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| Balthasar van den Bos Ornamental Knot Pattern 1554 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Giuseppe Maria Mitelli after Agostino Mitelli Two Cartouches ca. 1655-60 etching Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Virgil Solis Design for Cup Decoration with Trojan Hector before 1562 etching Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Jean Mondon Rocaille Chinoiserie 1736 etching Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Monogrammist IB Ornamental Panel with Cuirasse and Tendrils ca. 1520-30 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Kaspar Hegner Wovenwork Ornament 1543 woodcut (pattern-book illustration) Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Kaspar Hegner Wovenwork Ornament 1543 woodcut (pattern-book illustration) Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Jost Amman after Wenzel Jamnitzer Perspectiva 1568 etching (book illustration) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Jost Amman after Wenzel Jamnitzer Perspectiva 1568- etching (book illustration) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Proportions of Female Head 1542 engraving (drawing manual) Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Proportions of Male Head 1542 engraving (drawing manual) Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Luca Ciamberlano Hands trimming and using a Pen ca. 1626 engraving Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Luca Ciamberlano Hands trimming a Pen ca. 1626 engraving Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Studies of Eyes 1622 etching (drawing manual) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Studies of Ears 1622 etching (drawing manual) Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder Foot Studies 1572 (reprint of original from 1538) woodcut Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
What desert, sunless hill of Northern Scythia nourished thee, wild vine? Or was it the eternal ice of the snowy Celtic Alps or the iron-bearing soil of Spain – thee, who didst bear the sour grapes, the unripened clusters – that yielded this harsh juice? I seek for thy hands, Lycurgus, to tear up by the roots the whole plant of that vine, the mother of crude fruit.
If thou findest anywhere Democritus the lover of fruit, give him, Sir, this light message: that this is my season, the white-fruited fig-tree, and I bear for him the bread that wants no baking. Let him make haste, for my position is not secure, if he would pluck the fruit from my branches before they are stoned.
Heaven shall sooner quench its stars and the sun make bright the face of night; the sea shall sooner provide sweet water for mortals to draw, and the dead return to the land of the living, than oblivion of those ancient pages shall rob us of the glorious name of Homer.
My friend, if thou art learned, take me in thy hand; but if thou art ignorant of the Muses, cast away what thou canst not understand. I am not accessible to all, but the few admire Thucydides, son of Olorus, by birth an Athenian.
Look well on this statue, stranger, and tell on thy return home: "I saw in Teos the statue of Anacreon, a song-writer most excellent of those of old." And adding that he took delight in young men, thou shalt exactly describe the whole man.
This is the picture of Thaumareta. Well did the painter render the bearing and the beauty of the gentle-eyed lady! Thy little house-dog would fawn upon thee if it saw thee here, thinking that it looked on the mistress of its home.
– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)