Iconologia, ouero, Descrittione di diuerse imagini cauate dall'antichità, & di propria inuentione
Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, printed in Rome by Lepido Facij in 1603, is a reference handbook of personified abstractions—virtues, vices, passions, seasons—compiled from antique sources for painters, sculptors, poets and orators who needed correct attributes for allegorical figures. Each square woodcut shows a single standing figure holding identifying objects, set over the letterpress and framed by grotesque columns of putti, serpents and armless female herms; useful for attribute vocabulary, allegorical figure poses, and ornamental border strips.
