Medieval collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine
Golden Legend
Legenda Aurea, c. 1290, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Author
Jacobus de Voragine
Original title
Legenda aurea
Translator
William Caxton Frederick Startridge Ellis
Country
Genoa
Language
Latin
Genre
hagiography
Publication date
1265
Published in English
1483
Media type
Manuscript
OCLC
821918415
Dewey Decimal
270.0922
LC Class
BX4654 .J334
Original text
Legenda aurea at Latin Wikisource
Translation
Golden Legend at Wikisource
For the Arthur Sullivan cantata, see The Golden Legend (cantata). For the Swiss band, see Legenda Aurea (band).
The story of Saint George and the Dragon is one of many stories of the saints preserved in the Golden Legend.
The Golden Legend (Latin: Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum) is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.[1] It was likely compiled around 1259–1266, although the text was added to over the centuries.[2][3]
Illustration for Golden Legend, 1493Saint Margaret attracts the attention of the Roman prefect, by Jean Fouquet from an illuminated manuscript
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 and the Epilogus in gestis sanctorum of the Dominican preacher Bartholomew of Trent. When printing was invented in the 1450s, editions appeared quickly, not only in Latin, but also in almost every major European language.[4] Among incunabula, printed before 1501, Legenda aurea was printed in more editions than the Bible[5] and was one of the most widely published books of the Middle Ages.[6] 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.[7] It was one of the first books William Caxton printed in the English language; Caxton's version appeared in 1483 and his translation was reprinted, reaching a ninth edition in 1527.[8]
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 book is considered the closest thing to an encyclopaedia of medieval saint lore that survives today; as such, it is invaluable to art historians 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 sermons and preaching, not a work of popular entertainment.
^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
^An introduction to the Legenda, its great popular late medieval success and the collapse of its reputation in the 16th century, is Sherry L. Reames, The Legenda Aurea: a reexamination of its paradoxical history, University of Wisconsin, 1985.
^Hamer 1998:x
^Hamer 1998:xx
^Reames 1985:4
^Hamer 1998:ix
^Hamer 1998:xvii
^Jacobus (de Vorágine) (1973). The Golden Legend. CUP Archive. pp. 8–. GGKEY:DE1HSY5K6AF. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
The GoldenLegend (Latin: Legenda aurea or Legenda sanctorum) is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe...
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Chinese: 七金屍) is a 1974 martial arts horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The film opens in 1804, when seven vampires...
The Legend of the Golden Gun is a 1979 American Western television film, starring Jeff Osterhage, Hal Holbrook, Carl Franklin, and Robert Davi. John Golden...
of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of the GoldenLegend, a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval...
sources and in later redactions, notably the 14th-century compilation the GoldenLegend. Unlike many other scenes in Life of the Virgin cycles (like the Nativity...
legend relates that Martha then went to Tarascon, France, where a monster, the Tarasque, was a constant threat to the population. The GoldenLegend describes...
11th and 12th centuries, but transferred to Libya in the 13th-century GoldenLegend. The narrative has pre-Christian origins (Jason and Medea, Perseus and...
Asllani, première Golden Foot féminine de l'histoire". WORLD SPORTS ACTU (in French). Retrieved 5 March 2023. LEGENDS – GoldenFoot “Golden Foot Awards 2012...
consider as the perfect model of a black legend, the opposite of a goldenlegend. The Spanish black legend is a strawman for those who seek convenient...
most famous account of Mary Magdalene's legendary life comes from The GoldenLegend, a collection of medieval saints' stories compiled circa 1260 by the...
the brother of Jesus are one and the same person. According to the GoldenLegend, which is a collection of hagiographies, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine...
was recorded by Jacobus de Voragine, Bishop of Genoa, in the GoldenLegend. The GoldenLegend contains several versions of the origin of the True Cross....
Dismas was on the cross to the right of Jesus. In Jacobus de Voragine's GoldenLegend, the name of the impenitent thief is given as Gesmas. The impenitent...
legend of Saint George and the Dragon occurs in the 11th-century, in a Georgian source, reaching Catholic Europe in the 12th-century. In the Golden Legend...
lives of saints by Jacobus de Voragine, the GoldenLegend, is the triumph of the True Cross – the legend of the wood from the Garden of Eden becoming...
doˈɾaðo], English: /ˌɛl dəˈrɑːdoʊ/; Spanish for "the golden") is commonly associated with the legend of a gold city, kingdom, or empire purportedly located...
Matthew 10:3, Thaddeus is called Judas the Zealot. According to the GoldenLegend, which is a collection of hagiographies compiled by Jacobus de Voragine...
version, but the most popular variations originated from the 13th-century GoldenLegend. According to the legendary account of his life Christopher was initially...
accumulated anecdotes of Simon in De Vita et Morte. According to the GoldenLegend, which is a collection of hagiographies, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine...
Acta and his vita in the GoldenLegend, he was born at Montpellier, at that time "upon the border of France," as the GoldenLegend has it, the son of the...
best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's GoldenLegend (1259–1266). It also appears in BHO (Pueri septem), BHG (Pueri VII)...
Cervantes 1863, p. 441. Billington, Rachel (1 October 1989). "Santiago's GoldenLegend". The New York Times Magazine. Doctrine and Covenants [1]. Doctrine...
sanctum Raphaelem, sanctum Urielem". In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's GoldenLegend, Uriel is one of the angels of the seven planets, namely of Mars. He...
important mediaeval scripts. Here are English translations for The GoldenLegend (Volume III) and La Vie de saint Julien Translated by Tony Devaney Morinelli...
blue cape with a golden lance in his right hand riding on a silver horse. He is shown stabbing a zilant with the lance. The legend in which the flag...
AZƏRBAYCANA GƏLMİŞDİR". azertag.az. 16 April 2003. Retrieved 28 April 2021. "GoldenLegend: Life of St. Bartholomew the Apostle". www.christianiconography.info...
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