Cartouche Fragments - Two black and white images of a clock

A cartouche or cartouch is an oval design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low relief design. In Early Modern design, since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartoccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling (illustration, left). Another cartouche figures prominently in the title page of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, framing a minor vignette with a device of pierced and scrolling papery cartoccia.

16th century marks an appearance of first copybooks printed from engraved metal plates. Various forms of the secretary hand get reproduced in printing. Publishers also take advantage of the metal engraving process by presenting free-form letters drawn in thin outlines, something beyond the capabilities of the woodcut.