A ryght hooly Virgin : an edition of Harley MS 630 lives of female saints and Saint Alban

Abstract

Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea (LgA) is one of the most influential books to come from the Middle Ages. It was originally written in Latin in about 1260 but was translated into many European vernaculars. It is a measure of its popularity that Caxton should have published a translation of the LgA in 1483. But there are eight more or less complete manuscripts of an earlier Middle English translation, the Gilte Legende (GiL), and three additional manuscripts containing selections which date from the beginning to the latter half of the fifteenth century. Some of these manuscripts contain material not derived from LgA, so the process of translating the LgA also involved adding cognate material.