Jacobus de Voragine; William Caxton · AuthorAuthor
Jacobus de Voragine; William Caxton
Medieval compiler of the Golden Legend and its English printer-translator
About Jacobus de Voragine; William Caxton
Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230-1298) was a Dominican friar, preacher, and later archbishop of Genoa whose Legenda aurea became medieval Europe's best-known compendium of saints' lives. William Caxton (c. 1422-c. 1491), England's first printer, translated and printed the collection in 1483, giving English readers one of the most influential vernacular saint books of the late Middle Ages.
On this site
The Golden Legend: Popular SaintsJacobus de Voragine; William Caxton
c. 1260 (Caxton translation 1483; Ellis edition 1900) · Medieval · Hagiography
This entry gathers the Golden Legend chapters and adjacent medieval traditions behind saints whose images still move through calendars, holidays, icons, hospitals, medals, advertising, and folklore. Jacobus de Voragine did not write critical biography in the modern sense.