Eraste, ou, Les amours du grand Alcandre : avec les aventures de plusieurs personnes de qualité : Nouvelle véritable
A 1665 French prose romance by Claude Collin, published in Paris by E. Loyson, with its opening page shown here. The picture is a decorated initial A with leafy foliage set beside a line of black-letter-style roman text in a small serif type. A designer might take the ornamental capital and its foliage borders as a model for a historical drop cap or a letterpress-style opening.
