Initial letter I on patterned background 1520

This initial "I" on patterned background was made by an anonymous artist, and we're not sure when it was created. The initial is part of a larger block of text, typical of the early age of print. Consider that each letter would have been painstakingly carved, and then printed, one page at a time. Think about this labor in relation to the spread of literacy through the printing press, and who had access to this new technology. This initial “I” is an opening, an invitation, but to what? Is it an invitation to knowledge, to faith, or to the power that these could bring? The patterned background, a tight weave of organic forms, complicates the clarity of the letter itself, reminding us that even the simplest forms are embedded within complex systems. The initial "I", then, becomes a reflection on the self and its place within the world, and the knowledge that is both accessible, and at times, obscured.