"The illustrative pattern in romances and in what can loosely be called old tales differs markedly and in several ways from that seen in other kinds of secular books. The most signal feature is the predominance of old images, some dating from the previous century, many from the first decade of the sixteenth century. Most of these are printed from the original blocks catalogued by Hodnett, or as their copies or adaptations, as detailed in Appendix 1. Almost all the other images are so similar stylistically to cuts catalogued by Hodnett that they seem to belong to the same large family. The visual impact fo these cuts is heightened by their repetitions and reuses, practices more flagrant for romances than for any other genre. The romance cuts are often buttressed by factotums, those ubiquitous blocks described by Hodnett as "small figures of men and women, trees and buildings, usually borderless," deriving from a fifteenth-century edition of Terence. Usually printed as decorations and identified variously, they can also function as meaningful images. Thus, to illustrate a text about a woman watching a battle in a forest, the printer will place a factotum depicting a tree on one side of a battle scene and a factotum depicting a woman on another. In the same way, printers of romances often create a visual narrative by juxtaposing two cuts, again a practice seldom seen in other genres. [R.S.L.]"
Ruth Samson Luborsky, from the Guide to English Illustrated Books, p. 31-32
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