Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabve in qva, per le quali si dimostra come, e per chi le bell'arti di pittura, scultura, e architettura lasciata la rozzezza delle maniere greca, e gottica, si siano in questi secoli ridotte all' antica loro perfezione
Filippo Baldinucci's Notizie de' professori del disegno, printed in Florence from 1681, is a series of biographical accounts of painters, sculptors and architects from Cimabue onward, written for Tuscan collectors, academicians and fellow connoisseurs. The plates reproduced here are small woodcut initial letters, their roman capitals set against dense acanthus scrolls, buds and curling leaf tips cut in coarse black line on laid paper, useful as drop caps, ornament fragments or texture for display type.
