![Umbria, jacopo da varazze, leggenda aurea, 1290 ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Umbria%2C_jacopo_da_varazze%2C_leggenda_aurea%2C_1290_ca._01.jpg)
The ''Golden Legend'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of
hagiographies
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
by
Jacobus de Voragine
Jacobus de Voragine (c. 123013/16 July 1298) was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of the '' Golden Legend'', a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medi ...
that was widely read in late
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.
[Hilary Maddocks, "Pictures for aristocrats: the manuscripts of the ''Légende dorée''", in Margaret M. Manion, Bernard James Muir, eds. ''Medieval texts and images: studies of manuscripts from the Middle Ages'' 1991:2; a study of the systemization of the Latin manuscripts of the ''Legenda aurea'' is B. Fleith, "Le classement des quelque 1000 manuscrits de la Legenda aurea latine en vue de l'éstablissement d'une histoire de la tradition" in Brenda Dunn-Lardeau, ed. ''Legenda Aurea: sept siècles de diffusion", 1986:19-24] It was likely compiled around the years 1259–1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.
![Houghton WKR 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Houghton_WKR_1.3.4_-_Saints_in_glory.jpg)
Initially entitled ''Legenda sanctorum'' (''Readings of the Saints''), it gained its popularity under the title by which it is best known. It overtook and eclipsed earlier compilations of abridged legendaria, the ''Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum'' attributed to the Dominican chronicler
Jean de Mailly
Jean Pierier of Mailly, called Jean de Mailly, was a Dominican chronicler working in Metz in the mid-13th century. In his Latin chronicle of the Diocese of Metz, ''Chronica universalis Mettensis'', the fable of Pope Joan first appears in written ...
and the ''Epilogus in gestis sanctorum'' of the Dominican preacher
Bartholomew of Trent Bartholomew of Trent (ca 1200 — 1251) was a Dominican hagiographer and papal diplomat. His ''Epilogum in gesta sanctorum'' (''Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints''), which set a new style in hagiography designed for practical use by preachers, s ...
. When printing was invented in the 1450s, editions appeared quickly, not only in Latin, but also in almost every major European language. Among ''
incunabula'', printed before 1501, ''Legenda aurea'' was printed in more editions than the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and was one of the most widely published books of the Middle Ages. During the height of its popularity the book was so well known that the term "Golden Legend" was sometimes used generally to refer to any collection of stories about the saints. It was one of the first books
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.
His parentage a ...
printed in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
; Caxton's version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527.
Written in simple, readable Latin, the book was read in its day for its stories. Each chapter is about a different saint or
Christian festival
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which ...
. The book is considered the closest thing to an encyclopaedia of medieval saint lore that survives today; as such, it is invaluable to
art historians
The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...
and medievalists who seek to identify saints depicted in art by their deeds and attributes. Its repetitious nature is explained if Jacobus meant to write a compendium of saintly lore for
sermon
A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. ...
s and
preaching, not a work of popular entertainment.
Lives of the saints
The book sought to compile traditional lore about saints
venerated
Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Etym ...
at the time of its compilation, ordered according to their
feast days. Jacobus de Voragine for the most part follows a template for each chapter: etymology of the saint's name, a narrative about their life, a list of miracles performed, and finally a list of citations where the information was found.
Each chapter typically begins with an
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
for the saint's name, "often entirely fanciful". An example (in Caxton's translation) shows his method:
As a Latin author, Jacobus de Voragine must have known that ''Silvester'', a relatively common Latin name, simply meant "from the forest". The correct derivation is alluded to in the text, but set out in parallel to fanciful ones that
lexicographers would consider quite wide of the mark. Even the "correct" explanations (''silvas'', "forest", and the mention of green boughs) are used as the basis for an
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
interpretation. Jacobus de Voragine's etymologies had different goals from modern etymologies, and cannot be judged by the same standards. Jacobus' etymologies have parallels in
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
's ''
Etymologiae
''Etymologiae'' (Latin for "The Etymologies"), also known as the ''Origines'' ("Origins") and usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was ...
'', in which linguistically accurate derivations are set out beside allegorical and figurative explanations.
