The initials used in the different books of Lives of the Saints, the chief of which were the _Golden Legend_, the _Catalogus Sanctorum_, and the _Lives of the Holy Fathers_, are miniature pictures, and, although of small size, they contain quite as many details as the larger engravings that illustrate some of the more pretentious editions. It may be noted that when there are historiated letters, there are no pictures properly so called, but, as the numerous editions testify, those with pictorial initials, which the unlearned were able to understand, as well as the illustrations proper, were amongst the most popular of the publications of the beginning of the sixteenth century. In an edition of the _Golden Legend_ now before us, printed in 1514 for Martin Boillon, by Gilbert de Villiers, the same year as the _Catalogus Sanctorum_ of Saccon, of which we give the letters, the text begins with a large A, representing the Advent of Christ, of the same size as the Bible initials. A little further on, another A stands for St. Andrew with his cross. Next comes an N, for the patron of children, St. Nicholas, who is depicted with three of them apparently in a pickle tub. As the letters nearly always correspond to the saint’s name, the historiated initials, for those who knew their alphabets, were even more useful than the large engravings, which required for their comprehension a competent knowledge of the attributes of the saints. Proceeding further, an N with an ass, a cow, a child in a cradle, and a star, stands for the Nativity. Saint John the Evangelist has an I, with his eagle. Another I, with three soldiers, one of them stabbing a child, and a woman with another child on her lap, represents the Massacre of the Innocents, and both for composition and execution it is superior to the larger cuts of the illustrated volumes.