Les Oeuvres morales et meslees
A 1574 Paris edition of Plutarch's moral essays, translated into French by Jacques Amyot and printed by Vascosan for a learned French readership. The pictures are woodcut decorative initial letters, the large capitals that open sections of text, in a Renaissance style of interlaced foliage, scrolls and small animal forms. A designer could take from them the structure of a letter built from vines, leaves and curling acanthus, usable for drop caps and ornamental monograms.