Jacobus de Voragine then moves on to the saint's life, compiled with reference to the readings from the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
's
liturgy commemorating that saint; then embellishes the biography with
supernatural tales of incidents involving the saint's life.
Medieval view of Muhammad
The chapter "St Pelagius, Pope and the History of the Lombards" begins with the story of St Pelagius, then proceeds to touch upon events surrounding the origin and history of the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
in Europe leading up to the 7th century when the story of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
begins. The story then goes on to describe "Magumeth (Mahomet, Muhammad)" as "a false prophet and sorcerer", detailing his early life and travels as a merchant through his marriage to the widow Khadija, and goes on to suggest that his "visions" came as a result of epileptic seizures and the interventions of a renegade
Nestorian monk named
Sergius. The chapter conveys the medieval Christian understanding of the beliefs of
Saracens and other
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
. It may be because of this long history that early copies of the entire work were sometimes referred to as ''Historia Lombardica''.
Miracle tales of relics
Many of the stories also conclude with
miracle
A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...
tales and similar wonderlore from accounts of those who called upon that saint for aid or used the saint's
relics. Such a tale is told of Saint
Agatha; Jacobus da Varagine has
pagans Pagans may refer to:
* Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire
* Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices
* Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series
* Pagan's ...
in
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...
repairing to the relics of St. Agatha to
supernaturally repel an
eruption
Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...
of
Mount Etna:
And for to prove that she had prayed for the salvation of the country, at the beginning of February, the year after her martyrdom, there arose a great fire, and came from the mountain toward the city of Catania and burnt the earth and stones, it was so fervent. Then ran the paynims to the sepulchre of S. Agatha and took the cloth that lay upon her tomb, and held it abroad against the fire, and anon on the ninth day after, which was the day of her feast, ceased the fire as soon as it came to the cloth that they brought from her tomb, showing that our Lord kept the city from the said fire by the merits of S. Agatha.
Mary Magdalene's sea voyage
Sources
Jacobus carefully lists many of the sources he used to collect his stories, with more than 120 total sources listed; among the three most important are ''
Historia Ecclesiastica'' by
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
, ''
Tripartate History'' by
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' ...
, and ''
Historia scholastica
The ''Historia Scholastica'' is a twelfth-century Biblical paraphrase written in Medieval Latin by Petrus Comestor. Sometimes called the "Medieval Popular Bible", it draws on the Bible and other sources, including the works of classical scholars an ...
'' by
Petrus Comestor
Petrus Comestor, also called Pierre le Mangeur (died 22 October 1178), was a twelfth-century French theological writer and university teacher.
Life
Petrus Comestor was born in Troyes. Although the name ''Comestor'' (Latin for 'eater', ''le Ma ...
.
However, scholars have also identified other sources which Jacobus did not himself credit. A substantial portion of Jacobus' text was drawn from two
epitomes of collected lives of the saints, both also arranged in the order of the liturgical year, written by members of his
Dominican order
The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...
: one is
Jean de Mailly
Jean Pierier of Mailly, called Jean de Mailly, was a Dominican chronicler working in Metz in the mid-13th century. In his Latin chronicle of the Diocese of Metz, ''Chronica universalis Mettensis'', the fable of Pope Joan first appears in written ...
's lengthy ''Abbreviatio in gestis et miraculis sanctorum'' (''Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints'') and the other is
Bartholomew of Trent Bartholomew of Trent (ca 1200 — 1251) was a Dominican hagiographer and papal diplomat. His ''Epilogum in gesta sanctorum'' (''Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints''), which set a new style in hagiography designed for practical use by preachers, s ...
's ''Epilogum in gesta sanctorum'' (''Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints''). The many extended parallels to text found in
Vincent de Beauvais
Vincent of Beauvais ( la, Vincentius Bellovacensis or ''Vincentius Burgundus''; c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his ''Speculum Maius'' (''Great mirror''), a major work ...
' ''
Speculum historiale
Richard of Cirencester ( la, Ricardus de Cirencestria; before 1340–1400) was a cleric and minor historian of the Benedictine abbey at Westminster. He was highly famed in the 18th and 19th century as the author of ''The Description of Britain'' be ...
