Main (Thompson) Library location: North wing -- Fourth window. Pierre Viart (c. 14-- – 1523) was a printer and bookbinder in Paris, and beginning in 1512, he established himself at the Sign of the Silver Lion. He printed both Bibles and classical texts, including works by Ovid, Vergil, and Cicero; Viart primarily printed, however, the works of contemporary Belgian poet Jean Lemaire des Belges. After his death in 1523, printer Ambroise Girault assumed responsibility of Viart's firm and modified Viart's printing device for his own practice. Viart's mark in the Vassar Library displays his monogram, which ordinarily appeared on the heraldic shields of his fuller devices. The initials P.V. are closely connected, sharing the swirling lines of a cursive Gothic font; the base of the P curls downward, and a sideways four-mark protrudes upward from the shared stroke in the monogram's center. This emblem is surmounted by an elaborate cross with three horizontal bars, each increasing in length toward the uppermost intersection. In the most decorative engraving Viart used, the shield and monogram are fastened to a tree, with a pelican nesting in the upper boughs, flanked by a silver lion and mythical tiger. Scholars believe the three-leaved plants in the foreground to be Honesty or Moneywort, probably representative of the Trinity.