Jocvs severvs, hoc est, Tribvnal aeqvvm, qvo noctva regina avivm, phoenice arbitro, post varias disceptationes et qverelas volucrum eam infestantium pronunciatur, & ob sapientiam singularem, Palladi sacrata agnoscitur
An alchemical allegory in Latin by the physician and alchemist Michael Maier, printed at Frankfurt in 1617 by Nicolaus Hoffmann for the de Bry press, in which birds argue before the owl-queen and the phoenix as judge, addressed to learned readers of hermetic philosophy. The typographic ornament is the substance here: woodcut headpiece bands of scrolling acanthus with masks, grotesque beasts and lyre motifs, and initial letters set into dense foliage with animal heads, all usable as rule-width borders, drop caps and small vignette stock.
