It is shown that a Banach space E has type p if and only for some (all) d ≥ 1 the Besov space B ( 1 p − 1 2 )d p,p (R ;E) embeds into the space γ(L2(Rd), E) of γ-radonifying operators L2(Rd) → E. A similar result characterizing cotype q is obtained. These results may be viewed as E-valued extensions of the classical Sobolev embedding theorems.