This paper focuses on the study of the illustration in the fifteenth and sixteenth century chapbooks printed at Burgos –for which there is an editorial and chronological accurate delimitation–, from the perspective of Biblioiconografia,... more
This paper focuses on the study of the illustration in the fifteenth and sixteenth century chapbooks printed at Burgos –for which there is an editorial and chronological accurate delimitation–, from the perspective of Biblioiconografia, or textual iconography. In order to discuss the use and function of the images, it is necessary to combine the analysis of the design features of the chap-books with the methodology of physical or analytical bibliography, that provides an exhaustive inventory of the origin, modification and trajectory of the blocks, with the information on the woodcuts preserved in the inventories of the Burgos’s press. The aim of this article is to clarify the strategies used in the illustrations for the chapbooks, in connection with the materials available at each printing, as well as the peculiarities and differences from the illustration of other editorial genres of popular literature. These assumptions have allowed me to perceive very significant patterns, such as the preference for scenes or stories to illustrate romances and related texts, or the role of factotum –whose designation as ‘babuines’ is explained for the first time–, associated with a festive, dialogical and dramatic chapbooks. At the same time, this research provides a hypothesis on the origins of several blocks in a series of scenes cuts to illustrate earlier editions that appear in short romances of chivalry. Finally, this paper presents an exhaustive history of the uses and appearances of the suite in Burgos’s Celestina, outlining a theory concerning the technical procedure applied to the design of some common elements in these scenes.