'', the main encyclopedia that was used in the Middle Ages, are attributed by modern scholars to the two authors' common compilation of identical sources, rather than to Jacobus' reading Vincent's encyclopedia. More than 130 more distant sources have been identified for the tales related of the saints in the ''Golden Legend'', few of which have a nucleus in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
itself; these
hagiographic
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
sources include
apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l texts such as the ''
Gospel of Nicodemus
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
'', and the histories of
Gregory of Tours and
John Cassian
John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman ( la, Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, ''Ioannus Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern c ...
. Many of his stories have no other known source. A typical example of the sort of story related, also involving St. Silvester, shows the saint receiving miraculous instruction from
Saint Peter
) (Simeon, Simon)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire
, death_date = Between AD 64–68
, death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
, parents = John (or Jonah; Jona)
, occupat ...
in a
vision
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...
that enables him to
exorcise
Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
a
dragon:
In this time it happed that there was at Rome a dragon in a pit, which every day slew with his breath more than three hundred men. Then came the bishops of the idols unto the emperor and said unto him: O thou most holy emperor, sith the time that thou hast received Christian faith the dragon which is in yonder fosse or pit slayeth every day with his breath more than three hundred men. Then sent the emperor for S. Silvester and asked counsel of him of this matter. S. Silvester answered that by the might of God he promised to make him cease of his hurt and blessure of this people. Then S. Silvester put himself to prayer, and S. Peter appeared to him and said: "Go surely to the dragon and the two priests that be with thee take in thy company, and when thou shalt come to him thou shalt say to him in this manner: Our Lord Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, buried and arose, and now sitteth on the right side of the Father, this is he that shall come to deem and judge the living and the dead, I commend thee Sathanas that thou abide him in this place till he come. Then thou shalt bind his mouth with a thread, and seal it with thy seal, wherein is the imprint of the cross. Then thou and the two priests shall come to me whole and safe, and such bread as I shall make ready for you ye shall eat.Thus as S. Peter had said, S. Silvester did. And when he came to the pit, he descended down one hundred and fifty steps, bearing with him two lanterns, and found the dragon, and said the words that S. Peter had said to him, and bound his mouth with the thread, and sealed it, and after returned, and as he came upward again he met with two enchanters which followed him for to see if he descended, which were almost dead of the stench of the dragon, whom he brought with him whole and sound, which anon were baptized, with a great multitude of people with them. Thus was the city of Rome delivered from double death, that was from the culture and worshiping of false idols, and from the venom of the dragon.
Jacobus describes the story of
Saint Margaret of Antioch
Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr ( grc-gre, Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in the Western Rite Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism, ...
surviving being swallowed by a dragon as "apocryphal and not to be taken seriously" (trans. Ryan, 1.369).
Perception and legacy
The book was highly successful in its time, despite many other similar books that compiled legends of the saints. The reason it stood out against competing saint collections probably is that it offered the average reader the perfect balance of information. For example, compared to
Jean de Mailly
Jean Pierier of Mailly, called Jean de Mailly, was a Dominican chronicler working in Metz in the mid-13th century. In his Latin chronicle of the Diocese of Metz, ''Chronica universalis Mettensis'', the fable of Pope Joan first appears in written ...
's work ''Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints'', which ''The Golden Legend'' largely borrowed from, Jacobus added chapters about the major feast days and removed some of the saints' chapters, which might have been more useful to the Medieval reader.
Many different versions of the text exist, mostly due to copiers and printers adding additional content to it. Each time a new copy was made, it was common for that institution to add a chapter or two about their own local saints. Today more than 1000 original manuscripts have been found,
the earliest of which dates back to 1265.
Contemporary influences and translations
''The Golden Legend'' had a big influence on scholarship and literature of the Middle Ages. According to research by Manfred Görlach, it influenced the ''
South English Legendary
South English legendaries are compilations of versified saints' lives written in southern dialects of Middle English from the late 13th to 15th centuries. At least fifty of these manuscripts survive, preserving nearly three hundred hagiographic wo ...
'', which was still being written when Jacobus' text came out. It was also a major source for
John Mirk
John Mirk was an Augustinian Canon Regular, active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Shropshire. He is noted as the author of widely copied, and later printed, books intended to aid parish priests and other clergy in their work. The ...
