Most commonly, extra-illustrated (augmented with illustrations from external sources) books are in larger formats, and are devoted not to fiction, but to historical biography (see De Beze’s Icones ), antiquarian history and travel (see Stow’s Survey ), or works by Shakespeare. This copy of Ann Radcliffe’s novel A Sicilian Romance (1790) is unusual for being extra-illustrated. Traditionally appearing in pocket sized, duodecimo format, eighteenth-century novels lacked the space for “holding” additional engraved prints, whose original sizes far exceed the dimensions of a standard novel. Yet the owner of this copy of Radcliffe’s novel inventively used miniature engravings--possibly cut out from another source--to fill in the bits of blank spaces at the end and beginning of chapters.
The small pictures pasted into the novel by its owner depict picturesque landscape scenes that stir the imagination and correspond with scenes described in the narrative, such as ruined castles by the sea covered in overgrown ivy, and views of Italian volcanoes. Human figures from the Gothic era, from knights in armor riding horseback to a praying nun in a white habit frightened by an invisible visitor, might be identified as characters in the novel. Unlike inserted foldouts typically used for extra-illustration, these small prints fit well within the boundaries of the book’s original pages as well as the novel’s storyline. They draw the reader further into the Gothic world imagined by Radcliffe and offer a chance to see it realized in images (in other words, illustrated), while at the same time turning the owner’s copy of the book into an individualized one.