La Speranza : comedia
A 1586 Venetian printed comedy, La Speranza, by Paolo Serenio Bartolucci, published by the Gioliti press in Venice, probably for a literate reading public. The pictures are small woodcut printer's ornaments: a grotesque mask with scrolling volutes, a winged female figure between foliate scrolls, and a decorated initial letter, all cut in bold black line with hatching. A designer might take from them the economical hatched line and the mask-and-scroll framing used in early modern book decoration.
