Decorative Woodcut Ornament

528 578 These handwritten numbers are likely archival shelf marks or cataloging entries added by a library or collector at a later date to track the volume within a collection.

[This page features a detailed decorative woodcut and contains no primary text.]

This leaf displays a finely crafted woodcut woodcut: a print made from a design carved into the surface of a block of wood, where the raised areas take the ink ornament. Such decorations were standard in 16th and 17th-century book production, used by printers to beautify the volume, fill empty spaces, or identify their printing house.

The image depicts two putti putti: artistic representations of chubby, often naked, male children common in Renaissance and Baroque art, often used to represent innocence or divine presence standing on a decorative pedestal. They flank a central staff decorated with floral patterns, culminating in a large fleur-de-lis fleur-de-lis: a stylized lily or iris flower used as a decorative design or symbol of royalty. Each figure holds a cornucopia cornucopia: a "horn of plenty," a traditional symbol of abundance and nourishment, usually shown as a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce.

Apart from the archival numbers in the margin, the page is otherwise blank. There is some faint ghosting ghosting: the light, mirrored impression of ink visible through the paper from the text printed on the reverse side, often caused by the oil in the ink seeping through over centuries visible from the following page, but it is not part of this page’s original composition.