Manuscript codex detail, 1490-1500, Parma, Italy.

Initial (in written works, the ornate first letter of a chapter or paragraph, usually larger than the other characters of the text. The word initial is derived from the Latin initialis, meaning to stand in front, to begin) with St. John the Baptist in the centre, episodes from the lives of the hermit saints in the circle, and the signs and instruments of Christ's Passion (hammer, whip, spear and sponge, the hand of Judas the betrayer with the golden talers, etc.).

On the lower left, perhaps the most depicted moment in the life of St Alexius, the saint kneeling under the stairs in his parents' house.