Il geloso comedia del s. Hercole Bentiuoglio
Il geloso is a 1547 Venetian comedy by Ercole Bentivoglio, printed by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari, with decorative woodcut initials that served as typographic ornament for the printed text. The four initials shown are historiated letters, each with figures or putti set inside the letterform, including a seated man with a sheep, a child in a vine-framed panel, and a figure with a staff. A designer could take from them the Renaissance habit of building letters out of pastoral scenes, grotesque putti and foliage, a model for display type with narrative content.
