The essayes; or, Covnsels, civill and morall, of Francis Lo. Vervlam, Viscount St. Alban
This is a 1629 London edition of Francis Bacon's essays, printed by I. Haviland and sold by R. Allot, with ornamental letters that served as decorative initials for its text. The pictures are woodcut decorative capitals in a dense Renaissance style, with interlaced scrollwork, foliage and fleshy curls filling each letter, some outlined and others hatched with diagonal lines. A designer could draw on them for monograms, drop caps, or period-appropriate lettering built from vines and acanthus-like curls.
