criblé: Dark areas punched with tiny stars or dots; sometimes used as a texture or as a background for decorative initials or chapterheads. It is now more formally called the Manière Criblée or the “dotted manner” (from the feminine of criblé). First known use of the technique for printing is by Phillipe Pigouchet in approx. 1485 but it was used by goldsmiths much earlier; Geoffry Tory made a popular set of decorative initials using criblé. The term derived from the French word for a sieve.