's ''Festial'',
Osbern Bokenam's ''Legends of Hooly Wummen'', and the ''Scottish Legendary''.
By the end of the Middle Ages, ''The Golden Legend'' had been translated into almost every major European language. The earliest surviving English translation is from 1438, and is cryptically signed by "a synfulle wrecche". In 1483, the work was re-translated and printed by
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.
His parentage a ...
under the name ''The Golden Legende'', and subsequently reprinted many times due to the demand.
16th-century rejection and 20th-century revival
The adverse reaction to ''Legenda aurea'' under critical scrutiny in the 16th century was led by scholars who reexamined the criteria for judging hagiographic sources and found ''Legenda aurea'' wanting; prominent among the
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
s were two disciples of
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
,
Georg Witzel
Georg Witzel (Wizel, Wicel, Wicelius) (b. at Vacha, Landgraviate of Hesse, 1501; d. at Electorate of Mainz, 16 February 1573) was a German theologian.
Life
He received his primary and academic education in the schools of Schmalkalden, Eisenach, ...
, in the preface to his ''Hagiologium'', and
Juan Luis Vives
Juan Luis Vives March ( la, Joannes Lodovicus Vives, lit=Juan Luis Vives; ca, Joan Lluís Vives i March; nl, Jan Ludovicus Vives; 6 March 6 May 1540) was a Spanish ( Valencian) scholar and Renaissance humanist wh ...
in ''De disciplinis''. Criticism among members of Jacobus' Dominican order were muted by the increased reverence towards the archbishop, which culminated in his beatification in 1815. The rehabilitation of ''Legenda aurea'' in the 20th century, now interpreted as a mirror of the heartfelt pieties of the 13th century, is attributed to
Téodor de Wyzewa
Téodor de Wyzewa, born as Teodor Wyżewski (12 September 1862 – 15 April 1917), was a writer, critic, and translator of Polish descent, born in Kałusik in the Russian sector of Poland near Kamieniec Podolski (Кам'янець-Подільсь ...
, whose retranslation into French, and its preface, have been often reprinted.
Editions and translations
The critical edition of the Latin text has been edited by Giovanni Paolo Maggioni (Florence: SISMEL 1998). In 1900, the Caxton version was updated into more modern English by
Frederick Startridge Ellis
Frederick Startridge Ellis (1830–1901) was an English bookseller and author.
Life
The sixth son of Joseph Ellis, hotel-keeper, of Richmond, was born there on 7 June 1830. He entered, at the age of sixteen, the business of Edward Lumley of Chanc ...
, and published in seven volumes. Jacobus de Voragine's original was translated into French around the same time by
Téodor de Wyzewa
Téodor de Wyzewa, born as Teodor Wyżewski (12 September 1862 – 15 April 1917), was a writer, critic, and translator of Polish descent, born in Kałusik in the Russian sector of Poland near Kamieniec Podolski (Кам'янець-Подільсь ...
. A modern English translation of the ''Golden Legend'' has been published by William Granger Ryan, and (2 volumes).
A modern translation of the ''Golden Legend'' is available from
Fordham University's Medieval Sourcebook.
Golden Legend''
Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine. Trans. William Caxton. Ed. F. S. Ellis. London: Temple Classics, 1900. Reproduced in Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University: ''http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend''
See also
*Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
's ''The History of the True Cross
''The History of the True Cross'' or ''The Legend of the True Cross'' is a sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest ...
''
*William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.
His parentage a ...
*Pseudo-Abdias Pseudo-Abdias is the name formerly given to a collection of New Testament Apocrypha held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and consisting of Latin translations in ten books containing several chapters. Each book describes the life of one of t ...
References
Works cited
*
*
External links
*
Golden Legend
Hathi Trust
*
The Golden Legend
' — William Caxton's Middle English version (not quite complete).
*, William Caxton's text with missing page from St. Paul supplied.
*
Illustrations of ''The Golden Legend'' from the HM 3027 manuscript of ''Legenda Aurea'' from the Huntington Library
William Caxton's version (complete)
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13th-century Latin books
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Christian folklore
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