expressa sunt
A 1668 Antwerp edition by Antonio Gallonio, a Latin treatise cataloguing the instruments and methods used to torture early Christian martyrs, issued with engraved plates. The pictures are small black-and-white engravings, each numbered and captioned with lettered keys, showing groups of figures in staged outdoor scenes. A designer might take their dense crowd compositions, stark line hatching and clear sequential staging as a model for historical narrative plates or diagrammatic scenes.
